The Washington herald., 1912-02-07
BY JULIA CHANDLER MANI.

A young woman writes me for advice
in s dihacult situation. She says:
7 am young girl who works out ali
day for living. and when set home in
the evening mother is always out OF hu-
NOR. 1t Is all due to father. He Is a
man who never smiles or gives a pleasant
word, and il puts mother in much
the same humor toward her daughters.
who have IT all to bear.
Father has nothing 10 make him cross
at home Everything is kept as neat as
a pin, and l bring flowers home in the
evening to add to the good cheer, but
it is all Of no use. You know when the
father Is cross nothing in a home IS
cheerful, for he is the head OF the house.
Don't you think when a young girl
loves her home, and spends all OF her
evenings there, her parents should dis
, play some appreciation of her.?
Others Involved.
The first thought that came to me
upon reading this letter was how un-
fortunate II is that the man or woman
who wants to be boorish can't do so
without involving the happiness OF 9TH
erS. 1t would all be well and proper
that he reap the tares of HIS own un-
lovely sowing, but when he knows that
a whole family must reap them with
him, it seems to me that the sower
would stop a little longer before he
scattered his seed broadcast
Within the past week had a letter
from a girl, who. finding life so impos-
sible in her own home because or a
fathers continuous i'll humor, married
a man whom she knew but slightly only
TO step from one inferno into anorher.
Last summer another girl wrote me that
she had gone in with friend, keeping
a bachelor girls apartment because OF
disagreeable conditions in her home.
In both of these cases the motive that
promoted change Of conditions was en-
tirely selfish. No thought was given by
either girl Of others in the home VINO
suffered keenly through the beastly III
humor Of one member OF the household.
yeIashness Never Brings HaPpiness.
And no real happiness can come to a
girl who considers herself alone.
We will take the case of the girl who
has come 10 me now for advice.
Her sisters suffer through the man
who never smiles or gives a pleasant
word Cwhat a think for a girl to be
forced to admit of her fatherO. And the
mother. who has developed disposition
toward crossness because Of him. think
OF all the years through which she has
passed side by side with the man who
never smiles or gives a pleasant word"
The writer Of the letter tells me that
she is twenty-siX years old. She does
not say how old are the sisters, but no
matter. We have her own age as proof
that her mother has had the companion
ship OF the man who never smiles" for
nearly thirty years. 1t is quite possible
that the change in the mothers attitude
toward her daughters has been so grad
ual and going on so long that she is
unconscious that there has been a.
change.
But never mind, my dear, the changes
in disposition association has wrought.
Y-ru may be sure that the dear mother
heart and mother-love lives still under
all the pain the years have brought
Go forth and find IL, for when you do
you viii have found the way to pene-
trate the gloom of the home atmosphere.
The girl who is in need Of cheer will find
It IL she will cheer others.
Think the matter of your home condi-
tions over in another light. Place your
mother in the foreground. Let all the
years she has toiled and suffered stand
out in the bright light. Bring to the
front the road she has had 10 travel with |
the man who never Smiles" and when |
You lGok down its long, long vista, in |
which there has been no turning of |
brightness, all the criticism and censure |
YOU have felt for your mother win melt |
into pits and you will be ready to weep