The Washington herald., 1918-05-20

I Of children s. pushed out of the
home neS little real affection
their =. Nick ,ms to show them
how OWN J. ir his discipline of
tPt the y differently he treats them
feloplTihe petted, INDUCED second
! Children. and how often the second
children Inherit the bulk of his es-
tate. ~
| In experience in active news
paper work l have come across many
many cases of the cruel step-mcthCr
and there has not been one single
case in which l have not found that
the children's own father aided and
abetted the woman in her crime. i
recall one particular case in which a
step-mother. who admitted to having
Foken a three year old child OF ask
. lg for water in the night by giving
Ier red pepper to drink, ended her
/ atrocities against the little creature
by finally beating her to death. and
/ the child's father spend the last cent
ne had in defending this fiend. in
stead of heading a lynching garty for
her benefit.
Indeed, the cruel stepmother
would be an impossibilty except
for the fathers consent. and how
any man can turn his little helpless
children over to the mercies of any
woman, no matter what a peaches
and cream complexion she may
have. or how willowy her figure, or
what his middle-aged infatuation
] for her may be, without keeping a
, careful eye upon them to see how
they are treated. is one of the mys-
teries that no finite mind can faith
ON.
OF course the man drugs his con-
science by saying that all women
are angels. and that all women
adore children. and all women are
tender and sympathetic, and fnd
their greatest delight in life in do
ing their sacred duty. All of which
Is utter nonsense.
All women are not angels. Plenty
of them are devils. All women do
not love children. Plenty of them
regard all children, except their
own. as dirty brats with whom they
have no patience and for whom they
make no excuse, and there are Just
loads and loads Of women who are
nothing but incarnate selfishness,
who resent everything and every
body who stands in the way Of their
pleasures and profits.
There could no falser theory than
mans glib assumption that his
second wife is going to love his
children and revel in being a moth
er to them. She isn't. If she is a
woman of the finest and nobIest
type she will give the children the
best imitation of affection that she
can manufacture. She will do her
duty by them and see to their ma
terial wants, and refrain from es-
tranging their father from them.
And she will never be actively
unkind to them. but even the best
woman in the world can't help be-
ing jealous of their stepchildren,
or feeling that they are interlopers
who take something from her that
should belong to her and hers, or
from breathing a sigh of relief
when they marry and go into busi-
ness, and are no longer ever present
to remind her of that part of her
husbands life in which she had no
part.
And IL she Is a bad woman, or
even Just a weak, vain, selfish, high
tempered one whose law of life is
her own pleasure. the stepchildren
perpetually infiame all that is
worst In her. They take attentions
from her that are her due, she
feels. Money must be spent ON them
that would buy her finery. She
lives in perpetual fear that their
father might prefer them to her