Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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f THE SUN, NEWBERRY, S. C, DECEMBER 25, 1942 Kathleen Norris Says: Today 9 s Stepmothers Bell Syndicate—WNU Feature*. 1 Sfe '^^1' Lately the hat ttarted a mean little trick of than Mommie was, am l younger, did Mommie k Vera? B* ing her father if 1 am prettier he was going to marry Auntie By KATHLEEN NORRIS T HE old stepmother of the fairy tales has passed en tirely out of the picture, and it is today’s stepchild who is becoming the real problem and the real tyrant. No longer does a red-faced, harsh-voiced harridan of a second mother jerk and slap and whip her predecessor’s children, forcing them to do all the drudgery of the house hold, shutting them in closets, dressing them in her own chil dren’s cast-off clothes. The unwonted flood of stepmoth ers that our preseni era of divorces has created is more inclined to make friends of the children, study child psychology, send them to ex pensive schools and arrange for su pervised Saturday amusement. But today's children don’t co-op erate, which isn’t surprising, when one considers that many of them come from homes where there was quarreling and coldness, that their tortured little loyalties have been tom this way and that, that they have heard Mommy’s side of it and Daddy’s side of it until they don’t know to whom, if indeed to anybody, they owe obedience and respect. Stepdaughter Is Problem. Here is a letter from Vera Ad ams on the subject. “I am 28,” writes Vera. *'I have been married one year. When I met my husband I was employed as a stenographer in his office, and he was boss. He had a wife five years older than himself, whose health was not very good, also a daughter Alice, nsw ten years old. One dark rainy afternoon when I was delayed at the office, he happened to come in, and we discovered our love for each other. Immediately I resigned my job, found work in a distant city, and even refused to correspond with him. The first time he kissed me was when he took me to the train. That winter he came twice to see me, our relationship always what it should be. I asked him to tell his wife; he was unwilling to do this for fear of hurting her. But when I had gone and we were not even writing each other he did do so, tell ing her that because of his affection for her and Alice he was not asking her to make any change. She ap parently accepted this situation and things went on for some weeks, after which in a fit of despondency, for she had been in poor health for some time, she either deliberately or in carelessness took an overdose of sleeping medicine and died in her sleep. “Seven months later Aleck and I were married, and I stepped from the lonely life I had been living into the greatest happiness a woman can know. I have a beautiful home, two good servants, and a most gen erous and loving husband. The real trouble is Alice. She has never been trained or disciplined in any way. She is rude, disobedient and sly, and she does all she can to make trouble between her father and myself. But Aleck adores her, she can do noth ing wrong, and especially since her mother’s tragedy she has had en tirely her own way. With her moth er lived an unmarried cousin, and if Alice is crossed in any way she begins to cry, ‘Cousin Phyllis lets me have it!’ or do it, or whatever it is. An Obstinate Child. “She wants to wear her patent leather slippers to school, wear her best dresses to play, sit up late, skip vegetables and have dessert PATIENCE WINS The wicked stepmother, says Kathleen Norris, has in many cases been replaced in tales of domestic discord by an equally wicked stepchild. Such a child is the ten-year-old Alice whose frantic stepmother writes for ad vice. Mrs. Norris advises her to be patient, hard as that may be, for in this case time may do more than words to teach Alice that loving is an important part of being loved. Be sure to read this touching letter from a woman who wants so much to be happy. twice, either have no bath or stay in her bath for hours, beg nickels and dimes for cones or chocolate bars; altogether she acts like a lit tle demon. “Lately she has started a mean little trick of asking her father if I am prettier than Mommie was, am I younger, did Mommie know he was going to marry Auntie Vera? These things distress Aleck terribly, but he is very simple and trusting and he answers her gravely and kindly, and you can imagine how I feel while this is going on. “Now I know you think," the letter ends, “that I am one more flirta tious secretary falling in love with the boss and breaking up a home, but I assure you that it is not so. It was a shock to both Aleck and me to realize how far our feeling had gone, and we were miserably un happy about it. His wife’s rights 1 were our first consideration, and while we knew, and her doctor said, that she could not have lived many more years anyway, her death caused him real grief. “If you can tell me,” the letter ends, “how to handle my spiteful and unfortunate little step-daughter, I will be the happiest woman in the world!” And she adds a postscript to the effect that I may answer openly, because she can make sure