The Washington herald., 1921-02-22
THE FAMILY PARASITE.

Perhaps there is no other question
in the world that Is harder to settle
than just how much help the mem
bers of the family have a right TO
demand of us, and the problem be-
comes insoluble when 1t is a matter
Of deciding how far the wife is en-
titled TO sacrifice her husband to her
own people.
As a general thing. men have a
healthy seifshness that makes them
look out for themselves. and leave
| others ito shift for themselves,
! though occasionally you find one
with an. ingrowing conscience who
is the patient ass on whom are
packed all the family burdens. We
all knowN old bachelors who have
never married because their youth
was spent in toiling to support their
younger brothers and sisters, and
whose pocketbooks are. still regard
ed as a family till into which every
one has a perfect right to dip their
hands.
We also know men who can never
l resist an appeal for assistance from
their brothers and sisters, and who
help them at the expense of their
own wives and children. Sometimes
you will see a thrifty, industrious
woman working herself to death to
save uP the money that her husband
lavishes upon an eXtravagant sister
or a ne'er-do- well brother.
Blood ties are not, however, apt
TO be so strong with men as they are
with women. 1t is women who are
still bound, hand and foot. to the
family from which they sprang.
even after they have families Of
their own. A woman's sense of 10y
atty is hardly ever as great to her
husband as it is to her own people.
and for this reason a woman offers
up her husband as the sacrificial
goat on the family altar far oftener
than a 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 a 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 inconsiderate
enough o: their wives comfort to
keep their own houses so filled with
theid own kinspeople that there is
neither peace nor quiet in it., nor
even a place to sleep except upon
a bumpy make down bed in the liv-
ing-room. or an adamantine couch
CONSTRUCTED on the dining table.
| Yet women do these things con-
tinually. There are thousands upon
thousands of men who literally
spend their lives, from the day OF
their marriage to the hour of their
death, toiling for their wives fam
lily. There are thousands upon
thousands of men who never have
any chance to get ahead, and who
are kept poor by their wives CIV
ing away everything they earn to
their own people.
II And there are millions of men
who never know what il is to have
their houses to themselves, and who
are literally eaten out of house and
home by their wives relatives.
Whether the call of the family
is louder to a woman than the call
of her mate, nobody knows; but
when mother writes that she needs
a new set OF teeth, and that Bob
is so shabby and must have new
suit of clothes and a new 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 little Johnny has to have
his adenoids taken out and they
haven't the wherewithal to pay the
doctor the woman who gets the let.
ter robs her husband OF the money