Evening star., 1936-02-18


know my mother is doing this because
she thinks 1t Is for my good, but I
don't feel that can bear being made
SO cheap any longer. Is there any.
thing can do about it?
MARGARET.
Answer-Not unless you can get
your father to back you up in taking
a stand against your mother when you
assert your right to live your life in
your own way, and take your own
path to happiness. You may be able
to make him see your point Of view,
but your mother never will.
WHY mother believes that her
" daughters are reincarnations OF
herself, goodness only knows, but most
Of them do. When you hear one COM
planning about her girls being such
disappointment to her and saying
that Mamie is queer, and that shs
can't understand Sally, it is invariably
because Mamie and Sally have differ
ent tastes and ideas from their
mothers.
A woman who has been a beauty
and belle in her youth considers it
almost a disgrace to have a homeIy
daughter who is Indifferent to men.
II she has daughter who is studious.
or ambitious, or who wants to 60 in
for causes instead of going to balls,
she considers that Providence has
afflicted her beyond her deserts.
Such mothers, viewing their ugly
ducklings, are seldom wise enough
work out their salvation in their own
way. On the contrary, they rush 70
the rescue and try to supply the social
graces and charms their daughters
lack. They force the girls to 60 un-
willingly to parties where they paper
the walls, or sit among the chaperones,
or spend their time repairing imag!.
nary rents in their frocks in the dress
room, while they endure agonies Of
shame.
WOMEN have been canonized for
W enduring less suffering than a
girl feels when she sees her hostess
dragging some unwilling youth, who
has been coerced into asking her to
dance, across a ball room, or who
dances on and on with some chap
who has got stuck with her and whose
face wears a hunted and desperate
look because he knows no one u
going to cut in on him.
Many a girl fairly hates her mother
because mother is SO determined she
shall 60 out that she is always wan
Cling invitations for her and imposing
her on other couples who don't want
her, and by trying to put men under
obligations to her for entainmentS
that they will have to repay by taking
her out as matter of duty. And many
girl is Inundated into the dust by
listening to mothers sales talk TO
every man she runs across about how
clever Angelina is; what wonderful
disposition she has; what marvellous
housekeeper she will make, etc.. etc.
What pity that mothers can't see
how useless is the torture they infiict
on their ugly ducklings by trying to
turn them into swans, that they can
not realize that behind a plain facs
there may be brilliant brain, and
the girl who Is social failure may
be great success in profession or
business, DOROTHY DIX
NEAR DOROTHY DIX: What do
men expect their wives to be?
Jack-of- -all-trades? am a good cook,
good manager, thrifty, industrious,
amiable and easy to get along with.
yet my husband is dissatisfied with
me because am not brilliant and not
studying all the time. Men are 50
hard to please, they should have their
wives made to order, don't you think?
A WIFE.
Answer-n they did, I doubt il the
wives would fit any better because the
men would always forget some specifi-
cation, or they would decide that
they wanted something different after
they got the wives home.
OF course, it would be dandy II wives
could be a composite of all feminine
graces and charms; if they could be
at the same time beautiful and CLAM
orous and good cooks and scrubwomen;
if they were highly intellectual and
baby-talk ladies; if they always had
on the latest creation from Paris. yet
spent no money; if they were stay
at-home bodies, yet play girls, and
so on and so on.
But the trouble is that women, like
everything else in the world, are one
thing or the other and you have to
take your choice. If they are good
cooks. they smell of the kitchen instead
Of having perfume behind their ears.
If they are penny -pinchers. thye never
look like million dollars. II they
are devoted mothers, they are more
likely to discuss baby formulas than
the Einstein theory. And there you
are. 1t is because men expect the
impossible Of their wives that so many
are disappointed in them. Almost
any woman is a good wife if her hus-
hand rxy01fId foly 10