Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-07-21
DOROTHY DIX DISCUSSES LIFE
TALKS ON HEART AND HOME

ing, as it is, the most important act
of life and the thing that sets its
seal, for good or evil, upon a woman
forever.
A happy marriage to good man
is the greatest blessing that can
come to a, girl. A miserable mar
rage TO brute Is the greatest curse
that can befall her. Every marriage
has the possibility of these two fates
for their daughter in it, yet fathers
and mothers trust the matter entire
ly to chance. They make no effort
to secure the one for their girls
and protect them from the other,
Mary goes off to visit a thousand
miles from home, and comes back
engaged to some youth of whom her
father never heard before, and
father gives his consent to her mar
rying him, without knowing a thing
on earth about the man. Sometimes
he doesn't take the trouble to even
write a letter to the boys home
town asking few prefunctory
questions about him.
Not once in 3, hundred times does
father drop his business and go
sleuthing to find out every detail
concerning what sort lof family the
young man belongs to; what kind Of
a life he has led; what his prospects
are, and what sort Of a disposition
he has. The whole future welfare of
the child, who is dearer to him than
his own life, is bound up in this
matter, but father let's the sale of a
few potatoes or some other trivial
matter keep him from doing all he
can to protect his unsophisticated
young daughter.
Strange, but true, a man will let
his daughter marry q man of whom
he knows nothing, and whose char
acter and antecedents he doesn' t
look into. He let's her invest her all
Of youth, of health, of the joy of
living, in a matrimonial gamble
without trying to find out il it is
a wildcat speculation or a gilt-edged
proposition, but he wouldn't let her
risk a thousand dollars that way.
If she wanted to buy a little house
he would have the title investigated
to see that it was sound and clear
and had no encumbrance on it. If
she wanted to buy even a dog he
would look into its pedigree and
have a veterinary's certificate that
it was free from disease.
But he takes no such pains to
find out whether there are any
mortgages on the past of the man
who wants to marry his daughter
and whether he can furnish a first
class health certificate.
Sometimes fathers excuse their
criminal carelessness in this matter
by saying that they are willing to
take their daughters judgment on
the men they want to marry. Non
sense. They wouldn't take a young
girls judgment on any other sub
ject, and they know that she is
particularly untitled to form an
opinion on this particular thing be-
cause it is impossible for any young
girl to know enough of life and
enough of men to be able to judge
them with any intelligence.
Sometimes a father will say that
there is no use in his trying to find
out about the man his daughter
wants to marry because a girl in
love will not listen to reason. This
is true only of abject idiots, and not
many girls are that. Few girls are
fool enough to want to marry biga-
mists or drunkards or men who
would drag them down to poverty,
and they would steer clear of them
if they were torewarned.
A little Sherlock Holmes-ing by
papa would save many a girl from
a wrecked life. There is an old say
ing that an ounce of prevention is
worth a pound of cure. This goes
double in matrimony, and it is up
to father to apply the remedy.
Copyright, 1929