Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-12-14

n YOUNG woman writes me that she
~ works hard all day doing her cook
ing, washing and sewing, and that no
man comes, home at night to a heater
house or a better-cooked dinner than her
husband. The husband has to work at
night until about IL o'clock, and it is her
habit to spend her evenings at the moving
pictures.
Her husband and her family object to her :
going frequently, and she wants to know
how often l think movie fan has the right
to indulge in hiA or her favorite diversion
l am sure l don't know. If l could answer
that question, and draw the line betwee.s
the psychological place where the cinema
ceases to become a stimulating amusement,
and turns into deadly dope, / should solve
one of the great problems of the day; for
there is no denying that no other influence
in the world is so powerful, and reaches so
many people, as the screen.
To answer my correspondents question in
detail, I should say thai it is not good to 60
to any one place every night, not even to
church. The tendency of too much of any
thing is to upset peoples mental balance,
and to obsess them with single idea. 1t
makes fanatics of them. Their minds run
along a single track that in time gets to be
narrow-gauge road with no pleasant by
tracks, and no way stations or stopping 4
places, and they are lucky if they don't bump
into padded cell at the end.
We need variety in our amusements and
occupations to keep us mentally healthy, just
as much as we need variety in our food to
keep us in bodily health. That is Why all
crazes, whether they are crazcs for dancing,
or roller-skating, or crazes over now religion,
or crazes over certain phases of literature,
or moving picture crazes, leave wrecks be-
hind them. People who overdid always have
to pay the price.
And, as Stevenson said, "The world is
so full of number of things" that are
pleasant to do, it is pity not to nibble at
them all. Certainly it is more than pity
not to alternate evenings spent in reading,
and in converse with ones friends, with at
tendance at the picture houses.
AS to how muc] footage of film is the
proper allowance per week for woman, she
must be her own judge. good test for her
to apply to herself is to keep tab on her
thoughts, and see if the screen is becoming
the most absorbing interest in her life, and
if she goes through her days waiting i1npa-
tiently for her nightly debauch of pictures.
If she is, then it is time to cut down her
dope.
Also let ter honesty search her soul and
ascertain what effect the pictures she sees
have upon her. If she Is filled with envy
of the snakelike vamp, with long green
eyes, and jade ear rings, and practically
nothing else on, if, as she washes her dish
es, and chops the meat for her Irish stew,
she loathes and detests her homely task and
feels as if she were martyr because she is
not one of the sirens at whose feet men
dump bushels of diamonds in the pictures,
and who never do anything more laborious
than recline in a real lace aegligee. on
oriental divans, and puff cigarettes then
she's had too much of the movies.
And if, as she looks at her good, kind
Woodworking husband, she finds that she is
contrasting him unfavorably with some OK
eyed, lily-handed movie hero, with thirty
dollar permanent wave in his hair; and il
she catches herself wondering how she hap
pened to marry a plain business man, even
if he does bring home the bacon, instead OF
a picturesque, film robber; and II she has
ceased to registel thrill when her John
gives bread and eggs peck on the cheek
when he starts to work of a morning, in
stead of pulling the cave-man stuff they
do in the movies, then let her beware!
She's drugged up on lurid romance, and
she is in just as much danger of wrecking
her life as she would be If she had acquired
the opium habit. She's got to have the
nerve to give it all up until she gets back
to normal
The real secret of enjoyment of anything
thing is to take it in moderation, but If
there are some women who have been hurt
by an over-indulgence in the movies, there
are millions upon millions of women who
have got nothing but good out of them. They
have been saved from themselves, saved
from themselves, saved from becoming NOR
bid and disgruntled, and cross, and unen-
durable to live with, by the genii OF the
films.
I can think of no other one thing that
has done as much to brighten the life of
the great mass of womankind as moving
pictures have done. 1t is only the fortunate
few women who have money enough to go
to the theaters, to have automobiles, to
spend their afternoon at tea parties and
luncheons, and in other forms Of more or
less expensive amusement, because a woman
must have proper clothes for these diver
sions, as well as the price thereof.
Thus for the majority of women there was
nothing but the dull, monotonous round OF
work, with no fun thrown In, no amuse-
ment nothing to stir the Imagination, or
rouse the emotions, nothing new for a wom-
an to think about as she made her beds, or
sewed long seams.
Then came the movies, and opened up
new world to her, full of romance and ad-
venture, sentiment and laughter. 1t was
world to which the price of admission was
so cheap that she could go and take the
children along with her, and it gave the
whole family something of mutual interest
to talk about instead of Quarreling with
each other
So, taking it b. and large, the moving
pictures have been a benefaction to those
who needed help the most; and woman
IAN have far worse faults than to be movie
an, and spend her evenings far less profit
ably than in getting little sip of romance,
. little laughter and fun, and deal Of solid
Information IT the movies.
For one thing your woman who is film
an is never back number. She's always
trictly up-to-date, and knows Just exactly
Ill about the last big thing that happened
n the world. For she has seen it with her
,wn eyes.
(Dorothy Dix articles will appear regular