Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-03-31
DOROTHY DIX
DISCUSSES
LIFE
BY DOROTHY DIX
Pearls and Paris Finery Are Poor
Substitutes for Live, Healthy
Children, Says the Child
less Woman
4 SIMPLY dressed woman, look
\ ing enviously upon richly

n SIMPLY dressed WOmdnI Iooh'
~ ing enviously upon richly
- dressed friend, exclaimed:
''My. but it must be wonderful 10
be able TO go and buy all the beautl,
full clothes you want, and to ron
around in velvetlined limousine
and to be able to travel and see al
the beautiful and curious things III
the world! Believe me, my DEAR you
are lucky woman.
MY, but it must be WondefLul W
have four splendid children, ana 10
have had the joy of them as babies
and the interest of watching their
minds unfold and their characters
develop as they grew up, and TO
have the pride of seeing them acnleV-
ing fine things in the world as men
and women! Believe me, my dear,
you are the luckily woman retortea
one of the Paris CONNECTIONS.
"You women with children make
me tired" she went on, "becauHe
YOU want to eat your cake ana nave
it. too, You want your children, but
grudge paying the price for them.
You want all that we childle~s
women have and your babies, too,
and because you can't have the
earth, you whine and complain.
There isn't a day that some other
mother doesn't say to me eXaCtly
what you have said. She looks at the
things I have that money buys, ana
she gets green-eyed because she
hasn't got them, and she tells me
how fortunate / am to be able to
wear imported frocks and have
string of pearls, and she bemoans
her fate because she has to wear
hand-me- downs and beads.
"And it doesn't seem to occur to
these mothers that a few luxurles
are the consolation prize that fate
hands out to the woman to whom 1T
has denied the great gift or chill
dren.
"Of course, if some witch were to
| saw TO some of those dlsgruntl2d
mothers: Come now, you are pm
| ing for fine clothes. Give me that
pretty young daughter OF yours ana
| that handsome son who is making
such a record at college and Ill give
you a charge account in every shop
along Fifth avenue, and you deck
yorself out in silks and furs and
| dS lOIles cIS SO0 nv
mother wouldn't listen to the prop
osition for half a minute.
Nor would she trade off her baby
carriage for the finest limousine
that was ever turned out. She's got
the most precious thing in the world
and she doesn't want to give it up.
She merely wants all the other
| things in addition, which is coming
a bit Thick as our English friends
say.
''Perhaps it is because we always
think of children in terms of affec-
ton instead of in dollars end cents,
that mothers, who have to econo'
mise, feel that we childless women,
who have plenty Of money to spend
are more fortunate than they. Why
[ have even heard women say that
their husbands had not the gift OF
| of money making, when these men
had brought up and educated large
! families!
Their wives simply did not rea
! lie that children are the most eX
pensive luxury in the world. 1t takes
I just about as much to set up and
run a perambulator as it does
town car, and as far as the cost is
concerned, champagne has nothing
on baby's certified milk and patent
predigested foods.
''In old times, children may have
"just growed" like Topsy, but thai
was before we ever heard Of ade
noids, and having teeth Strengthened
and taking out tonsils or having
permanent waves put in little girls
l. IN,,ft~ inI ~
fancy dancing lessons, or any Of the
million and one things that parents
feel that they have to do for theil
children now, and all of which cost
money.
| When grown people don't feel wei
they can take a dose Of l1vermedicine
or practice Coueism, and get along
nine times out of ten. But when the
baby begins to run temperture you
have to send a hurry call for a ply
stefan, and the doctors bills alone in
any household, where there are three
or four children, would put their par
ents on Easy street.
eff a monther put on her owr
back the price Of all the little socks
and jackets and dresses and bonnets
she buys. she would be dolled ur
like the Queen of Sheba. While the
shoes that the restless little feet
wear out in the course of year
would buy as many satin pumps as
she could wear if she were a cent?
pede.
Sending boys and girls off to col
l2@e makes buying nov cars and TAX.
Fe@ - m - a.