The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-05-29
Dorothy Dix Talks

Don,t write Discouyaging Letters.
During the war the families of the
soldiers were constantly urged not 10
write them gloomy letters, for it was
found that nothing SO effectually and
quickly took the heart out OF the men.
and broke down their morale as TO get
letters from home filled with walls,
and weeps, and dismal news.
The ban on the doleful letter IS one
OF the wartime measures that we may
continue in peace with advantage.
Most of US are every day at grip with
life in a battle that is just as fierce
as any ever fought on the bloody
fields of France, and that calls on us
for lust as much courage, and en-
durance, and as high spirit, II We
are to win out, and we, too, need
words of cheer to back us up, not
screeds Of woe to depress US, ana take
The writing OF blue letters is
crime against our peace and happiness
that is chiefly committed by those OF
our own households. for it is only
| those who love US best who feel that
they have a perfect right to make US
miserable.
And it is a crime to which the
4 female sex is as prone as the sparks
are to fly upwards Heaven knows
sits down, and takes her pen in hand
! TO indict a letter, she seems not to
dip into ink but into a well of tears.
Pessimism of the deepest, darkest
dye pervades her every line, Funerals.
and divorces, and hideous accidents.
| and bankruptcies are the titbits OF
gossip she chronicles. She recalls the
| sorrows of the past. She dwells upon
the narrowing state of the present:
and draws a melancholy forecast or
the future. The lamentations of Jere-
mIah have nothing in gobs of gloom
over the average family letter.
Not long ago woman who has
80 =
and who is making a heroic struggle
to support herself and her two chill
dren, said to me:
Il adore my mother. but when r
get a letter from her it is sometime ).
two or three days before can sum-
mon up nerve enough to even open it,
The very sight of her handwriting on
an envelope sends my spirits down to
zero, and makes me feel that some
awful calamity is hanging over me.
For mothers letters are simply
reminding me that she is getting old.
and will be with us but a few days
more. She dwells on every little pain
and ache until l fancy her mortally
i'll, and twice have I fled to what
supposed was her death bed to find
her well and clipper.
''She tells me about everybody who
is sick, and has had an operation, or
who has been run over by an auto
mobile, or lost their money, or mad
any untoward misfortune. Then she
begins on family rows, and really gets
down to business. John isn't getting
along we'll in business, and she for
Sees that his family will land in the
poor house. Johns wife has been
nasty to her and I get a detailed &C
count of the perpetual mother-in-law
and daughter-in-law warfare.
"Sarah's husband stayed out until 2
a. m. playing poker, and Sarah and he
are on the outs. and she only hopes
;; for the children's sake 1t won't come
to divorce. Tom has cough that she
fears means consumption, and there
follows a long chapter about aunt5
and cousins who have lost their money
and their cooks, or broken their legs.
and who seem to have punched every
i'll that flesh is heir to.
"And then mother pities me until
| want to sit down and howl because
I have to work for my living instead
of being q millionaire, and because
l am a business woman in place or
being a queen, altho ordinarily think
I'm lucky in having a good job. and
i am merry as a. cricket.
Copyright, 1920, by the Wheeler Syndicate
Incl