Evening star., 1942-06-16
Better Postpone
Wedding Until
War Is Over
Long Separations
Great Threats
To Marriage

Great Threats
To Marriage
BY Dorothy Dir
Dear Dorothy Dix: I am a young
girl in love with q boy with whom
have been keeping company for a
year. I have been trying to per-
suade him to marry me before he
goes into the Army, but he refuses
and says it will be best to wait until
the war is over. I am scared that ]
will never get married If wait that
long. Do you think I should wait,
or break up with him and LOOK for
some one else? UNDECIDED.
Answer think the boy is exactly
right about waiting until the war is
over to marry, and I only hope he
has enough backbone to refuse to
let you rush him into a hysterical
war wedding. He knows that in
these uncertain times 1t is folly to
take on new responsibilities, and
that he is going to have plenty OF
cares and anxieties to worry over
without adding the troubles Of a
family man to them.
He also realizes, as you do not
that absence puts a great strain
upon the affections of young people
and that it is a dangerous thing for
q boy-husband and girl-wife to be
parted. Both soon tire Of being cut
of from the pleasures and amuse-
ments Of their time of life. They
want to dance and 60 places and dc
things and chum around with other
boys and girls. And If they do that
there is always the chance that they
may forget the absent wife or huS-
band and find some one whom they
like better.
Hence the wise thing is for them
to keep themselves free until the
time comes when they can marry
and lead a normal family life. Be-
ieve me. daughter, you would get
mighty tired sitting up waiting fol
two or three years for your husband
to come back, with no hvelier amuse-
ment than reading an improving
book, or looking for the letters that
perhaps never will come.
Apparently you want to marry
this boy not because you are SC
much In love with him, but because
you are afraid you will be an old
maid. You want to marry just to be
a-marrying, and that is about the
silliest reason on earth for doing it.
Look about you and see how many
Of your girl friends who are married
are better OF than you are with your
Job. Look at Sally whose husband
knocked of work when he got mar
ried and makes her support him.
Look at Janey whose husband drinks
and beats her up when he is in his
cups. Look at Mable who has aged
10 years in the two she has been
married and who looks so dragged
out with the cooking and washing
and ironing and baby-tending she
has to do that she makes you want
to cry over her.
A good husband is Gods best gift
to a woman, but bad husband is
the worst curse the devil can send
her. So don't marry any man who
comes along just to be married
And don't marry any man until you
fine one you love enough to wait
for until he is ready to marry.
Dear Miss Dix: I have an attrac-
tive husband, not in the least firta-
tious, but who seems to have fatal
attraction for adolescent girls. ]
have had to end a friendship be-
cause the 15-year-old daughter Of
two of our friends ccnflscated my
husbands lap. He didn't enjoy
having her draped across his knees
running the creases in his trousers
but there she would be in spite Of
black looks and hints, and the only
way he could get rid of her was to
dump her on the floor. So sent
her home and told her not to come
back until she learned how to be-
have And it made her mother
furious.
What is the matter with mothers
that they don't teach their teen
age girls that mems knees are moi
chairs and that married men are
taboo as far as romantic dreaming
is concerned. WONDERING.
Answer-The mothers excuse /,
that they think whatever their chill
dren do is cute and cunning, anc
that when Mamie and Sadie have 6
crush on a married man that they
are such babies that they dom
realize that what they are doing i:
not only improper and dangerous
but fills the beholders with nausea
One of the mysteries of Nature i.
that mothers refuse to see that theI
children grow up and that a big
long-legged lubberly girl of 13 or Il
is no longer an infant to be hssec
and cuddled and dandled on 8
mans knees but that she is half.
developed woman, with a woman
instincts and passions stirring ir
her and that she should be taught
how to control them and how tt
conduct herself with discretion
There wouldn't be so many brazen
half-naked girls parading around
if their mothers had taught then
good manners and self-restraint
and modesty from their cradle up
instead of waiting until they were
old enough to understand" be-
fore they started on their moral ed
ucation.