The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-28

A great many women who are left widows while they are still young and pretty and attractive to men and who have excellent opportunities of, mak- ing good matches refrain from taking unto themselves second husbands on account of their children.
 Personally, they would like very much to marry again. They miss the care and protection of husband. They feel that a house without man at the head of it is like a ship without. cap tain: They find that life without mas culine companionship has lost it's savor. Above all, they know that in. their full maturity they are capable Of low ing far more deeply and passionately and understandingly tban they did in their callow and immature girlhood. But they stifle all these desires and impulses, and say "No" to the men who want to marry them for fear that they might give their children step father who would be unkind to the precious darlings. e4 When a>mother thus turns her back upon her own happiness for the sake of her children, she gives a noble ex. ample of maternal devotion and self.
 
 is mistake in the great majority of cases, and does more harm than good Nine times out of ten it would not only be far better for the woman her self to re-marry, but also better for the children.
 To begin with, the number of cruel stepfathers is so small as to be almost negligible.
 Unless a man was, fond of children and interested in them, he would not be very likely to pop the question to a lady with a bunch of olive branches, however attractive she might be. A woman who loathes children often marries widower with a house full of youngsters because she knows he is her last call to the dining car, but a man has no such desperate need. He can always pick and choose, and when. he selects a widow with offspring, he is almost certain to be kindly disposed toward the young ones.
 Nor is a man brought into direct hourly contact with his stepchildren as woman is brought into daily and hourly conflict with hers.
 He is away at his business all day, and in the few hours that he is at home the youngsters do not have such a chance to get on his nerves, as they do on their stepmother's. Hence the dan ger of the cruel stepfather is immeas- urahly less than that of the cruel step- mother.
 Furthermore, even a harsh stepfather is often better than no father at all, for, there comes a time in the life of every child, especially every boy, when he needs a mans authority over him, because at certain age every boy looks with contempt on all women, even his mother, and resents her authority. The derelicts of the world are recruited from the ranks of widows sons.
 Also, childhood is short. There are only few years in which an unsympa- thetic stepfather could mar the happi- ness of child, and these could be bridged over by school.
 But the chief reason why, it is a good thing for widow to marry, both for for own and her children's sake, is be- cause it settles the terrible mother-in- law problem which causes more heart burning and misery than anything on earth. It stops trouble before it starts, so to speak.
 The widow who gives up her hap piness for the sake of her children feels that they should be perpetually grate- full for the sacrifice she has made for them, and that nothing they can do is enough to repay her. Likewise, when she refuses to marry she concentrates herself upon her children. They are her every interest in life, her every thought, and she impresses upon their minds the idea. that she cannot exist without them.
 So. when the children marry there is Widowed Mother, with whom they must live or who must come to live with them, because she has given up everything for them, and she would be so lonely and forlorn without them.
 And almost always Widowed Moth er's presence in the home means trou- ble, not only for herself and the in-