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

IF / were giving sdvices to any un'
born baby, should say:
j For heaven sake, use little dis
cretion, and don't be either the Oldest
child Of family, or the youngest one
OF IL. II you are the Oldest your poor.
silly young parents will almost XII
Won trying out on you all Of their men
tai, and moral, and physical theories
3out how a child should be raised.
while II you are the youngest CHILD
of the family you will be bossed and
chicken pecked by your older brothers
and sisters until you will wish you
were dead. So have q little sense
ara be one of the in-between children.
That's the safe and comfortable place
In the family circle" E.".
OF course, / don't expect any baby
to take my advice because babies
are the hardest BEADED people on
earth and the ones most Determined
20 have their own way-as witness
h.w often they persist in being girl
babies, when everybody has just beg
sed and prayed them to be boy
babies. and Il would be the greatest
nossihle accommodation to dozens OF
people II they would be boy babies
bnt whether they heed my words OF
warning or not, I'm handing them q
good tip, all the same.
Especially to tn who are going
to be of the feminine persuasion, Tor
n there is any poor, harried, har-
assed. put,upon creature in this world
a is the little sister in a big family:
I've Just got q real heart-to-heart
letter from one Of them. She says
I. L she's got four old maid sisters
and ever so many brothers with wives,
and that each individual in the whole
family thinks that he or she mas
perfect right to dictate to her about
everything on earth that she does or
thinks of doing.
This girl says that she IL twenty
two, but the family persists In consid'
sring her a mere infant In arms VINO
hacks the Judgment and intelligence
10 make any decision for herself, and
In particular they ! old 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 ehaperoned in an
inch of her life.
Worse still, the girl complains that
her family IL blocking her way to the
altar.
II don't want to oe an old maid like
my sisters" she walls, "but how am 1
ever to get married II 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 I like very
much, and who likes me. He suits me,
but because he doesn't happen to ap-'
peal to their tastes they have sue
cceded in making my mother believe
that I don't know my own mind, and
that would be throwing myself away
Oh q 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 wsy?"
/ certainly will. poor little youngest
sister in big family. / have seen
your tragedy happen over and over
again. for It 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
= H.. - to-. -
malignant enmity can devise in O.
week. II 10 the pity Of goodness that
It so often puts its stupid foot in
things and ruins where 1t tries to
help.
Big sister IL actuated by only the
purest Of motives when she interferes
with everything little sister wants to1
cd. Martha adores Mary and would