El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-01-07
TheMOther-In-Law Trouble
Mothers Should Be Buster With Chill
dren Before Their Marriage;
Less Busy After.
By Dorothy Dix


~ AVE you noticed that the mother
n inlaw joke is dead? The car
4 4 toonist and the humOrist have
ceased to exhaust their wit in depict
ing a fat and fussy old woman de-
scending like a pesulence on an I'M
willing household?
You have noticed it2 And you sup
pose that the anciest jest had persisted
OF old age, didn't yOuE Not at all. 1t
is because we have suddenly recOS-
nized that the mOtherIuIaW is not
thing to make merry over. She IS the
greatest menace there is to domestic
peace and happiness She is no longer
a comic figure. She is tragedy in
carnate.
This is an appalling state Of affairs,
and it is time that women faced the
fact that the divorce evil is not going
to be cured by preachers, nor sOciolU-
gists, nor laws, nor lawyers, but it IS
in the hands of mothers, and they must
settle it, if it is ever settled
A Divorce Coupon.
OF course, any young couple who get
married and who go 10 live with eithe.
mctherinlaw could save money and
worry by buying 2 marriage license
with a divorce coupon attached TO IT,
for unless the whole family of them
are pin feathered angelS-Which
most people aren't-they are fOreOr-
dained to pickering and jealOusies, and
every known species Of the 81 differ
ent varieties Of domestic misery
When q WOman'S children marry she
should make a cast iron resolve never,
under any circumstances, to live un-
der the same roof with them, not to
visit them too often, never to interfere
in their family affairs and TO refrain
from giving advice even though she
has to bite her tongue off to keep from
doing it
what Her Mother Can do.
There is no mother who pillows
little baby girls head on her breast
that cannot raise that girl up to be a
true, good, sensible woman She can
teach her how to make a home, and
make Of herself the kind Of a wife
that is a blessing instead Of a curse
to the man who gets her.
There is not a mother with q little
son standing at her knee who cannot
teach that boy to be chivalrOus and
tender to women She can teach MIN
how to treat a wife, how to be gener-
Gus to hef, and unselfishy and tender
and affectiOnate; how to be the kind
Of a husband that will make a woman
bless her stars every day she lives that
she was lucky enough to get him
It is the mothers who turn out the
bad wives and the brutal, neglectful
husbands. They furnish the raw ma
terial out of which matrimonial misery
is made, and they are responsible for
the ensuing divorce.
When Mary comes running home to
some little matter in which she and
John have disagreed, mother begins
plying her for a poor, prosecuted an
gel instead Of saying to her. Go home
aSsd forget it am ashamed OF you
for being such a little coward as to
come whining back the first time any
thing goes wrong
Mothers Hold Solution
Ninety-nine times out Of a hundred
mothers could stop divorce in the
very beginning if they would only hold
their sons and daughters up to per
forming the obligations they have
taken upon themselves But they don L
They side with their own, they sym
pathize with their owns injury and
magnify the others fault.
It is the mothers who hold the solu-
ton of the divorce question in their
hands. There would be no more IN
happy marriages and nobody would
want a divorce, if only mothers ola
their duty and were a little buster be-
fore their children's marriage, and
little less busy afterward-