The Washington times., 1933-02-01

ldSI. 1neSe IeW remarks LOQd
mats. Men still have the ba
know better.
The Doormat Girl you will
recognize as one who permits
herself to be treated any old
way, and never resents it. You
may break a date with her
every night in the week, and
she'll look forward to next
weeks dates-and breaks
with smiles and hopes. CThiS
prompts you, Of course, to keep
right on, to see how long any
creature will stand for it,
If you're rude to the Door
mat Girl, so rude that you're
actually ashamed of yourself,
she insists upon writing you
reams and reams of apology.
She phones you an apology;
meets you with one on the
street corner; very likely comes
to your home with another
one. (For some reason this
brings out your worst quail
ties, and your behavior drops
a few notches lower0
Her Pretty Ways
Often the Doormat Girl is
pretty, and has charming gifts
and qualities, buried way down
deep under layers of such
humility and self-distrust that
no one is aware of them. It's
the old story of the heart of
gold buried under an inferior
ity complex.
Your genuine doormat, which
you keep in the vestibule, is
useful, in so far as it saves
wear and tear on things more
valuable. But, alas, you can't
say as much for its human
equivalent. Their mission in
life seems to be to make people
more selfish, and to bring out
ignoble and domineering quail
tiles.
The Doormat Girl should re-
form, if only in the interest of
the towards, bullies, spongeS
and cads that her misguided
amiability creates in her i'm
mediate circle. The Doormat
Girl may be a saint, but she
has many social sinners for
whose sins to answer.
A young man who seems to
think very well of himself, in
deed, and who either has met
a number of human doormats,
or else has the unhappy fac
ulty of converting nice girls
into that unhappy sisterhood,
has this to say of them:
"a doormat crawlS harder
than any worm. She comes in
first in an humble pie-eating
contest. If you meet her and
confine yourself to saying
'Hello!' she translates it into a
declaration of love. Out Of
pure charity, you dance with
her when you see her holding
up a wall at a party-and she's
ready to fly off and order her
trousseau. I don't like door,
mats, Miss Fairfax, and wish
you'd help to reform them"
Seeks to Reform
But I'd like to begin reform
ing this man first, and I'd
thoroughly enjoy seeing some
clever girl, with no trace of
humility abo::t her, putting him
in his place.
"How do they get that way?"
you who have never been bur-
dened with a morbid self-diS-
trust may ask. My theory is
that the doormat is made, not
born. If you constantly snub
a child, destroy it's initiative,
annihilate something you can
not recreate-you're making
doormat of someone, and the
chances are he or she can
never be made over.
Life is adept enough at that.
It trims, cuts, prunes away our
poor little stock of self-confi-
dence all too quickly. Don't take
in door-matting on the side, if
you happen to be parent or a
teacher. It's more productive
to build up than to destroy.
Meantime, attention, all ye
Human Doormats! Arise! Re
fuse to let the which is
your own immediate circle; your
husband, wife, children, in-laws,
friends and fellow citizens-put
you to the base usage of foot
wiping any longer. Rebel! Tell
them, whoever they happen to
be, that you've received posi-
lively your last ration of con-
tempt, derision, sarcasm, laugh
ter-that you are free! And
here's luck to you!
Copyright. 1888. King Features
Syndicate, Inc.)