Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-11-01
DOROTHY DIX DISCUSSES LIFE
TALKS on HEART AND HOME

X AMI HUME
and 1t was only when it was too late
they found that they had stumbled
into the pit.
And why, in Heavens name, P. s..
A, do you want to get husband
or a wife by the mail-order route?
Aren't there any nice men and wom-
en- in the community in which you
live? Don't you know that no re-
spectacle man or woman needs to
go out of his or her own bailiwick
to find a mate?>
Why do you think that you would
prefer perfect stranger to some
body that you know? Surely. when
one goes into life partnership, one
needs all the detailed information he
or she can get about the party of
the other part. Matrimony is risky
enough without tying up with some
one whom you recognize only by the
wearing of white carnation or the
holding of a red rose in his or her
hand.
Possibly there are some good mat
rimonial agencies, but the best of
them are open to abuse. Walk warily
and write circumspectively when you
enter into correspondence with those
strangers whose object is matrimony.
DOROTHY DIX.
Dear Dorothy DIX am seventeen
years old and live in a small town
in Jersey. I work as a typist. Here
are my troubles: My first trouble is
that I long to be a physical training
teacher, and am not allowed to go
through with it. 1t would be the
simplest matter for my father to get
me position, but he won't.
My second, trouble is chat 1 lake
small salary, which I turn over
to my mother. and any time that I
want clothes I have to fight, fight,
fight for them.
My third trouble is that am quite
popular, and know some of the
peachiest boys, but my father forbids
my going out much. Dorothy Dix,
how in the name Of common sense
am | ever to get a husband if I am
not permitted to go about, for the
boys can get plenty of girls who can
go? When 1 do go out, what do I
do? / drink and smoke, and am as
wild as possible, but I wouldn't do
anything like that if I were per-
mitted to have the fun l am entitled
to with nice boys who respect me.
You can't tell my father anything.
When l try to reason with him about
it he flares up, and it ends in quar-
rel. What do you advise? I can't
stand it any longer.
A WILD, WILD GIRL.
Answer:
Poor little girl! I am so sorry for
you and for your father, because be-
tween you you are running such a
terrible risk Of running life. 1t is
the most cruel thing in the world
that parents and children don't talk
the same language and that they SO
seldom can make each other under
stand things. Your father thinks
you are a little goose-and q baby
goose, at that-and you think that
he is hard grinding tyrant, and
you are both right and you are both
wrong, and you don't know how to
compromise.
But let's take up your troubles one
by one. First, get the idea of being
physical trainer out of your head,
unless you are willing to go through
long and arduouS training that re-
qulres intelligence and money and
hard study and hard work. [ don't
think you want to bother with that,
because you are looking for fun and
husband, and not a career. AS for
trouble number two, perhaps you are
unjust, perhaps your mother gives
you all the clothes she can possibly
afford to give you. Mothers love to
see their girls dressed prettily, and it
is far more likely that your mother
gives her pin money to you than that
she holds out on your pay envelope.
Trouble number three is boys"
Can you honestly blame your
father for being strict with you when
you show that you have not enough
poise to be trusted? If you smoke
and drink and are "as wild as DOS.
Slble,' your father is only doing his
duty to try to protect you against
your own folly. Don't think that
you are revenging yourself upon him
by misbehaving. 1t is you who will
have to pay the price Of your es-
capades.
But what a pity it is that silly lit
tie girls and stern fathers can't get
together and talk it over! That
fathers can't be made to see that
youth must have it's fling, and it's
pleasures And that, if it can't get
its fling legitimately, youth will take
it on the sly. And what a pity girls
won't listen to reason and be guided
by those who know the world as
they do not.
Copyright, 1929