Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-09-17
roo MUCH FAMILY.
BY DOROTHY DIX
The Worlds Highest Paid woman
Writer.

,FI were giving advices to any un-
born baby, ! should say:
For heaven sake, use little DIS
cretion, and don't be either the OLDEST
child Of family, or the youngest one
Of It. II you are the oldest your poor,
silly Young parents will almost Kill
YOU trying out on you all of their men
tai. and moral, and physical theories
Tout how a child should be raised.
while II you are the youngest chnd
of the family you will be bossed ana
chicken pecked by your older brothers
and sisters until you will wish you
were dead. So have a little sense
ara be one of the in-between chlidren'
That's the safe and comfortable place
in the family circle"
or course, don't expect any baby
to take my advice because babies
are the hardest beaded people on
earth and the ones most determined
to have their own way-as witness
h.w often they persist in being girl
babies, when everybody has just beg
ged and prayed them to be boy
babies. and it would be the greatest
possible accommodation to dozens OF
people IL they would be boy babies
but whether they heed my words OF
warning or not, I'm handing them
good tip, all the same.
Especially to tn , who are going
TO be of the feminine persuasion, for
If there is any poor, harried, mar
assed. put-upon creature in this world
Il is the little sister in a big family.
I've just got real heartto-heart
letter from one of them. She says
I. t she's got four old maid sisters
and ever 80 many brothers with wives,
and that each individual in the whole
family thinks that he or she has
perfect right to dictate to her about
everything on earth that she does or
thinks of doing. ...
This girl says that she is twenty
two. but the family persists in consid-.
sring her a mere infant in arms who
lacks the Judgment and intelligence
10 make any decision for herself, and
in particular they told that she is SO.
young and tender and unsophisticated
that she can't be trusted to look out
for herself in good American girl fash
ion, but has to be chaperoned in an
inch of her life. .5 r.. -. I
Worse still, the girl complains that
her family is blocking her way to the
altar.
81 don't want to be an old maid like
nv sisters" she walls, "but how am
ever to get married If they scare e, cry
man away from the house by sitting
around looking sour and glum when
ever one comes to see me? There's
q young man now that / like very
much, and who likes me. He suits me,
but because ne doesn't happen to ap-
peal TO their tastes they have sue
cceded in making my mother believe
that | don't know my own mind, and
that would be throwing myself away
on a man who has his own way to
make in the world, and that they
know so much better what is good
for me than / know myself that my
mother has forbidden me to have any
thing more to do with this young
man.
won't you please write an article
telling older sisters to keep their
hands off of younger sisters affairs,
and let them live their lives in their
own way?"
certainly will, poor little youngest
sister In big family. ! have seen
your tragedy happen over and over
again, for 1t is sad, but true, that more
hearts are broken and more lives are
wrecked by our friends than our enc
mics, and mistaken love and kindness
can do us more harm in minute than
malignant enmity can devise in a
week. 1t is the pity Of goodness that
It so often puts its stupid foot in
things and ruins where it tries to
help.
Big sister is actuated by only the
purest of motives when she interferes
with everything little sister wants to
3D. Martha adores Mary and would