The Washington herald., 1918-06-05

ship that brings out everything tina:
Is mean. little. and hateful Ii their
dispositions. as hot poulticc brings
out the measles. and that the only
folks in the world that they can't get
along with are those with whom they
are connected by marriage.
Doubtless. jealousy 10 at the bottom
OF this feeling of antasonism between
in-laws-a mean, low jealousy which
one hasn't even the courage tc look
I'm the face and fight. The mother
and father are jealous of the son-in-
low and daughter-in-law that the
child that they have suffered. worked
for, and sacrificed for so many gears,
has preferred someone above, then
and for whom they have been for
] saken.
They know II is law Of life for the
young to seek their mates, to love and
to go off and establish homes OF their
own. They even know that the love
a child gives to q husband or wife
Is not the same that 1t gives to its
Parents. but to save their lives they
can not help feeling a fierce Jealousy
against the one who has taken their
darling from them.
On their side, the young husband
and wife are eaten up by a gnawing
jealousy of the past OF their beloved
in which they had no part nor not-a
jealousy Of the old love that Is part
OF the very life of husband or wife.
Also the young make the impossible
demand of fate that they shall be all
in-all to the one they love. The
young wife resents her husbands az
fection for his mother and his decire
for her, because she wants to be
mother. wife, everything to him. The
young husband can not bear his wife s
mother, because he yearns to be su-
preme with his wife. and for her to
look upon him as the oracle Of their
little world.
This attitude Is perhaps natural. 1t
is certainly humorous, but what turns
1t into tragedy is that the young
couple have not enough sense to rec
ognize the danger of the situation.
and handle 1t as delicately as one
would a charge OF dynamite. Instead
they butt right into 1t, heads down
and eyes shut, and blow the home
into smithereens.
One would think that any man who
had intelligence enough to be allow
ed without a keeper. would draw a
few deductions for his own personal
benefit from the fate OF a few mil
lions of his friends, concerning the
unwisdom of holding up his mother as
fawIess model to his wife. and de-
picting her as the one woman he
most admires.
But re doesn't. He tells wife about
how mother could run a house ia
elegance and luxury on fifteen cents
a year, how mother never wanted any
amusements more exciting than wa X
ing the baby with collie; he exploits
mothers pies. and eats every meal
| to an accompaniment OF how things
tasted that mother used to cook. un-
I'll wife hates mother as we only hate
those who are made our examples.
And wife is equally as lacking -
ordinary human brain power. When
she wants husband to do this or that
she tells him that mother says 80.
Mother think he should let her go to
the seashore for the summer. Mother
thinks that he should give her a larger
allowance. Mother thinks he shouldn I
smoke. and so on until husband
loathes mother. and gets his back up.
and determines that she shan't rule
his house.
II married people only would re-
frain from feeding each other up so
much on their families. the in-law
question would settle itself, for really
our in-laws are good and worthy
people. and we only dislike them be-
cause We get too much of them. We
are really fond OF them when they
| keep at proper distance-say a
thousand miles or so.
J COPYRIGHT. lss. by The Wheeler syndicat.