Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-05

- THEORETICALLY speaking, the fam
lily is the finest unit in the scheme
I of social organization.
say theoretically, because ever
since I can remember, have seen
young people engaged in the struggle to
break free of the bonds of family Young men
who yearn to be out in the world, free OF the
petty preventions of home life. Young girls
who yearn for marriage, or profession or jobs,
or some form of release from home ties.
Evi lcntly then, this highly Sentimentalized,
highly idealized grouping known as family
life" is not all that it would appear to be on
the surface.
Enphatically. says this observer. it is not.
Average family life in the America of the
present scene is not ALL or half, that could be
desired.
Ever drive through a small town after
dark? The houses shine out SO snugly into the
evening. Lighted windows Seen through
them figures seated around tables pianos, fire.
. sides. Seen thus. the entity of the social or
ganization known as family becomes some
thing as snug as bug in rug.
Mother sewing beside the table, father read
ing his evening paper, brother taking apart
the radio, sister and her young man dawdling
over the piano.
THAT is the kind of chrome that has been
u ground into our national consciousness by
the pictures in the backs of magazines that
advertise practical floor linoleums and hot air
furnaces.
The actual spectacle of the American family
Is less edifying.
Why is it that the bond of family life, at
the same time it builds up intimacies. breaks
down most of the reserve that goes to make
intimacies bearable. OF all the disillusioning
processes of destroying illusion between people,
family life is the surest.
Take all the small houses on the street
through which you are motoring of that eve
ming after dark Under those roofs, aggravated,
disguised by propinquity, it is fairly safe to
assume that members Of the same family are
learning to hate one another.
Not because of the unit of the family as
such. One CT the irrevocable laws of life
seems to be that blood is thicker than water
but rather because of the curious old social
habit of the individual to let down restraint
courtesy and amiability when in the circle
~'of the family.
If sister should tell brothers fiance the sort
Of an individual brother really is at home!
II father were to meet his business confreres
in the spirit of pedantic intolerance which he
exercises at home!
If mother werc to attend her club with her
hair in that lopsided pug and the whine out
in her voice!
q shambes for all the bottled-up unestheti-
cism, grossness and ugliness Of which man Is
capable in his relations with man.
Curiously enough, not only the enforced
propinquity of the small home seems to breed
this letting down of the courtesies and
amenities among members of the same fam
lily. Brothers and sisters yell at one another
across vast drawing room floors just as they
do across Stuffy parlorS. Mother in big
house may more frequently breakfast in bed
and not present an unlovely, slatternly self
to family that leaves egg shells over the
table. but she is just as prone to nag needless
ly. interfere, ask aggravating questions, and
commit rude famiy-like acts of familiarity.
FOR one do not banker for average family
life. despise it. I dislike to know when
or if my brother brushes his teeth; see no
need why mother should ask me where I am
going If rise to pull down the window shade
I know father doesn't bark and jump with
!. nervousness If somebody at his club and not
his own son, happens to be playing the piano,
and I loathe the way sister, always so i'm
maculately dressed for business slouches
down to the breakfast table in q kimona she
wouldn't even own up to If she were carrying
1t IN bundle and lost it in the subway.
The sanctity of the family is something we
hear discussed from pulpits and lecture
platforms, and economists. psychologists and
writer's on sociological ethical and industrial