Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-06-10
SAYS VIRTUES
MAY BE VICES
Dorothy Dix Discusses "Un-
selfishness" and What
1t Lead To
A Great Ne10 Series By Dorothy Dir.
By DOROTHY Dix

A Great Neao Series BIZ Dorothy Dir.
BY Dorothy Dix
Unselishness is another virtue that
is popularity supposed to be the bright
est jewel in the crown that adorns the
feminine brow. Never a preacher or
moralist who doesn't a6jure women to
cultivate unselfishness. Never a pane
gyric of wifehood or motherhood that
isn't rhapsody over the woman who
makes a doormat of herself for her
children and husband to wipe their
feet upon.
It is natural that this view of the
subject should be popular with the lit
tie tin gods before whom a woman Of
fers herself up. The queer part of it
is that women should have cultivated
in. themselves the sacrificial spirit until
they have come to believe that the
way for woman to do her duty by
her family is to make herself miserable
for 1t. They are like the fanatics who
think they attain heaven by casting
themselves under the wheels of the car
of Juggernaut and letting it roll over
them and crush the life out of them.
Now there is reason in all things.
certain amount of unselfshness is
admirable and desirable and even nee
essary in every relation of life Live
and let live is the motto of civilization.
Every decent human being must give
way to the rights and convenience of
others. Particularly every woman must.
And more especially must every wife
and mother consider the welfare. the
tastes and whims of her household.
The unselfishness that raises us
above the level of the swine, two and
four footed, is worthy of all admiration
and emulation. That is what might be
called the masculine brand of unselfish-
ness. and it is innocuous. 1t is the
feminine brand of unselfishness that is
a virtue gone wrong.
1t is this particular kind of self
abnegation that makes a devoted
mother do her children a more deadly
harm than their bitterest enemy could
invent. And that is one of the most
pitiful and tragic facts in the world.
1t is the unselfish mothers who raise
up the loafing hoodlums, who, like as
not, as circumstances depend, become
white slavers, because they have al
ways had a woman TO work for them,
and they see no shame in it. Mother
couldn't bear to call Bobby in from
the street and his play to split the kind
ling, or bring up the water, or do any
chores, so she did it herself Mother
was so unselfish that she gave Bobby
the money that she was saving up to
get her a new pair of shoes to buy a
baseball mask
Mother always ate the neck of the
chicken or the scraps left on the dish.
Mother stayed at home and cooked up
a good supper for them against their
return when the balance of the family
went of on an excursion. Mother
never had any decent clothes, nor any
pleasure. No one considered her feel
mgs In any way and so Bobby growled
at her when he was child and cursed
her when he was a man because her
unselfishness had raised his selfishness
up to the nth degree.
1t was mothers unselfishness that
sent Bobby out into the world to be
cuffed and buffeted and beaten until
little consideration for other people and
their rights was hammered into him.
And mothers unselishness was di-
rectly responsible for the broken heart
of the woman that Bobby married.
and treated like brute
1t is the unselfish mothers who are
at the bottom Of the divorce courts, for
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