66 IT
y. CANT
Left Him
Urn
SHE LIVES IN A LITTLE HOUSE IN A SUBURB
of New York and makes that house a home.
He too lives in the little house for a part of his
life; but the rest of it is spent in an office in the city.
All sorts of men ride with him on the suburban trains,
or visit him in his office, or meet him for luncheon at
his club.
His life is full of stimulating contacts. Every day
brings him new experiences that mean larger growth
and more assurance. He is a far bigger man today than
he was last year, and ten times bigger than when they
were married ten years ago.
And she?
Her life, too, is filled full; but the experiences that
come to her are neither so various nor so stimulating.
There are the older children who must be hurried off
to school each morning. There is the baby to be bathed
and put to sleep. There are meals to be planned, and
bills to be paid.
So, day after day slips by with hardly a spare moment.
Happy days she would not change them if she could!
Only a single cloud across the horizon of her happiness.
In the evening sometimes when they sit on their little
front porch, and he tells her of the experiences of the
day, of the men he has met and the topics he has dis
cussed, of the problems he has solved problems that a
.few years ago would have been far too large for him
at such moments the cloud is there.
No such experiences have come to her that day. The
problems that he and his friends discuss are strange and
far away. She had meant to know more about them,
but there was no time.
"Suppose he should outgrow me," she says to herself.
"Suppose that ten years from now should find him big
ger, broader, abler because of his experiences, and me,
no longer his mental companion, merely the mother of
his children."
The thought causes her lips to close a little more
tightly.
"Somehow I must find a wav to keen mv thousrht and
interest constantly fresh, constantly expanding, step by
step with his. I simply can't let him outgrow me."
How many million women in America have been
troubled by that thought? How many of them have felt
a vague resentment at the conditions of modern life,
which make mental growth so easy for men and so fre
quently difficult for women?
How many couples have set forth into life with every
thought and interest in common, only to find themselves
at the end of ten or twenty years living in wholly dif
ferent mental worlds?
No one can know the answer to this question. But
this one thing is sure at least a million American
women have faced this difficulty frankly and have con
quered it.
They have put definitely behind, them any fear that
their husbands or their children will outgrow them.
Other women frequently wonder at their breadth of
information.
Does the conversation turn to the industrial unrest
that permeates every part of our country? These alert
women have a clear knowledge of its causes and effects.
They are familiar with unique and sensible plans to re
duce the cost of living.
The League of Nations, with its many-sided possibili
ties, is not a closed book to them.
They are quite at ease in their knowledge of interna
tional affairs. They have a clear understanding of our
relations with Great Britain, with Japan, and the other
great nations of the earth. They see Ireland's struggle
for freedom in its true light.
They know how and why bolshevism is seeking a foot
hold here in America.
The latest developments in the fields of invention and
science are not unknown to these modern women, while
the great personalities who are doing the big things in
the world are something more than mere flesh and bones
to them.
If the talk veers to the lighter side of life the best
of the season's plays and operas; the inspiring gems of
modern verse; the best and most talked about books
they are equally at home. In fact, these far-seeing
women have a well-rounded knowledge of the great de
velopments of life the world over. They keep up with
the times!
Men find their conversation stimulating; their chil
dren turn to them confidently, knowing that on the sub
ject which has that day been discust in school perhaps
some current problem of great importance mother can
be of help.
.For school children these days are coming more and
more into contact with the world about them. Two hun
dred and fifty thousand boys and girls in ten thousand
high schools are studying current events with THE
LITERARY DIGEST as a text.
"Who are these extraordinary women?" you ask.
How can they, with the multitude of personal responsi
bilities, find time to be so well informed?"
The answer is very simple. They have learned this
secret of the modern world that the highest achieve
ment is possible only to those who employ trained help
to do for them the things they can not accomplish for
themselves.
And so, they let our organization of specialists labor
constantly for their benefit. Every week 4000 news
papers, and magazines, and books, representing every
land and language, are read by this organization and
then by direct translation, or reprint, or in digest form
all phases of the important news of the world contained
in them are presented by striking articles in THE
LITERARY DIGEST. Through the magic of its pages
the world, with all its throbbing interests and personali
ties, is carried to men and women in a million homes.
And a couple of hours' reading weekly is all the time
required to absorb this feast!
There is room for another million women in this
chosen company and admittance is easy. Commence
reading THE DIGEST this week!
For a
Single Dime
at the
News - Standi
Each Week
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY (Publishers of the Famous NEW Standard Dictionary) NEW YORK