that Al eck will not see this column. Move With the Current. My answer is that if she is a smart woman she will cease to pull against the current, but move with it. Often in this life, when we have been struggling madly to influence or change someone’s nature, it is a salutory thing suddenly just to give up, to take things as they are. Vera ought to let Alice do every thing she wants to do, sit up late, ruin her best clothes, skip spinach and eat candy, generally wreck her small affairs. Let Vera’s part be amusement, silence and sympathy. If Aleck likes it, let Vera like it too; it isn’t her business anyway. When she has a child of her own, Vera will be removed from the family spotlight, and it will be Aleck who shuts down upon her in sudden awakening. Vera will accomplish nothing by fretting, admonishing, complaining to Aleck and criticizing the child. Can Win Child in Time. In thus relaxing Vera will find a sort of satisfaction, not very lofty from a spiritual point-of-view per haps, but the best she can do under the circumstances. To leave Alice entirely to her father’s guidance, to laugh at the child’s ridiculous inde- pendence, to make no comment upon Alice’s actions is the only safe course for Vera. And at the same time it would be only common de cency to casually advise the small girl, as to the amount of candy con sumed, the proper dress for a pic nic, the comfortable way to handle homework, so that in time Alice will come to trust her stepmother. Bright Colors and Dependable Fabrics Distinguish Woolens By CHERIE NICHOLAS lUleued by Western Newspaper Union. Christmas Card Centennial r T"'HE Christmas card is celebrat- A ing its 100th birthday this year. The first known example of what has become an essential part of our holiday celebration was published in England in 1842 and this is the way it looked: The original of this card is on display in the British museum in London but its history is obscure. It is said that this card was etched by a 16-year-old English bey named W. M. Egley but other details of the incident are unknown. Somewhat clearer is the record of another Christmas card which ap peared four years later and which gave to its author some claim to the title of the “Father of the Christmas Card.” He was Sir Hen ry Cole, later famous as a social and educational reformer, who had already begun applying the fine arts to manufacture and was the pioneer in illustrating children’s books with woodcuts of famous paintings. In 1846 Sir Henry sent to his friends a Christmas greeting card. Just where he got the idea is not known. Possibly it was from the greeting card issued in 1842 or it may have been from some other source. Lover cards and illus trated writing paper had been popu lar in Europe for many years. In Germany illuminated cards were sent on Namenstag, the feast of one’s patron saint. In 1844 some unknown person in the city of Leith, Scotland, is said to have sent out New Year’s cards to his friends bearing a laughing face and the words “A Gude New Year to Ye,” but since this did not have a wide circulation, it is doubtful if Sir Henry got the idea there. He may have got it from the custom of Eng lish school boys of writing “Christ mas pieces” on paper which they decorated with many scrolls and much flourish of penmanship. But wherever Sir Henry got his Inspiration, after deciding to send out cards to his friends at Christ mas time, he went to J. C. Hor sley, a member of the Royal acad emy in London, for the design, and this was the result: The German influence may be seen in the Germanesque style of leafy trellises which divide the card into three panels. The smaller side panels show two of the acts of char ity-feeding the hungry and clothing the naked—and the central panel shows three generations of a family party at the festal board quaffing their Christmas cheer. This card was six by four inches, colored by hand, and a thousand copies were issued. For some unexplained rea son, Horsley issued his design under the nom de plume of “Felix Sum merly.” Since this card bears the inscrip tion “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You,” it can be regarded as one of the first, if not the first holiday greeting card ever printed and sent out as the forerunner of a custom that was to become world wide. Strange to say, Sir Henry Cole’s friends were not especially pleased at this re membrance and it is said to have received much unfavorable criti cism. So he did not repeat the ex periment and it looked as though the Christmas card idea was to die a-borning. However, in the early sixties or namented note paper and envelopes ■ began to appear in the stationers’ shops around the holiday season and ! the use of these began to increase i each year. Next these designs were ; stamped in relief in the center of a card with colored or embossed edges decorated by stencil or by j hand. Thus the business of making j Christmas cards got under way slowly. It was even slower in get ting started in America and it was not until 1873 that the beginnings were apparent in this country. In that year Louis Prang, a lithographer of Boston, exhibited samples of his flowered business cards at the Vienna