Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-10-13

I see no reason why you should
spend YOUR life toiling for a father
who does not even pay you in the
cheap coin of gratitude. Because
Won happen to be his daughter
doesn't make you his slave, and II
he makes your life hard and mlser-
able to you, you are quite within
your rights to strike out for your
self and win your own share OF ease
and happiness.
There is no merit in suffering an
unnecessary martyrdom. Far too
rnanv wives and daughters permit
srutal men to kick them about ana
insult them, under the belief that II
is their duty to stick to their nus
bands and fathers no matter what
they do.
No woman has a duty to any man
who mistreats her. He absolVes her
from that at the very first Woru OIL
abuse, and if more women had the
COURAGE to leave tyrannical men it
would work reformation IN the
manners of husbands and fathers.
How great a debt children owe to
their parents depends altogether on
how the parents have treated the
children. Bringing child into the
world and nourishing it while II is
young, helpless is purely animal rune
ton. The cow does as much Tor It's
calf; the dog for it's puppies.
After that, if the parents give the
child love, and tenderness, ana sym
pathv. and understanding, and APP
nreciation, and do all in their pow
err to make it happy, and to give 1t
owes
q debt that it can never repay. But
IL the parents are hard, and cold,
and unsympathetic, and fault-flnd-
ing, if they do nothing to help the
child or make it happy, then the
child has no duty to the parents
For to be born of such parents is
a curse and not a blessing.
Therefore. I think the children of
selfish parents are Justltled IN Nv
ing their own lives, regardless OF
the fathers and mothers who nave
H' DOROTHY DIX.
Dear Miss DIX am a childless
woman, and I am thinking OF
adopting a baby. What do you
think of it? Is it safe thing TO
do?
Answer
I think that in adopting a child
YOU will do an act by which you
will ACQUIRE merit hereafter and
bring yourself great happiness IN
this world.
Surely there can be no nobler
sweeter, more womanly thing for
woman to do than to take some
forlorn, helpless little creature ano
give it the warm atmosphere of
real home and the haven OF q
mothers breast.
When you adopt a child you
bring love to the loveless,, tender
ness to the neglected, understanding
to the shy and dumb. You set
human soul free and give it it's op-
portunity. And there's no greater
service one may render than that
AS to the risk one runs when one
adopts a child, that's one OF th'
chances OF life. Raising a child Il
no cut-and-dried proposition ever
with ones own children. Not ever!
son and daughter turns out a cred1
to their fond parents, and probably
quite as many adopted children grow
up into model citizens as their owl
children do. Indeed, expect tn
percentage is greater, for the adopt
ed child is apt to be better reared
and less spirited than their owl
child.
Of course, one would like to know
something of the heredty of the child
one adopts and be sure that it came
of decent, honest people, but one may
even put the soft pedal on that No
many poor children have an unblem
ished pedigree, and we all have rela
tives that We would hate to thinl
a our children took after-our hus
bands mothers, or our wives fathers
or great Uncle Silas, you know.