The Monmouth inquirer., 1926-04-01

90
It is an old saying that If you re-
main quiet, and permit man to talk
freely. he will give himself away
tell his secrets, lay bare his motives,
display his weaknesses. Same
way with a writer you can tell what
sort of man he is by looking over
his complaints and notions. can
always tell-or think l can-whether
would like to personally know a
writer. was reading woman late
~, and decided she is the sort of
woman everyone runs from.
An old saying is "a penny for your
thoughts" the offer is not
high enough; some thoughts would
not be confessed for a million dollars.
Abuse is not bad thing for men,
although it is ruinous to women.
l know two men who were
rather cocky, and who became the
subjects of very venomous newspaper
abuse, much of it untrue. 1t actually
did both men good: they became more
modest, more effective. If man
abuses a woman he is knocked down,
but cheered If he abuses a man.
-
/ know a man and his wife who have
fourteen-year-old daughter they call
Babe" although they are properly
trying to get out of the habit, and
call her by her real name, which is
Frances.
They worry a good deal about
Frances, although she is one of the
incest girls in town. The other day
the father said to her:
Frances, what do you want us to
do? Do you want your parents to
let you go your own way, and take
no interest In your welfare? Do you
want us to give up advising you? We
are older, and have had more ex-
perience. Do you object to our taking
an interest in you, and trying to di-
rect your course? Do you want us
to accept your Judgment in every
thing, and make no suggestions about
anything?"
Frances mother was present, and
rather proud of her husband, he had
put the case so forcibly, so gently !;
so effectively, she hoped.
But the mother was fioored when
Frances answered her fathers ques-
ton, as follows:
"Well, yes
In every family where there is a
fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl there
is similar controversy. Is Frances
right, or are the parents? And can
anything be done to settle it?
Frances is nice; her parents are
nice. But here is misunderstanding
that results in much unhappiness.
Since time began, parents have pre-
sumed to advise fourteen-year-o old
daughters. Have parents always been
wrong, or have they been Fight7
Parents. particularly American par
ents, have made great many con-
cessions. Have they made too many,
or not enough?
seem to be seeking advice.
am not; my mind is already made
up. And, being elderly, you know what
my opinion is.
The father should not have asked
Frances that question: he should have
known what her opinion was. at four
teen.
The doctors strip babies and inves-
tigate them by certain rules. Weight,
so much; chest, so much; eyes, so
much; head, so much lungs. so much
Then they add up the total.
They have examined several million
and never found perfect one. They
confess it: not one scored 100 per cent.
Are their rules too strict?
If there are no such babies as they
are looking for, why continue the
search? Why not reduce their figures
and cheer an occasional mother with
the statement that her baby is all
right? For millions Of babies are all
right and have as good parents as the
Lord ever intended they should have.
Why should doctors, of all men,
abuse our babies by demanding per
lection that never did exist and can
not exist?
The little old ratty doctors who are
demanding perfection in babies were
themselves babies once. Did they
score 100 per cent?
AS adults do they live longer than
others? Do they practice all the good
advice they give their patients? Are
they above the human frailties of de-
caying teeth, bowlegs, badness, bad
hearing, bad digestion, govt?
Then why all this talk about per-
feet babies and perfect men and theft
indignation when none are found?