The Washington herald., 1921-02-23
THE STITCH IN TIME.

InE SIIiSH IN TIME.
A heart-broken mother is help
lessly watching her little daughter
take her irsts steps on the DOWN
ward road. The girl Is IL and ut
terly beyond control She refuses to
go to school. She declines to work.
She sleeps half the day. and dis
sipates three-fourths of the night.
Her companions are loud. brazen.
jazzy boys and girls, and when her
mother demonstrates with her for
associating with such unoesirapI.
people. she bangs the door behind
her. and dashes Off in an automobile
to Heaven knows where.
The girl will not listen to her
mothers warning. She Is deaf to
her mothers entreaties. and ada
mant before her prayers ana tears.
and SO the poor woman waves her
impotent hands ai.u asks what shall
she do to save her daughter.
The question comes just seven
tell a mother how to control a way
ward girl of seventeen. who has
never been taught to do anything
but to crafty her own desires. wn.
has never been disciplined, or had
NhC bchoC VI uuty pICu IN hCt
The prodigal daughter Is a far
more dificult problem to deal with
than the prodigal son, because one
dealing with a girl that often one
can use effectively with a boy.
Sometimes the boy can be stopped
from sowing his wild oats by put
ting him in a reform school. but to
send a girl to a reform school. is
to make her the associate OF wom-
en- of the streets and to smirch her
name for all time. Sometimes it
makes a man. of the boy who is
idle and lazy. to chuck him out of
the home and toll him that he must
work or starve, but to close the door
on a young girl is to throw her to
beasts who prey on youth and
beauty.
So there is no way in which one
can stop the girl who has started
tobogganning down the primrose
path. She is pleasure-mad. She
thinks only of the joy OF the mo-
ment. She Is ready to sell her soul
for a dance, and a drink, and a
motor ride. She is too young to
realize what she is doing. She is
too ignorant to count the cost. Sne
Is too selfish to care for the sorrow
she is causing, and the disgrace she
may bring on others. She Is as
hard as a rock. and no appeals to
her heart or her conscience touch
her.
Sometimes God, in His mercy.
saves such a girl. but there is notn-
ing that any human agency can do
to prevent the catastrophe. The
mother can only stand by and suf-
fer, and. IL she is honest. say to her
self: This is my work. i am
wholly to blame. A little white
soul was given in my keeping. and
this poor. tawdry rag of femininity
is what i have made of it."
For mothers responsibility for
her daughter is complete. There
isn't a woman in the world who
doesn't know this. but the fact that
women refuse to face is that a
mothers work must be done with
her girls while they are little. And
1t takes strength and courage TO
wrestle with strong young wills
and conquer them. 1t interferes
too much with bridge, teas. clubs
and matinees, to be always prun-
ing. sharpening. forming the
thoughts and habits of children. So
the average mother sidesteps the
job and waits till her daughters are
grown to reason with them, and it's
forever too late.
Mothers have two accurscd
phrases with which they dope their
consciences and stultify their in
telligence. One is. Il hope and
pray that my children will turn out
we'll" The other Is something
about their children outgrowing
their faults.
Yet in, her heart every mother
knows that chance plays no more
part in the bringing up of children
than ii does in the multiplication
table. and that unless a childs
faults are corrected. she does not
grow out of them, but grows into
them more deeply.
II mother gives little Mamie cv-
erything she howls for as a baby,
what right has she to expect that
Mamie will be a self-denying grown
girl? II Mamie never has a wish
thwarted in her childhood, who can
expect her to be willing to forego
her desires when she is older? If
Mamie's temper is never controlled,
IL she never learns obedience or to
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