The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-11-05
Shall the Mother -in-Law
 Joke Disappear

An altrulSttc and optimistic woman has headed a movement to can all humor appertaining to and concern ing mothers-in-law She proposes to put the lid down good and hard on the side-splitting ouips and cynical comebacks about the wife's mother for no woman has ever had ever had the hardihood to jest about her hus- bands mother-and to put mothers in-law in the same favored class with ones own mother, so to speak.
 Thus is another insidious blow aimed at our personal liberties, for if we may not make merry at what we choose, what freedom is left for use? Also it takes the bread out of the mouths of many honest and hard working jokesmiths and vaudevil- Hans, for since time immemorial the
 gibe at mothers-in-law has been their main stock in trade, and the one sure thing that they could de-
 pend upon as laugh getter.
 Why the mother-in-law should ever have appeared to any one as figure of fun is mystery past find ing out. Probably the man who first set the ball of humor rolling in her
 direction saw in her a tragic creature about whom we must either laugh or cry, and he chose laughter as the bet
 ter alternative. That is why the
 Jokes about mother in law have al-
 ways such a salt and bitter taste to
 Tba1 ara f1auored with taarS
 Nor does any one know why the
 wifes mother should be the one to
 be particularly held up to ridicult, and to have her little eccentricities
 made to furnish mirth for the popu- lace, while the husbands mother has
 escaped unlibeled. In the funny
 column of the newspaper. in the comic strip, in the farce on the stage, 1t is always the wifes mother who IS lampooned. It is always the wife's mother who arrives with innumer- able trunks, and bundles, and boxes, and a parrot, and a mangy dog, to pay an unexpected visit, and 1t IS at the demise of his wife's mother that
 the son-in-law makes wise cracks. No woman humorist has ever talk en fling at mothers-in- law, yet women know the worst of the mother in-law proposition. Even the man who is most fed up with his mother in-law. The virago mother-ln-law or peculiarities, and ways, and whlms compared with what the woman has to endure who lives with her mother in-law. The virago mother -in-law o | men is mostly a myth, but with women she is often an actuality
 As matter of fact women are | anxious to get their daughters mar | ried. and they are disposed to wei come their sons-in-law with open | arms, and to love and spoil them if | they will let them. Any man with | half a grain of tact in his system, | and a bit of jolly on his tongue, can
 make his mother-in-law his abJect | slave and worshipper If he VIII take | the trouble to do so.
 But women do not want their sons | to marry. They resent their daugh- | ters- Jaw, and hate them, sight un- seen. Their backs are up, and they are ready to scratch the eyes out or
 the interlopers who have taken their | sons from them. And so 1t takes a woman with the patience Of Job, and | the wisdom of Solomon, and the dip | lomacy of a Talleyrand, to win over
 her mother-inlaw, and make a friend I of her.
 l The divorce courts credit the
 mother-in-law with being the captain l of the home -wreckipg crew. The | iudCes of the domestic relations | court say that In most of the cases | of domestic infelicity that come be- | fore them the mother-in-law is at the bottom of the trouble They say ] that when young couple gets mar ried, and goes off to live alone, that they kiss and make up after their | little squabbles. and finally live to-
 gether in peace and harmony, but | that when the mother of either of the