exposition. He had an agency in London and one of his women employees there sug gested to him that he put a greeting in place of the name of his firm and issue them as Christmas cards. This was done the next year, so 1874 marks the beginning of the Christmas card in this country. By 1876 the Christmas card idea be came widespread due to the exhib its of printers and lithographers a' the Philadelphia Centennial. S MART simplicity, dependable fabrics, “cheerio” colors; such is the fashion formula “all set” for now and the duration. No cloth-wasting hems, just an average depth; no billowing skirts, instead a graceful width; no pocket flags, ingeniously contrived slits in stead, no needless shirrings or su perfluous gestures—it is rules of this sort that define the technique which designers are employing in creating their smartest fashions. That is really good news, for, not withstanding the multitudinous en forced restrictions that have come to be in the field of costume design, astute fashion folk feel that the new government regulations are defi nitely proving to be in the interest of good style and good taste. The thought to hold in mind is that whatever we buy should be measured by standards of simple outline and excellent fabric. It is far better to have one garment with long life and good lines in a depend able material than several which fail to give extended wear and sat isfaction. Because of the importance at tached to serviceable fabrics the suit or dress that is made of 100 per cent virgin wool is the prized possession that is the “big news” in the winter fashion picture. Note the models pictured in the above illustration for they typify the vogue that calls for best materials styled with utmost simplicity. Their at tractiveness is heightened by the en chanting color story they have to tell. Speaking of color, to offset the “don’ts” in styling restrictions, de signers are making a dramatic play on color. A suit or a dress, be it ever so simple, lacks nothing of glamour and eye-appeal if it is col orful. The little wool dresses that are outstanding in the winter mode are just like that—classically sim ple and gloriously colorful. Bright, singing reds are so universally ac cepted they are considered as basic as blacks or navies or browns. There is a new warm yellow brown in fashionable wools that is second only to black in popularity. There are many vibrant blues, "uni form” blue being a special favorite. A bronzy green and a softer grayed green are being chosen by blondes and brunettes alike. Then there are the much-talked-of fuchsia shades that stress purples and rich reds. There is the new ginger color and an attractive gold hue. And "win ter white” wools make conversa tion wherever they go. The vogue for simplicity is artful ly interpreted in the dress pictured to the right in the group illustrated above. Fashioned of Forstman 100 per cent virgin wool, it carries a thoroughbred look that is recognized at a glance. Note how expertly it is detailed with unique darts in bod ice and skirt. The accompaniment of a huge pillow muff adds to its chic. Very style-right is the dress to the left. Made of choice wool, this gown is slim-silhouetted to a nicety. Touches of trapunto quilting, so popular this year, lend interest to the simple lines. Note the tight sleeves and the subtly molded bod ice. Each feature points to fash ion trends of the future. Centered in the group you see a version of the modern business girl —fresh, tailored, efficient, but not too much so. Her suit of the same high-grade virgin wool as that which fashions the other modes is the type that retains day-long good looks even when given strenuous wear. Released by Western Newspaper Union. ON THE HOME FRONT ^RUTH WYETH SPEARS GO STEEL COT WITH GOOD SPRINGS AND*--- 7 —■ COTTON PAD »>■ w FRAME Ol LUMBER AND PLYWOOD BUILT TO FIT AROUND THE COT PLAIN FABRIC COVERS PAD AND FRAME* CHINTZ USED FOR NEW CUSHIONS T M 3o| 2X2 SCREWED |Yv TO A 2X4 2X2T 1*2" 'T'HIS good looking davenport -*■ gives no hint that its early life was spent as an iron cot with a thin cotton pad. The sketch shows how the frame is made. It is cov ered with rather heavy green cot ton material. The pad of the cot is also covered with this goods and the ruffle across the front is at tached to it. The separate cushions are cov ered with rose and green chintz and all seams are finished with deep rose cord welting. For the covering 12Vi yards of 36-inch wide plain material and six yards of flowered were used and 52 yards of welting at a few cents a yard. i • * • NOTE: Clip and keep these directions as they are not In any of the home making booklets prepared by Mrs. Spears for our readers. In the new BOOK • of this series you will find dimensions fot many other economical things to make for your home. To get a copy of BOOK 8. send your order direct to: MRS. RUTH WYETH 8PRARS Bedford Hills New York Drawer 18 Enclose 10 cents for Book 8. Name Address ^ COLDS'MISERIES PenetrO Foe colds’eonghs, nasal otmgsetion.imieels aches get Penetro—modern medication in a muttoa aust base. 264, double supply SM. V ‘ 1 Leopard Trimmed Here is a smartly styled outfit that makes use of the popular fur