El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-10-21
Mothers Advice Always Best
Because a Girl Is sSweet rs" Doesn't
Mean that She Should Write
Letters Indfscriminately.
BY Beatrice Fairfax


Dear Miss Fairfax
am 16 years of age and would like
to know if I am not old enough to write
my own pOstals and letters to my
friends, as my mother objects. I would
like to know who is right. Hoping
you will oblige. A. L S.
q KITTEN years old-dear me, what
y a Methuselah-in petticeats.
Sixteen-sweet sixteen, they cali
it in the old fashioned love stories,
don't they?-and sweet sixteen it is in
real life. too-when it is sweet.
Some of the sixteens I know are not
sweet at all-they are just stubborn
and self conscious, wilfuI and foolish.
am afraid that that is the kind OF
sweet sixteen was once-a good long
time ago
I got the idea into my head that the
one important thing in life was to be
good dancer-I was one myself-and
] looked upon any girl who couldn't
dance as well as I could as a poor,
stupid creature who ought to be shut
up somewhere for her own good.
Brains, character, a sweet disposition,
a kind heart. loving thought of others
-pouf what did all these things
amount to- The one real thing in life
is to dance.
We didn't tango in those 6ays-we
waltzed-and some of the grandmoth-
ers thought Waiting terribly shocking,
too. let me tell you.
Grandmothers don't change much, do
they?
Nor. I'm afraid does always Sweet
Sixteen.
when I was sweet sixteen I thought
my mother was positively malignant,
because she didn't want me to choose a
certain girl for my intimate friend.
Full of Fun.
There was no sense in it; the girl
was pretty as picture and she had a
perfect genius for making cheap hat
look like an imported model just by
the way she wore it
And fun; nobody in the world was so
full of fun as that girl.
Why. she could even see a joke at
funeral.
NY mother didn't like her and
wouldn't let me go to her house and
stay all night with her, and I cried and
suiked and was as hateful as I knew
how to be, and I'm afraid that was
pretty hateful.
unsympathetic and pokey and old fash
toned and just as mean and Spiteful as
she could be- may not have told her
SO IN SO many words, but she knew
what I thought well enough. Dear
mother. how green the grass is above
her loving heart today. When the girl
l was so crazy about ran away with
her fathers cOachman and made a ter
AOAe SCaHudl began 10 Olmly wonder
whether my mother didn't have lust a
wee bit of sense after all, even if she
wasn't sweet sixteen
That girl has been married fours
times since then, and there's been a
scandal about every marriage. Once
went across the ocean on the same
steamer with her, and she insisted on
claiming my friendship on account "of
the old days"
her.
So mother ''objects,P does she?
A Good Reason.
Well, now, Sweet Sixteen, the very
best thing you can do is to listen 20
mothers objection. She is the best
friend you have in the world Don't
make any mistake about that. and she
won't object to anything that will make
you happy unless there is some pretty
good reason for it
Mothers right, and you're wrong this |
time So you just give her a good hug |
and a loving kiss and say, Mother, !
Whatever you say is best I'm going to |
10, and just watch the look that comes |
into her tired eyes.
Just to think OF it