Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-02-22
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
BY DOROTHY DIX
THE FAMILY PARASITE
Copyright, 1920, by the Wheeler Syndi-
cate, Inc.

just now mucn nolp the members OF
the famii, have right to Go1ndnd of us,
and the problem becomes insoluble when it :.
is matter of deciding how far the wife ID
entitled to sacrifice her HUSBAND to her own.
people.
Al a general thing, men have healthy
selfishness that makes them look out for
themselves, aid leave others to shift for
themselves, though occasionally you find one
with improving conscience who is the
patient whom are packed all the FAM
lily burdens. We all know old bachelors who
have never married because their youth was
spent in toiling to support their younger
brothers and sisters, and whose pocket
books are still regarded as a family till into
which everyone has a perfect right to dip
their hands.
= We also know men who can never resist
an appeal for assistance>from Il cir brothers
and sisters, and who help them at the ex.'
pense of their own wives and children.
Sometimes you will see thrifty, industriousl-
woman working herself to death to saw. up
the money that her husband iavishes upon
extravagant sister, or a ne'er- do-well
brother. ..,.
Blood ties are not, however, apt to be SO
strong with mel as they are with women It
is women who are still bound, hand and foot
to the family from which they sprung, even
after they have families Of their own. A
woman's sense of loyalty is hardly ever as
great to her husband as it is to her own peo-
pie, and for this reason a woman offers up
her husband as the sacrificial goat on her
family altar far oftener than man does
his wife.
There are not many men mean enough to
take away from their wives the money that
they have saved up to buy new dress, or a.
coveted bit Of furniture, or to pay for a
much needed vacation, and give it to their
own kindred. There are not many men In.
considerate enough Of their wives comfort
to keep their own houses so filled with their
own kins-people that there is neither peace
nor quiet in 1t, nor eve place to sleep ex-<
cept upon bunny make-down bed in the
living-room, or an adamantine couch con-
structed on the dining table.
Yet women do these things continually.
There are thousands upon thousands of men
who literally spend their lives. from the day
OF their marriage to the hour of their death,
ltoiling Of their wives family There are
thousands upon thousands of men who never
have any chance to get ahead. and who are
kept poor by their wives giving away every
thing they earn to their own people.
And there are millions of men who never
know what it is to have their houses to them
selves, and who are literally eaten out Of
house and home by their wives relatives.
Whether the cali of the family is louder to
woman than the call Of her mate, nobody
knows; but when mother writes that she
needs new set of teeth, and that Bob is SO
shabby and must have new suit of clotheSS
and a nev pair of shoes, and he hasn't the
money for them because he hasn't had job
for six months, and Sally writes that her lit
tie Johnny has to have his adentids taken
out and they haven't the wherewithal to pay
the doctor, the woman who sets the letter
robs her husband of the money to pay for
her familys needs, although she knows that
he can ill spare it, and it means harder work
and deprivation to him. @ t,
And when Jennie writes that she would
like to come and spend the winter and take
music lessons, Jennies aunt il stalls her in
the best Toom, and dooms her poor nerve
racked husband to months of torment while
his tortured ears are assailed by all means
of discords. .-.-
| Chief among the saints and martyrs, are
the men who are the victims of their wives
families. Great are their sufferings here be.
low, and great shall be their reward here
after, but what right have women to thrust
the martyrs crown on the men they marry?
What right have either men or women to
sacrifice the one they marry to anybody
else?
None. Moreover, it isn't playing the game,
for if any man should say to a woman, be-
fore marriage, that she could nave what was
left over after he got through providing for
his trifling relations, there would be moth
ing doing in the matrimonial line there. Nor
would any man lead maiden to the altar II
he knew that when he married her he was
|
brothers, and sisters and brothers-in-law, and
sisters-in-law, and uncles, and aunts, and
nieces, and nephews, and an invisible bread.
line that stretched out to her remotest rela-
tives.
The real reason that families are so anx-
ious to have their girls marry money, is be-
cause they know they can all :,onge on
Mary. She is always good for touch It's
always daughter and sister that the family
hold up when they want funds It's his
wifes mother, and father, and widowed sis
ter, that a man supports nine times out OF
ten. Not his own. His sisters husband ID
taking care of them.
OF course there are family obligations. The
blood tie does give certain claims that we
are all obliged to honor, but there can be
no doubt that we make too much Of them.
and that we encourage parasiteism in our
families
All of us have relatives who, when they
have money blow it in like drunken sailors.
They count the cost of nothing and indulge
themselves in the widest extravagances.
They would not do this, but would save their
money, if they did not know that they had
some relative who was an easy mark, and
who would not let them suffer, when their
money was gone. All of US have lazy, shift
less, ne'er-do-well relatives whom we sup"
port because they will not work. All Of US
are called upon to pay the Doctors bills OF
those whose pride will not let them go to a
public hospital, but permits them to beg
from us.
These family parasites should be Topped
off and made to stand alone. We do them
the greatest harm that one human being can