The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-20
Kz &z Paris.
MOTHERS WHO CRUSH
 THEIR DAUGHTERS.

A girl OF IT lately called, with her mother, on a man who stood high in the artistic world. The object of the visitation was to find out how the girl should best enter a professional career she had thought of. The artist at tempted to talk with the young lady to find out by questions whether she was adapted to the given career. But ev- cry time he asked the miss anything the mother popped up like jack in the box and answered. She was determin- ed to do all the talking for all three. and she did. She belonged to the fashionable social set, from which it Is the hardest of all for any girl, no matter how gifted. to break away and
 amount to something of herself
 Do you feel as if you could give up fashionable life and amusement and de- vote yourself"
 ''Oh. no. My daughter. of course. has her, obligations to society, and I could not permit her to give them up,' butted
 in madam. the mother.
 'Cou1d you go into all sorts of places high and low, and make studies for your art? Can you"
 "oh, dear. no, mol" butted in again madam. Such things would not at all be proper for young girl. I couldn't have her going among common people, We'll. the upshot of it all will be that in a '1adylike" way maybe the girl will be able to paint a few roses which are out of drawing. Allowed to take her own way and to be guided by the ex- perience of real artists, she might achieve something But the poor girl could not get in a word edgewavs be- cause of her foolish and officious moth- CT. That mother had learned nothing
 since she herself was a girl. She nip ped and clipped the intellectual devel- AA NA
 her own dried up. middle aged, genera ton old notions of the proper ocoupa- tions for young ladies. Unless the daughter has immense will power she will only be another example of the
 stunting and dwarfng of an immortal soul by over-bossing.
 The saddest part of 1t, too, is that it Is mothers. more often than anybody else. who interfere with and strangle
 the mental and spiritual unfoldment of their daughters Some of the moth CTS do not let up their tyranny even after their daughters are married. They never rest from their cruel cast iron repression till they have absolutely bossed every trace of individuality out of girls and left them like dried up sticks, and after all their work Is done the overoff1cious mothers themselves are as little satisfied with 1t as any body. The petty boss of a mother can HOt uSudlly QWdr1 HeF pOys as Sne QOeS the girls. for boys, fortunately can get away from under her thumb
 The way to bring up the twentieth century girl is to look after her moral education in the broadest deepest most careful manner. Show her how to pro- tect the white purity of womanhood acquaint her with the snares that lie in wait for it. see that her manners are the perfection of gentle courtesy; then let her live her own life.
 When it comes to Grundifyirg her soul-hands off.
 Who but herself is the right judge of what a girls mental unfoldment shall be? Can you make a hothouso rosebud out of the splendid leopard lily of the marshes? Tn the professional and industrial life of women today the one lamentable defect is the lack of in dividuality and initiative. Individual ity has been Grundied out of them. Be- yourself! Jane Moses.