Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-11-03
RNY MARRIAGE
|Av4
Adele Garrison's
New Phase Off,.
REVELATIONS
OF A WIFE
THE WAY MOTHER GRAHAM "LET
GO" WITH KATIE AND JUNIOR

GO" WITH KATIE AND JUNIOR
my mother-in-law's reaction to Juniors
baby temper From the other side
of my closed door l heard the wrathful
sniff which presages explosive tears
with her, and then a snarling command:
Katie, get to your work this in
slant"
There was so much concentrated an
ger in her voice that | fancy even
Katie was inundated. At any rate,
the sullen note in her voice was re-
placed by a timorous one:
81 not kno we're you want me to be-
gin"
Begin, Beginr" Mother Graham's
voice rose in crescendo. Begin with
the cobwebs. Fasten a clean flannel
cloth around YOU broom, and get them
down from every ceiling and wall.
Then come to me in Mr.. Graham's
room. I'm going to give it a thorough
cleaning. 1t hasn't been touched since
he went away"
"Missis Graham she say Meester
Graham no like his room feexed oop."
From the sound of Katie's voice i
knew that she had turned back from
the door to defend me, though she
suffered to pass in silence the renewed
challenge Of the cobwebs.
81 ar not interested in Mrs. Ora
hams opinions" my mother-in-law SAID
Ioftily. But / certainly shall take the
privilege of attending to my sons
room"
knew only too well the sentence she
left %unspoken because her innate good
breeding would not permit her to crit
cize me openly before a servant Poor
Richard."
This was its burden. / knew, for she
had elaborated upon the motif silently
and orally ever since / had married her
son. / wonder sometimes if all moth
ers-in-law sing the same strain: Then
| lay bare my own love for Junior with
q conscience scalpel, and fear that
when | am as old as she | shall be
every bit as captious toward the woman
whom my boy chooses.
This prescience Of the future, how
ever, did not prevent me from hotly
resenting her sighting reference to me,
and | could not help a meanly triumph
ant little feeling when Junior evidently
resenting being ignored, spoke again,
still more defiantly:
Go way, Danzie. You naughty. Need
good parking"
His tone was so initiative of his
grandmother's in her occasional STRIFE
lures upon his discipline that | hastily
stuffed my handkerchief into my mouth
to smother the laugh which otherwise
would have been audible through my
closed door. But his ~granmother was
in anything but a laughing mood.
ooh! Grandma"
Richard Second..' she said in an
awful voice. don't you ever dare to
/ speak that way TO me again" %
Temper begets temper. among the
Grahams, at least, and Junior promptly
proved his Inheritance. With a stamp
| of his baby foot, clearly audible to me-,
he shouted at the top of his voice:
"Dooner will say it again, will say it
again. Danzie bad; Go away. Need
good panking!"
There followed a quick rustic of gar
ments, the swift impact of n hand
against soft flesh, d piercing. surprised
wall from Junior, and a gasping. horri-
| fled little cry: ooh Grandma. from
Marion.
guessed only too well what had hap
pened. Unnerved and angered, my
mother-in-law had reverted for an in
slant to the sterner disciplinary meth
DDS of her own young motherhood, and
had slapped her idolized grandson.
1t was the first real slap the child
had ever received. have lightly
slapped his hands, and with equal mild
ness spanked his sturdy little legs when
such baby crimes as straying into the
automobile roadway and pulling the
kittens tail would yield to no other
treatment. But this was a singing lit
tie blow-to many children, alas! a
common occurrence. but which | had
meant my boy never to know.
A Swift Reversal
With a primitive instinct of protec-
ton and an equally savage jealousy of
any other discipline than mine over my
i baby, | rushed to my door, threw it
,, 5pe.. and went swiftly into the hall.
If ] had followed that first impulse |
should have run to my baby boy,
snatched him to me. comforted his
grief-and set between his grandmother
and me a barrier which never could
have been passed. ] knew her temper
lament and my WI too well to minimize
the far-reaching results of such an
action.
The thought halted me just outside
my door. and an instant later | was
glad, indeed, that / had kept in the
background, for my mother-in-law
burst into wild weeping, lifted her
frightened, crying grandson into her old
arms, and held him tightly.
TN II wicked woman, Margaret
she cried Historically. 'eTo think |
should ever lift Il hand against this
baby. You'd be perfectly justified in
never letting me see him again. n