Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1911-03-11
THE CHILDRENS FATHER

a prominent woman was talking
with motherly pride OF the good quail
tiles of her eldest daughter and with
that soft light that comes into the
eyes of good mother and wife on
occasions where her pride is touched
she said: You see. l gave her the
bright kind of a father"
| This woman had. when she was
very young been married tn man
much older than herself. but he was
a man of many fine qualities and at
/ tainmcnts; a man who always work
ed in the interests of those less able
10 bear the burdens of life than him.
self and his fellow men had honored
him in many ways. However. he had
died when his children were still very
young. But the quality Of the man
| is shown in the reverence in which
the woman who had known him best
I of all the world held his memory.
But that is not the point. II is the
woman's statement that she had given
her daughter q good father That is
| the greatest gift any woman can give
the child she brings into the world,
and yet it is the last thought of the
] girl looking towards marriage. OF
course, every girl wants the man she
marries to he all that he should be.
| but She doesn't exert herself over
much To find out that he is
In fact too many women about to
enter the married state permit their
affection and their emotions to per
form the functions OF judgment and.
unfortunately, for far too many Of
them, they have a day OF awakening
Even the known vices. small though
/ they may be, are likely To Ice over
looked. if they are not condoned, by
| the girl who is about To be married.
She argues something like this: II
| can put up with them it is no.
body's business" And SO she mar
ries with the partial hope in her
breast that when she is his wife she
can reform him. 1t is pretty
good gamble that if man won't do
thing for love of a woman before he
marries her he won't after she is ir-
Irevocably his. And SO we find wom-
| en- eating their hearts out through
disappointment at their failure
| If most girls would stop to think
| that marriage i'm most cases presup-
poses the advent Of children in the
home and the future and the welfare
Of these children i'm life largely de-
ponds upon the kind of father she
gives them" she would not be So
ready to make sacrifices for the man
she thinks she loves.
a woman will suffer every kind of
Inconvenience. sacrifice and abuse at
the hands of the man she marries,
but the last straw is reached when
his indignitics extend To the children.
or when his shortcomings bring de
priVation and suffering To- them. And
a woman never hates a man quite as
much as when she realizes that he
has inveigled her into giving her chill
dren bad father
Some may think il indicate for
the girl about to wed To think out the
problems of possible motherhood and
all that. but it is the only rational
thing for the prospective wife to do.
II more girls did this there would be
fewer unhappy homes. few broken
homes and less work for the divorce
courts, because there would be great
Ter clrcumspection on the part of men
Of course. the man Of right type
doesn't want to blight any life. and
long before he thinks of marrying he
is trying 10 curb whatever unsatisfac-
tory tendencies he may have Such
a man deliberately sets out to find
the kind of woman who will be the
right kind of mother" for the chill
dren he expects TO have And So we
are pretty likely to find an ideal
home established when he does marry
|