The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-05-30
SADDEST WOMAN IN
ALL THE WORLD
Is She Who Marries IN Only Son and
Lives with His Adoring
Mother.
BY FRANCES sHAFFER.


Now, who are the "sad-faced women
Awhile ago some one, a man, by the
way, attempted to tell US they were re-
cruited from the unspoken sisterhood
women who abide in single blessedness
to the end of their lives. Blessedness?
No, the kind of dreariness that is so
outspoken that even the dropping lips
cry aloud for sympathy-so he said
But that is not the way some one else
interprets their sadness.
The saddest-faced woman in all the
world. according to this latest critic,
is one who hopefully casts in her matri-
monial lot with an only son, then fol-
lows him home to live with a fault
finding mother-in-law, who worships her
son and finds nothing right at, all in
the wife chosen from all the world
For the domineering, white-haired
woman finds it hard to surrender her
rule to some younger usurper, hard to
note the close tie between them, harder
still to shut her eyes to faults that
the young wife may betray; and in
her critical, half-jealous, wholly pro-
testing attitude OF hostility she makes
life burden to the younger woman.
With the fault-6nding spirit at work
from morning TILL night, the wife, whose
hopes were high at the start, grows sad
at heart with the constant nagging. and
IN,
happy secret.
AT least. that is what one critic saws.
Average Mother-in-law.
As for me, observation has shown the
average mother-in-law. once she bows
her head to the natural decree, quite
gracefully in the yielding, quite ready TO
love because her son loves-prepared 10
do her part in making both the changed
and the new relationships bring greater
happiness to all concerned.
But occasionally there is one not up TO |
the average. one who cannot or will not |
make up her mind that il is the way of |
nature for son tc give a generous share |
of his allegiance to stranger-woman |
Young like herself. who at last slips into
his life, wife. And her exceeding love
"f self and her unwillingness to resign |
first place are manifested in nagging little |
WAYS that take the heart out of the new
conner. II il happens to be a sensitive |
newcomer so much the worse
And when one looks on at these little |
tragedies in lfe-they seem such needless |
tragedies, too-and sees folk deliberately
binding their eyes to their own best in
t"rests. one wonders when the trouble be-
IAN.
For every normal person under the sun
is Looking for love. the love OF sons, and,
perhaps unconsciously, the love of unwel-
come daughters-in-law. But II never
comes to any one who drifts into the fruit
less habit of nagginE Fruitless? Not
50. for it Yields abundantly. but it has
the bitterness of the Dead Sea fruit
And the habit must come upon one
little at a time, for surely not many
folk start life weighed down with that
haneful tendency. II settles gradually
and they do not pause to watch its
effect upon those nearest and dearest of
all. do not stop to see their own lovable-
ness steadily go by. on the sure. driving
wings of fault-fnding.
when Age Is UnIoveabIe.
As the charm of youth and the rip
ened offerings Of middle age gradually
are left we'll back in the years that
are gone and as the life-shadows be-
gin to lengthen. it is then. more than
at any other period of life. that II
richly behooves folk to give of the very
hest that is in them. Because If back
of the whitened locks and back of the
age-marked physical self. there is not
another self brimmtng over with warm
human interests and care for others
then age is bereft and unlovable indeed !
And the habit Of finding fault with
one thing and another, the tendency to
rebel at tricks of life that are not at
all to ones liking, steal upon one very
easily when the guards are down. And
once the habit is well under way. life
becomes burden to all who must suffer
the consequences.
But to return to the "sad-faced
women
Where Troubled Hearts Are Born.
One really believes it is right in the
home that the average troubled heart.
and consequently the average troubled
face. are born: and the worst of il is
that in the background there generally
stands someone who has it in her-or
maybe nis-power to make the sad-faced
person over on a better, happier line.
Because, YOU know, some folk are not
wise enough philosophers to rise superior
10 the grievous faults and the narrowing
tricks of others with whom their lives
are passed: and il there is fault-fnd-
ing or otherwise wearing spirit around
them-why. they just sink to that sorry
level and grow sour of face to harmonic
with the spirit
Sort of pitiful, is it not, in a world that
was made so bright?
FINE