The Washington herald., 1917-06-20

out e e nay N sssssd heat g. him to climb up
Hother love Is supposed to be the
purest and most unselnsh love in the
world. but how often do you see a
mother sacrificing her children 70 the
J She may know that II is for their
good 70 leave her. but she VIII not
let them 60.
Not one Of US but who could point TO
q dozen old maids. ekeing out a Lare
, existence at sewing or teaching OF
keeping boarders, living the barest
and most forlorn OF lives, who are
the victims OF selfish mothers who
would not let them marry when they
were young. because their husbands
would have taken them away.
And every village has fits unsung
ton wage, whose mother shut the
door Of opportunity in his face when
he was boy and she wept and begged
him not to take the offer he had 20 do
the thing he was born TO do, in a
wider field, far from home. And these
mothers ruthlessly sacrificed their
children on the altar OF their own
selhshness in the name of love.
The tn-law question, which IL the
| cause Of more real misery and domes-
tic unhappiness than anything else
on earth, is nothing more nor less than
is sure that she adores her son. His
wife is certain that she worships her
husband. Yet II the misguided man
tries to put the two TO living together
they ight like cats and make his
life unbearable because neither mother
nor wife loves him enough to sacrf-
fee her own little ways and opinions
enough to get along with the other
woman in order to make him happy
and his home peaceful.
TAa l. -
ground that II Is inspired by love.
Some even go farther and say there
can be no love without jealousy. That
is true as regards self love, but real
love knows no jealousy because It re-
Joices in the admiration that the one
il loves excites, it triumphs in his
or her trtumphs. and IL is made happy
by whatever gives pleasure 70 its be-
loved.
Real love has in It no room for mis-
trust, or suspicion. It could not
doubt its idol and still worship, and II
is above the pettiness and greediness
that would seek to monopolize every
thought and interest Of the one Il
loves. It is not true love, but self love
that makes a man turn green-eyed IL
his wife shows frank pleasure in the
society Of some interesting man who
happens to be at her dinner party,
or that makes a wife go into mysteries
IL her husband dances twice with a
| pretty woman at party.
No. Love is not a state Of feeling.
/ II Is a state of action. We are bias
phemers when we talk Of loving a
| person yet do that person a more
deadly wrong than hatred itself could
invent. I know women who pirate
| necessarily Of their love for their
husbands, but who are killing them
with their bad cooking, and harassing
them into the grave with their ex-
travagance.
| know men who make a great vir-
! tue Of their absolute devotion to their
wives, yet who never give them a
penny to spend as they please. and
who raise rows over every bill that
make the women wish they were dead.
/ know other men who, to crafty
their own temper and spleen, say cruel
and insulting things to the wives they
] profess to love, and who have never
done one single thing since they were
married to make their wives happy.
Oh, there's plenty Of love Of the
kind poets and romancers tell Of, the
| love that takes itself out in fine, high
sounding words, and sloppy senttmen-
| tality, but OF the real love that prefers
another before itself there Is very
little. Such affection is as scarce as
hens teeth, and its price IS above
tcopyasbt, lsr7, By tn. Wheeler Syndicate. IDe)
Dorothy Dix's articles appear regu-
larly in this paper every Monday,
Wednesday and Friday.