trim. Flattering, too, is the brimmed black felt hat, rolled high on the left side like the military sombrero worn by the Australian. Spotted furs are very popular this winter, and designers are using them intriguing- ly for the entire coat, or as trim ming, or for hat, bag and muff en sembles. Bib-Shaped Dickey A bib-shaped dickey comes with long ends that can be wrapped around the neck like an ascot tie or looped into a big, floppy bow. White Gloves Seen For Winter Wear We will have with us this winter white gloves in greater numbers than for msmy a season past. They look charming worn with the new white hats that are so fashion-right this winter. Included in the gloves shown in current displays you’ll find perky little short gloves with notched wrists to wear with your suits and your furs. These little white lamb skin types are washable. There are also white string gloves lined with cozy wool which will com panion perfectly with your man- tailored tweeds. White pigskin for gloves is this year’s rage. You’ll like it, too, white capeskin gloves with a swoop of white fur about the wrist. Cunning are the snowy bun ny-fur types, and it’s difficult to keep them in stock, what with every ’teen-age girl making a firm resolve to be the happy possessor of a pair. For the most formal and gayest of evenings you will find lovelies that are long, longer, longest. These have wee pearl buttons at the wrist. PREPAREDNESS Ay + AMERICAN RED CROSS TPHE Junior Red Cross is the American Red Cross in the schools of the nation. It is also the world’s largest youth organi zation, with more than 14,000,000 members in the United States. The principal doty of the Junior &OCtAtiUJ Red Cross in war time is the mak ing of comfort and recreational articles tor owe service men ev erywhere. Daring the past year, Junior Red Cross mcZ'bers made more than 3,000,000 suck articles, such as games, recreation room furniture and writing kits The Junior Red Cross has also taken a very active part in the making of many essential articles for Civilian Defense organizations throughout the nation. These items included splints, stretchers, and first aid cabinets. “Earn, buy, make, give,” are the four steps all Junior Red Cross members take in raising and using the money they get in their national enrollment drive. They ; must earn the money to buy the mate- ' rials to make the articles to give to the hospital, army camp or Civilian Defense organisation. Junior Red Cross members have also been very active in salvage campaigns of all kinds throughout the nation, contributing more than half of the salvage gathered by children of school age throughout the country. In addition to furnishing oppor- 1 unity to learn by making these articles for service men and oth ers, the Junior Red Cross affords children of school age basie train ing in civilian preparedness so that they may take their places later on in the volunteer activities of the Red Cross or the Office of Civilian Defense. Prepared Exclusively for WNU. Concentration Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short, in all management of human affairs.—Emerson. resiNOL Alaska’s Coastline Th j coastline of Alaska is 26,373 mil os. Longer than the equator itself. SNAPPY FACTS ABOUT • RUBBER A riagrls bCoyels Hi* sad fob* give* rubber •no«gh for tbo to—Uttoa ol rtsAzatysodfeseta. I/IOoTbDO tm prod—rtoiTi Ity by fbo oad of 1943, tbo :r*4rE: wW toko tbo Mk of tbo sya- Zn normal times, >07IMO, tbo •***. ege oor owner expended only $1S o yeer for tire end tnbe replacements. He spent $117 for gasoline and $10 for oil out of bis annual $189 ex* penditure for car maintenance, ex clusive of heavy repairs. Meter# 14,000 •ad yoo hovo mm ldo« of tho omsont of rubber used In tho construction of • bottloshlp—79 Exotic Flower Prints Are Embroidered With Sequins Just about the prettiest print frocks that imagination might pic ture are the new black crepes pat terned with perhaps not more than two or three huge flower prints in gorgeous colors. But that tells only half the story of their fascinating charm, for these exotic flowers scintillate with multi colored sequin embroidery. Newly arrived, these eye-entrancing prints have a big future before them. To see these beautiful gowns is to feel that you must have one. I Perhaps Dud Should Have Impersonated Himself! * The dud actor walked proudly to the center of the stage, beaming. “Good afternoon, ladies and gen tlemen,” he said. “I sincerely trust that you will all enjoy my performance. For my opening number I’d like to do an imper sonation of that famous chap, Rudy Vallee.” i The orchestra swung into an in troduction and the dud began to croon. The audience soon grew restless. And by the time the song was over, boos were heard from all parts of the theater. The performer looked around in bewilderment. “Gee,” he mumbled. “That Vallee must be terrible I” InmiM p&we UNITED STATES ■onds STAMPS U|ir ( CONSISTENT ADVERTISING When advertising is carried on for a long enough time, tho name of the product advertised becomes a part of the daily life of tho household, a trusted and respected thing. No thing ean bo consistently advertised unlee' it Is worthy of that trust and respect.