Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-04-17
DOROTHY DIX DISCUSSES LIFE
TALKS ON HEART AND HOME

to keep their children with them or
because, in their narrow ignorance,
they saw bogies in the outside world
of which they were afraid, and they
felt that the only way they could
keep their young ones safe was to
keep them in the home nest.
think now of a beautiful and
brilliant woman to whom God gave
a marvellous voice. Some. rich peo-
pie who heard her sing offered to
send her abroad and have her
trained for an opera singer. She
would undoubtedly have ranked
among the greatest artists Of our
time had she been permitted to &C.
cept the opportunity thus presented
to her. But to her parents Paris
and the stage were simply other
names for perdition, and so they
slammed the door of opportunity
shut in her face. Today she is a
poor, overworked drudge, doing her
own cooking and washing and baby
tending.
I think of another woman who In
her girlhood fell in love with a bril-
liant and handsome young chap, full
of energy and ambition. But he be-
longed to an humble family, and
the girls father and mother would
not let her marry him because his
blood was not as blue as theirs.
Today the girl, q soured and dis.
appointed old maid, is earning her
own living as a clerk in a store,
while the man, who has been gov.
ernor of his state, and is now scna..
tor, rolls by her in his limousine.
I think of a dozen men know
who have been kept from fame and
fortune in the work nature fitted
them to do and forced into uncon-
genial occupations where they have
been failures by fathers who
thought they had a right to decide
their son's careers for them.
I think of fathers who have bled
their children numerically to pay
their debts; of men who shift the
burden of their families onto the
young shoulders of their children,
and I wonder if there is any other
person on earth who can do their
children such a deadly wrong as
father and mother can.
\ I think of husbands and wives I
know who are doing the men and
women to whom they are married to
death, by system of slow torture
that would have done credit to the
Spanish inquisition. and yet they
dearly love those whom they daily
and hourly torture.
think of peevish. Aaggtng won-
en-, who go into Mysteries every time
they are crossed; who take all the
toll and devotion Of thsir husbands
for granted, and who whine and
fret because they can't have every
thing that millionaires' wives have.
I think of women VINO can harp
on the same grievances Tor a thou
sand years, and still be going strong
at the end of that time, and whose
husbands do not have as much lib,
erty as a tame squirrel IN a cage.
[ think of hearthungry wives
whose husbands never say one ten
der or affectionate word to them. /
think of women who spend their
lives working and sacrificing for
men who never give them one token
of appreciation or thanks. I think of
women who live in terror of their
husbands brutal temper, and who 3
cringe like slaves when they have
to ask for money to buy food for the
family.
And wonder if there Is any other
foe so cruel as those of our own
household, and am sure that the
malevolence of no enemy could so
completely rob us of our happiness
and ruin our lives as can those with
whom we live daily.
Happy those whose families are
friends to them!
Copyright, 1929