The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-04-05

and presses his clothes to make them
look neat. Ought not the father to
thank God for having children who have
never caused him bit of worry or
trouble and who have practically sup
ported themselves since they were four
teen, by working in vacation. and doing
odd jobs in school time? ANXIOUS.
Answer: / think this man is not
only cruel and unnatural father,
but that he is fool as WELL He has
failed to do fathers part in cherish
ing his children, and he has deliber-
ately done all that he could to make
failures of them by discouraging
them and sapping their courage.
One of the greatest forces in the
world for good or evil is the power of
suggestion. With it you can almost
make success or failure, and these chill
dren must have had exceptionally strong
minds and wills, or else they would
nave succumbed to their fathers tao
tics and become the nonentities he tried
to make them.
In former times, it was thought good
for a child's soul to keep before its
mind all of its defects and to tell if
continually how dull and stupid it was.
and what an humble place it was des
tined to take in the world, or how
homely and awkward it was, and to
make it generally feel that it was such
hopelessly unpromising specimen of
humanity that its parents should have
taken it out and drowned it as we do
the runt one of litter of puppies.
But intelligent people know better
than that now. They know that you
can get the fixed idea of its stupid
ity so firmly implanted in a child's
mind that it will never make an eff
fort to exercise its intelligence at all.
We know that the more we speak
of a child's awkwardness the clumsier
it gets. The more you convince a
girl she is homely, the homelier she
will be.
And, on the contrary, by prais;ng a
child's intelligence you can fire it
with ambition that will keep it at the
head of its class. You can cure
awkwardness; which is only self
consciousness, by flattering a child
into thinking better of itself. And
you can make almost any women
pretty by dressing her up and making
her vain enough to carry herself like
a beauty.
We all unconsciously live up to our
blue china and try to be what peo-
pie except us to be.
DOROTHY DIX.
Dear Miss DIX am twenty years
old, and very much in love with a young
man who is in business for himself.
He is a fine character and has proved
himself very much Of a gentleman in
every way. My parents refuse to let
me marry him because he is foreigner
by birth, but he has been in this country
nearly twenty years, is a naturalized
American citizen, and was an officer of
high standing during the war. Still, in
their eyes, he is a foreigner. That is
their only objection to him. I have de-
cided to marry him anyway, but thought
| would ask your advice first. What
shall do? HBARTBROKEN.
Answer: Wait another year,
Heartbroken. If your father and
mother have no other fault to find
with the young man except that he is
of foreign birth, they will be almost
sure to come around when they find
that your happiness is really at stake
and that your love is not just pass
ing girlish fancy. Certainly, they
are very unreasonable to stand be-
tween you and your happiness for the
sake of silly prejudice against for
eigners.
That is result of provincialism and
Ignorance, because the Anglo-Saxons \
have no monopoly on virtues The
people Of every nation have the same
good qualities and bad, and there are
Just as many kindly, honest, we'll
meaning people in one country as in
another.
International marriages are nearly
always unhappy when an American
girl has to go to her husbands coun-