Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-02-02
NJ OtberhOOd
Greatest Career
for Women
ny ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.

Copyright. 1916. star Company.
Here il an interesting letter that comes
all the way from New Brunswick. II Is
from q woman and she says
Through the wrong-headed ideas in
ouloated In my youth 1 have made an
awful mess of my life and nearly ruined
hny husbands life. but at last we have
won back our Eden. When was little
Etrl used 20 dream of my children.
planned that my first little girl was to
be named Alison, and l passed many
happy hours thinking how 1 would dress
her and care for her.
II married at II. was then studying
ut an art school and my parents objected
to my marrying, as they desired me to
have a career but as my health broke
down in the school they finally gave con-
sent to have me leave and was married
II was ignorant and innocent and my
parents were so unwise In their ideas of
life that they considered II improper for
me to visit a young married friend who
nourished her baby in natures way. They
thought It an Indecent thing for me to
see.
When was expecting my first child
] was in a state of rapture. But al soon
as my condition became known my
friends regarded It as a calamity; my
mother was angry and my mother-in-
law said 1t was a pity. / tried to speak
of my happiness but no one would listen.
But I found a number who were anxious
TO discuss morbid. unwholesome and dis
dressing conditions with me.
when my second child came there was
a great uproar. My husband and myself
had to mako apologies. The opinions OF
and spelling my Joy. My husband grew
Ito dislike the atmosphere OF our home
and / was far too nervous to make a
good wife.
I'VE lived in sorrow for many years,
but gradually came to a simpler. truer
understanding Of life In my heart 1 am
10 happy in my new-found womanliness.
and I am writing to tell you that many
things I have seen in this column have
helped TO strengthen me- ] have found
1t very hard to be n real woman in these
days 1 get very angry when I see how
D wasted my energies and vitality at the
hrt school
MY relatives talked Of my gift and
SLOWED me to waste my inheritance OF
Ihealth before 1 knew its value. Then
when I wanted to be happy with the real
gift Of motherhood they made 1t so diff
cult for me. NY little dream-child. Ali
con, instead Of being my first child, was
my fifth. She bears that name.
ct would like to know why a girl Of II
as not old enough to decide for herself
whether she will train for a career in
which she has little chance for real sue
cess, or for the career of wifehood and
motherhood toward which her whole ma
lure turns.
TT seems to me the tendency Of the
day is away from natures method, don't
Hou think so?'
The writer of the letter explains also
fhat she was allowed to MARI without
proper knowledge of what wifehood and
motherhood mean. The world is full of
wrecks which have resulted from this
kind of wrong education by stupid or
eelfish parents.
1t cannot be laid to the fault of the
modern idea Of progress that girls are
mot taught more on the subject of wife
hood and maternity, because in the days
bf our grandmothers the same conditions
prevailed.
Girls were. to be sure. taught to be
good housekeepers. cooks and seam
stresses, but the vital problems relating
10 marriage and maternity were kept
from them until they faced them
Children were, perhaps. more 'fesh-
Ionable" in those days than they are
how, but an understanding of the care,
khe feeding. the dressing of newborn
children. or an understanding Of prenatal
Influences are more familiar to young
women today than they were in the
blden days.
$AH the progressive ideas of all the
centuries can never change the laws of
6fe and substitute any career for women
which is so wonderful. so beautiful. so
great as motherhood. when it is under
btood and appreciated and desired.