The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-03-26
| DOROTHY DIX TALKS.
Why Girls Leave Home.

Every mother desires her daughter
| to conffde in her, but how few make
1t possible for the girl to do So The
mother is only too often merely the
critic on the hearth, who has forgot
ten it if there ever was a time when
she was silly and giggling, and de-
lighted in the attention of callow
youths.
It's no wonder that the girl who
knows her mother is going to criti-
else her conversation let's her hear as
little of it as possible.
It's no wonder that the girl who
knows her mother is going to ridicule
her friends meets them elsewhere. or
that she is anxious to get away where
she may enjoy the society she likes in
peace and this doesn't infer by any
means that the girl yearns for wild or
dissipated society.
1t may be perfectly innocent, but it
is merely the kind of society her
mother doesn't enjoy
Mothers are not nearly as sympa-
thetic as they are represented, either.
Generally a mothers sympathy mar
rows itself down to purely personal
taste, and when you hear of a woman
lamenting that her Mary is "unduti-
fful," or her Sallie is a 'disappoint-
ment,' it is merely a case of Mary
and Sallie wanting to do something
that their mother never wanted to
do.
Not once / ma thousand times does
mother rise to the heights of SYM
pathizing with her daughter whose
desires and ambitions are radically
different from her own.
If the mother is fond of society she
is symapethtic enough with her
daughter if the girl is a butterfly of
fashion, but she does not and cannot
ented into the thoughts and aspira-
tons of the girl if she is a noble and
minded young woman who
cares nothing for balls and parties
but who desires to take some part in
the great work of the world
1t is because the mother, to whom
clothes are everything, cannot re-
strain herself from nagging and fret
ting at her daughter, whose thoughts
are set ON adjoining her mind instead
of her body, that almost every young
woman who follows any career is
obliged, in self-defense, to leave
home
The average woman never realizes
that her daughter is growing up, and
has the rights of a grown up person.
Sometimes a mother will let her son
do as he pleases, but as long as her
daughters remain at home she con-
sders that she has a perfect right to
dictate to them about their clothes,
what they shall eat and drink and
believe.
/ have known old maids at As who
had never been allowed to pick out a
pocket handkerchief for themselves.
and I once heard a bride calculate
the day after her marriage: ''Thank
God, / will never have to wear am
other pink dress''-a uniform she had
worn ever since she was born, because
her mother happened to admire pink.
Very few girls desire to do any,
thing wrong or yearn for the liberty
that is license, but every one of them
revolts against being bossed, and
longs for the freedom to live her daily
life without even a mother at her ell
bows always supervising her every
act.
This is the reason that so many girls
find the ball xzfiflffffi 6* 20 .6.6
find the hall bedroom and liberty to
do their hair as they please and use
the kind of a toothbrush they like.
better than the satin-u upholstered
chamber at home with mother stand
ing guard over it.
Girls f1rd no interest at home be-
cause their mothers do not let them
take any intelligent share in running
it. Mother is willing that they should
do part of the work under her eye
iihe Sci wants, Jul Sio WIN not iet lHeiH
manage things.
The girl does not intend to be a
servant She has ideas, theories, in
novations that she longs to put in OPP
GRAFTON, and when she is not allowed
to put these into practice, she throws
up the job of helping mother, and
turns away from home to find an out
let for her energies.
1t is a brand new idea that if you
want girls to stay at home you must
make home interesting to them, but
it is one with which mothers will have
to familiarize themselves.