The Washington times., 1933-11-09
to
Lovelorn
BY BEATRICE FAIRFAX
Famous Authority on Problems
Of Love and Marriage


Famous Authority on Problems
Of Love and Marriage
Will Love and Marriage Make
Over a Flighty Girl?
A mother writes me a letter
and asks if II is too young for
her daughter to marry. Per.
sonally she thinks for a girl to
marry at that tender age is
distinctly risky and ill-advised,
but Dorothy. her daughter, lacks
balance, is headStrong, and she
concludes: I've tried about
everything else for her"
But how about Dorothy's pro.
Spective husband, who is de.
Scribed as % years old, steady,
successful in business? Isn't it
pretty hard on this admirable
young man that he should be
the final experiment tried on
Dorothy's utterly madcap ca
reer, of which her mother tells
me a-plenty?
EScapades
I will spare you the high
lights of this young lady's
escapades, which have been
colorful and hectic. But, the
admirable young man of %,
desperately in love, knows the
worst. He is willing to accept
Dorothy las is" and rely on
his own methods for converting
a reckless. harum-scarum girl,
into a model wife. I wonder!
Marriage, as you know, de-
pends on many things besides
age; and statistics show the
majority of the divorces are
among the very young, rather
than among the middling
young. Those who are ap.
preaching years of discretion"
which in this irresponsible age
is as likely as not to represent
indiscretion, have an alarming
number of divorces, too.
The First Error
The chances of Dorothy max.
ing a go of marriage are, it
seems to me, about $3.50. Her
mother tells me that her mis-
takes with her daughter began
when she attended some lee
lures given by a so-called child
psychologist" who advocated
absolute self-expression" for
the child. When Dorothy threw
a tantrum, therefore it was re-
garded by her mother as some
sort of divine manifestation
something to which prayerful
attention should be given, and
before which parental objection
should fade.
Now her mother realizes that
all this "hokum" on the part
of the expert was criminally
wrong. Her daughter should
have been made to go to school,
accept the discipline of home
work, and when she screamed
for something, it should have
been the last thing given to
her.
But her mother was paying
$500 apiece for the lectures
on "child psychology" and she
thought the screaming and
quit-School attitude merely in
dicated that she had a budding
genius on her hands, and the
more she screamed, bit and
fought to have her own way,
the more individuality she
showed.
"Came the day." as the
novelists say. when Dorothy
couldn't have her own way.
Circumstances over which she
had no control prevented. The
circumstances happened to be
a young man to whom she had
taken a violent fancy-but he
didn't return it.
That Was That
Dorothy tried all the schemes
she had employed at home for
getting the young man, but
they fell flat. He married a
girl who was less tempera-
mental. And that was that.
Then along came the ad-
mirable suitor, aged %, who
feels that Dorothy is more
sinned against than SHINING.
And chief among the sinners
he regards her mother, who
paid SO per lecture to the child
psychologist whose message was
Let children have their own
Way"
How will this marriage turn
out? What do you think? Per-
sonally, I'm anxious about the
young man. aged %, who thinks
he can make over this mis-
understanding child"