THE GIRL WHO WORSHIPS THE TWIN IDOLS


The twin idols that accept with all the complacency of an ancient Buddha
the devotion of more worshipers than any church or creed can claim are
Fashion and Pleasure. Not sane fashion which helps make men and women
attractive and clothes them with neatness and care, protects them by
courtesies, and shields them by conventionalities, but _mad_ fashion.
Not real pleasure that fills eye with delight and days with happiness
that will be remembered even when one is old and days are dark and hard
but _mad_ pleasure, the thief and robber.

What costly sacrifices are offered every hour of the day and night to
the twin idols. When men and women away back in the dim past laid their
children in the hands of Baal they made their weird music, sang their
wild songs and shouted aloud that they might drown the appeal of the
sacrifice. The dark ages have passed. It is the enlightened age--and yet
with music and shoutings, weird dancings and songs men and women today
drown the appeal of the costly sacrifice laid on the altar before
Fashion and Pleasure.

[Illustration: SHE WORSHIPS PLEASURE AND FASHION]

There in her room sits Ellen Gregg, that is she used to be Ellen, she is
now deeply offended if friends forget to call her Eleanor. She is an
ardent worshiper of the Idols. When she was twelve and fourteen she was
a frank, contented, happy girl, simple in her tastes and able to have a
good time in most inexpensive ways. A trolley ride to a park and supper
under the trees she looked forward to for days and enjoyed in
retrospect, until a trip to the lake, a concert, a visit to the picture