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Show ! BoroihjmTims II The World's Highest Paid Woman Writer If! L222L Ij 2 Once upon a lime I was invited to I help celebrate the fourth birthday of I I an idolized only child. Said a doting ! 4 aunt to the little one: j "My darling, this Is your birthday . f and I want you to be perfectly happy, ' '1 s you may have anything, or do any- i L thing, you wish, no matter th&t it is. What do you -want most?" M The little girl thought a long time t$Mt tnen shQ replied: $ "I'd rather walk around tho block I W without anybody holding my hand than iH anything else In the whole world." im Thero spoke the poor little prisoner ' ' love. Not a moment of her life but ,7H soroo watchful eye had been spying upon her. Not a movement had she In made that had not been directed. Nev- JB er once had she been permitted to la stand alone, or go out alone, and, baby Hi as she was .'she resented it. Baby ns she was, she felt hor fottors. Young as she was, something in her soul cried out that freedom is tho most precious gift in the world, and that no amount of affection on the part of one"'s Jailers, 1 no gilding of the bnrs can ever make a prison anything but a prison. The mistake that these parents made Hl is a very common one among fathers and mothers. They make prisoners of tovo oc their children. They bind and fetter their children's hands and feet with their affection until the children either sink into hopeless and supine lifo termers, or else they break bru-tally bru-tally away from their Jailors and their jail and flee from them to tho utter-1 utter-1 most parts of the earth. Hl And in either case, they break their 1 parents' hearts, and they wonder why it is thai Johhny and Mary have never had any more ambition nnd Initiative, t and have never-amounted to much, or ( how Johnny and Mary could have been cruel enough , to go away and leave them, even if they have made such n sun"y in South Africa and New 'r- Anl they never dream that their over-love, which kept them from giving their children a particle of liberty, lib-erty, furnishes the answer to both questions. There is no tragedy in life greater than the Inability of parents to realize that their children grow up and this is responsible for the breaking up of so many homes. Until Mary is 50' vears old mother thinks of her as a tod'dling infant whoso hand she must hold as she walks around tho block. Until John is gray headed' and stoop-shouldered father considers him a witless babe whose every move he must direct That is why sons arc not willing to go into business with their fathers. Father will never grant them any authority, au-thority, or have any respect for their judgment, or think that they have a right to anything but a little pocket money as their part of the profits of an undertaking. As long as Mary stays at homo, mother tells her how to make a cake every time she attempts one, though Mary may be the queen cake maker of tho village, and mother selects her clothes and tells er when to go to bed and what 13 good for hor digestion and, generally, -when to get off and on. Of course fatners and mothers keep their children prisoners through love They know that tncre aro dangers beyond be-yond the prison walls, and that their young ones are " safe within. They know that the road of life Is rough and full of pitfalls, and they cannot bear that the little feet should stumble, and the little body be bruised by falls, and so they hold meir children's hands in theirs and will not let go. What they forget is Hint we only learn by experience. We only get strength by exertion. Wo only develop de-velop our judgment by using it. It is only by falling arid geumg hurt a child learns to walk, carefully. Jt is only ijy standing alone that it learns to "take care of itself. It is only by making mistakes that It acquires wisdom. wis-dom. Bet.cr a thousand tir-cs to take the knocks and bruises of life, to be scarred scar-red with tnem from head to foot, inan to have been kept in cotton wool, protected pro-tected from every rough wind that blows, doomed to perpetual babyhood by the over-love of foolish parents. It is a luckier and a happier fate to be a ragged newsboy, running the streets and living by his wits, than to be a rich boy, led by the hand by adoring parents and never permitted to cross tho avenue alone for fear of getting run over by a milk cart And the poor boy has a better chance in life of success. suc-cess. Think of how few of the rich men's sons you have known who have been equal to carrying on their father's business. busi-ness. They . Had been the prisoners of love so long, that when their jailer died they were like those captives in tho Bastile who sat still la their cells after the doors wero flung open, knowing know-ing not what move to make, bewildered with a liberty Ihey did not know how to use. And among the most pathetic prisoners prison-ers of love are those victims to their hearts and their consciences, who nave let their parents shut opportunity away from them on the other side of the wall. Mary had a most desirable offer of-fer of marriage, but mother wept and begged her not to leave her and father, fath-er, and Mary was too devoted a daughter daugh-ter to buy her own happiness by making mak-ing her parents unhappy, so she said goodbye to love, and doomed herself to a lonely and purposeless old maidenhood. maiden-hood. Tom had a splendid opportunity to go into business but father couldn't run the farm or the village store without with-out him so he stayed on, and Is drudging drudg-ing out his life for a pittance, and nobody no-body even pins a good conduct medal or. Tom's breast, for father is so happy to have Tom always bound to him, F ..-m. he doesn't realize Tom isn't equal- ly hilarious about being bound. For, '( after all, there is a difference between I being jailer and prisoner. f Perhaps we are all prisonors of love, for the silkon cords of affection bind ub more securely than could iron bands. But, oh. dear and beloved jailers, jail-ers, be merciful to us, and some time set the prison door ajar a little so that we can sec out to freedom. Let us sometimes walk around tne block' -without holding our hands. nn |