The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-07-27
Dorothy Dix Talks


EXp6E1e0Ce-1s
IF we parents could. we would
shut our children up in satin lined
jewel boxes, and keep them from all
contact with real life said an old
woman the other day.
when a mother looks at the babe
on her breast" she went on, she
could weep to think that the little
eyes must know the salt smart of
tears, that the little hands must grow
weary with toll, that the little feet
must stumble along rocky pathways.
If she could have her way her child
would never know anything but soft
ness. and ease, and joy. and laughter.
1.-The commonest phrase on parents
lips is: I don't want my children to
have to go thru what I have gone
thru 1t is the excuse that mothers
offer for failing to teach their daugh-
tiers anything about sewing and cook
ing. We had to drudge like servants
in our girlhood.' they say, and we
want our girls to be care free
ut is the apology many self-made
man makes for letting his sons grow
up to be good-for- nothing idlers and
MASTERS. 1 had a hard, starved boy
hood he says, I had to go to work
when I was nothing more than a kid.
never had any decent clothes, or
uries / envied the rich boys for hav-
ing. Thank God 1 can save my sons
from the hardships 1 had to endure
often a mother will bitterly OPP
pose her daughters marriage to a
worthy young man whose only fault
is his poverty. I can't bear to see my
girl marry a poor man. she will say,
for 1 know how hard is the lot of the
poor mans wife. / know from ex-
perience how sordid are the ceaseless
economies where one must count every
penny: how wearing are the anxieties
~ e-4(
away from the door: what a cruel
fixion to the pride shabby clothes and
humble homes are; how the over
wrought flesh and nerves give away
when a woman must cook, and sew,
and wash, and scrub with fretting
baby in her arms and another clinging
to her skirts
"'I know 1 am working too hard,
and need a long vacation man will
| say, but want to make enough
money to start my boys at the top
and put them in white collar jobs.
don't want them to have to begin at
the bottom as did. know from ex-
| per;ence how hard is the climb, and
! how it takes every ounce of fight, and
| determination, and grit that is in you
| to make you struggle on instead of
| giving up. Perhaps 1 am killing my
self, as my doctor says. but at any rate
I'll save my children from all went
| thru
And these doting parents never
| seem to realize that in trying to keep
| their children from being drafted into
| the great battle of life they are doing
| them the sadliest injury that is pos
| sib1e. They are turning them into
slackers instead of making soldiers
out of them. They are making weak
| lings and towards out of their sons
and daughters instead of brave, strong
men and women"
These parents are denying their
children the opportunity they had in
life themselves" continued the old
woman. "They are depriving theil
children of the greatest joy that they
! themselves have ever known, for IL is
the struggle and the fight that are
worth while. that make men and
women, not the victory. The fun is in
it buys you. There's SO per cent thrill
in chasing a dollar, and only one pei
cent thrill in spending it.
ITO be young and poor. and full Of
plans and ambitions. and self conf
dence; to be bubbling over with en-.
| thusiasm over ones work; to have lit.
tie trfumphs and feel oneself a runs
higher on the ladder; to know thai
blissful certainty that one can stand
on ones own feet and ask only a fight
ing chance from the world-has life
got anything better to offer the young
| than that?
isn't it what the successful old
man and old woman like best to re-
call? The big banker the merchant
prince will not talk to you about what
he Is doing now, but his eyes light with
fire when he tells you of the deals he
put thru on a shoe string when he was
making his start. The woman svathed
in Paris finery, lolIing in her limou-
sine, thinks with envy of the days
when she pushed her own baby car
riage and went home to cook her mans