Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-10-09
DOROTHY DIX DISCUSSES LIFE
TALKS ON HEART AND HOME

next minute I am as busy writing
as if my bread depended on it.
perhaps you, who are more
worldly wise than I am, can ADVISE
me on this perplexing problem. Is
the struggle worth while? T. Nice"
Answer:
No one can decide this problem
for another. There are people who,
after years and years Of struggle and
failure, have succeeded at last, and
there are others who have spent
their lives in an agonized endeavor
to do that which they could never
do, and whose only reward was bit
terness and defeat.
Mark Twain once said to a young
writer who asked him this same
question: Put in two years at hard
labor at writing. Send what you
write to the papers and magazines,
and if at the end Of that time some
editor is not willing to buy what you
write, be sure that you have mis-
taken your talent, and take up some
other occupation"
1t seems to me that this is good
advice, and if, after one has made
a faithful and honest trial of ones
abilities and has had no sign of sue
cess, it is folly to waste any more
time upon it. Just desiring to do a
thing is not, as so many people
think, any indication that you can
do it.
You might yearn with your whole
soul to be a Caruso, but you cannot
be a grand opera singer if nature
has not given you the throat of a
singing bird. You might dream night
and day of being a nnotion-picture
star, but not all your wishing could
make you one unless the good fairies
were around and ,.4cpped the fatal
gift of beauty in your cradle.
So T. McC., my advice is to con-
meet with a good business job, and
keep lyric writing for a hobby -
to interest and amuse and solace
you. And in that way you can have
your cake and eat it, too.
DOROTHY DIX.
Dear Miss Dix - Will you not
write something about the lack of
manners of American children? In
stead of teaching their children good
manners, the mothers actually incul-
cate bad manners and lack of con-
sideration of others in their young.
You can hardy go into a street car
in which some mother has not lifted
her child with dirty, muddy shoes
up ON the seat so that it can look
out of the window. She is utterly
regardless Of the fact that she is
running the clothes of the people
about her. and the next person who
has to sit on the muddy seat.
1--WE Americans consider ourselves
more civilized than the Chinese and
the Japanese, but there are no more
| refined and Well-mannered children
than the Japanese children. They
are quiet in their play and enjoy
themselves just as much as Ameri-
can children do, but they do not yell
like Indians. They are polite, and
never destroy public property. When
I was child we were told that chill.
dren should be seen and not heard.
think it is a pity that the same
doctrine is not inculcated in modern
children.
A. READER"
Shake, reader. also have spent
much time in Japan, and L agree
with you that there are no such vel
raised children in the world as the
Japanese children. We spend mil
lions of dollars year sending mis-
sionaries to Japan. 1t is a great
pity that Japan doesn't raise a few
million yen and send some mission
aries to teach us how to raise chill
dren. DOROTHY DIX.
(Copyright 1929