The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-09-19
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
BIZ DOROTHY DIX
Worries Highest Paid Woman Wsatnr.
adjoining a Baby.

Adopting BaDy.-l.
have received a letter in which q
woman writes:
"My husband and I are middle
aged, welI-to-do. childless couple. We
have been thinking of adopting
baby, but our friends warn us against
it, and tell US of the dangers of hered-
ity and of the possibility that the child
of unknown parentage that we take
and rear and learn to love may some
day bring sorrow and disgrace upon
us, because the bad blood in his veins
dooms him to wrong doing. What do
you think about this? What do you
advise US to doe"
Adopt your baby. Don't listen to
| the croakers. Don't be afraid of their
prophecies. What if an occaaional
adopted child has turned out badly?
| Millions of our children have devel-
oped into hayward sons and dough-
tiers who have brought their parents
grey heads in sorrow to the grave.
/ OF course one would like to know
that the child one adopts comes of a
| good. clean, honest stock. but after
| all, we do not know very much about
how far blood tells in a human be-
| ing, nor how far certain traits and
qualities are bequeathed oy parents to
! their offspring.
| Scientists generally. hold that en-
vironment is of far more Importance
than heredity in forming chara cter.
| and that the reason that the childI en-
! OF criminals are 80 often criminals is
mainly because they are brought up in
a vicious atmosphere. and have no
early training in the moralities.
Don't be scared off from adopting a
baby by the heredity bug-a-boo. Pick
out a child with a good, welldevel-
| oped head and clear, intelligent eyes
| and trust to the environment that you
can give him to overcome any faint
| in his blood.
Furthermore, as for heredity-well,
| when it comes down to brass tracks,
there are mighty few Of us who have
got such a flawless family record.
| either physical. mental or moral that
we do not hope to goodness that our
children won't take after some of our
ancestors.
OF all noble acts in the world I can
think of none that is finer than taking
a forlorn, lonely, loveless. homeless,
! motherless and fatherless little child,
and giving him all the blessings that
fate has denied him. Orphan asylums
chi1d properly by machinery A child
needs the human touch. He needs
soft laps and cuddling arms bedtime
stories. anu somebody to kiss his
hurts and make them well. He needs
the warm shelter OF home just as
iiidCu dS d IiOWGE HSeQS the SuH Anu
lacking these, he is always a poor
stunted, dwarfed thing that never
reaches full growth.
When you adpot an orphan child
and make him your own, when you
| give him home, father and a moth.
er, you give human being his chance
in the world. You are the magician
that releases an imprisoned soul. Yot
endow life with all its potentialitie.
| for good, for success, for achieving
things, and it is as worthy an act a,
it is to endow q hospital or library Oh
any other public benefaction.
Aud it is a good deed whose rewards
you reap a thousand fold. Every tint
you feel your baby's soft little arm
around your neck. every time yol
thrill to the cling of his helpless littl,
hands, or stoop for his moist little kis
on your cheek, you will draw hun
dred per cent dividend on your invest
ment of money and care in 1t.
i ~~ A