The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1940-10-31

garet getting into their teens, too,
and these are days for simple hos
FATALITIES and pretty, if inexpensive
frocks and good times. I've begged
him to relax, to be cheerful, to
stop worrying. I've prayed about
it. Can you make any suggestion
to just one more Mary?'"
The only suggestion I can make
is that there is a reason for this
mans moods, and that when it is
found and diagnosed, like any bodily
sickness, Mary will find that she is
halfway to the cure.
1t may indeed be physical. It
sounds very much like stomach ul-
GERS or colitis or any one of the SIM
liar ailments that so often attack
men whose habits are sedentary and
who eat heartily. If Larry can be
persuaded to walk two miles a day,
eat light dinner, and substitute for
rich desserts the invaluable orange,
apple, saucer of prunes or compete
of raw fruits, he may find life taking
on much roster color.
Trouble Probably Mental.
But much more probably Larry's
trouble is mental. He is carrying
too heavy burden. If two of those
daughters had been sons he would
feel very differently. 'The boys will
be helping out in a few years."
would be his natural thought.
That boys DON'T usually help out,
and are much less reliable as mon
ey-earners than girls are, doesn't
often occur to the father of daugh-
tiers. But that's an aside.
The cure for Mary's problem
might come through move indeed,
but move to simpler and less ex-
pensive rather than finer quarters.
1t might come through determined
lessening of expenses, rather than
an increase in them. 1t might come
if the twins started talking less Of
college and sorority days and more
of jobs. 1t might come if Mary and
the girls all talked honestly to Papa,
dismissed the maid, gave up the
apartment for which they pay $85
rent and planned for a country farm
near the city, at S35. 1t might come
if they gave Papa chance to do
little gardening. to split wood and
chop down trees and putter with a
windmill's machinery.
Helping Dad Out of Gloom.
There is escape for all of us from
difficult conditions, if we will but
open our minds and hearts to find it.
A wife and four daughters, when
the man of the house is the only
bread-winner, shouldn't have a
maid. Larry's family has one, and
often, for part-time, another. Girls
in such family should be busy put
ting up fruit to sell, or taking after
school jobs in rock shops or tea
rooms. A mother like Mary should
be talking of resources, not of con-
slant needs. If she found some
weather-beaten old place outside the
city, painted it with the girls as
sistance, opened lunchroom, took
couple of small children to board,
started bank account of her own,
from which to supply her daughters
the Injuries they want, she might
find the man of the house changed
person.
Worry over family finances will
make the best natured men dis
agreeable" If the family would CO.
operate to help save or earn money,
this moodiness usually disappears.
If a man habitually drinks him.
self into sodden ugliness of mood.
that's an almost hopeless situation.
But this man has no bad habits; he
is soured by being held too tightly
in rut; by feeling that Mary and
the girls merely want all the money
he can make. for pleasures and pur-
chases that mean nothing to him,
and that the kindest thing he could
do for them would be to die and
leave them the big insurance.
Everyone win be happier if Mary
comes down to earth. And the
happiest and serenest of all win be
Papa.