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Show Dorothy Dix Talks I THE MOTHER LOVE THAT CURSES A rich woman has1 just been convicted con-victed of having asslstsd bsr two sons In evading the draft during the war. She pleads In extenuation or her crime thit h loved her children so well thai she could not bear the thought of their having lo undergo thS hardships hard-ships of a soldier's life, and risk tlo dungcr of being killed fighting to dl -lend their OOUnlTJ A great many other motheff are going to make this same excuse when I'm stand before the judgment bur, and uro called upon to render an account ac-count of their stewardship of their children, and why. oui of the fine material that yai P'U Into their hand-. they turiU'd out men and women who were thieves, and gluttons, and parasites para-sites and loafers. The mothers will tint tluy sinned through love, thai their tender-ucs tender-ucs was so great that It made them j weak that they could not boar to make their children do anything thev did noi want to do. or deny them uny-thltiK uny-thltiK that they wantsd lo do, and so thev fostered every evil Impluse in their offspring, and let them plunge unchecked down the road to ruin Thlf Is a moMt familiar t) pe of mother lo us all. A doctor uh telling me about such a one the other dgy. lie said that she had .. dsSPerSttel) Bipk child whose life depended upon its conforming absolutely to the treat-men: treat-men: it. was giving it but the child refused to tal;e the medicine because It wan bitter It fietted and trU-l continually because It bad to be kept In a r.rtn n position, and the mother let II move at will. . but I can't mul. Johnnie do any -thing he do. 3n't want to do," said the mother. "I'VO alv. ...: loVSd him SO I couldn't bear to cross him. Then," Sald the doctor, 'you have killed him. because 1 can do nothing for him Ills life depends upon his obedience, and you have, never taught him to obey." nd the child died a young girl of my acquaintance married a splendid young man. a ynm.g man full of talent and ambition, mul one whO is going far in the world liut the girl had ncver been taught self-control, or to think of uuyons except ex-cept herself, ntid her mad extravagance, extrava-gance, her love of guioix. hoi .ravine for the admiration of other men. soon wrecked (he marriage, and brought her Into the divorce court. I know Maiy is to blame," jdmlt-ted jdmlt-ted h. r mother) but she is my only child, and I have loved her to. that I have lei her do exactly as she wunt-ed wunt-ed to all her life, and she's never even thought of denying h.rself anything any-thing she wanted " And the curious thing about those mothers i- that they account It unto themselves for righteousness that th-v love their children so much that they do not correct their faults, or teach them any self -control. IriMead of realizing real-izing that thev are the greatest sln- ners on earth, und' are RcccHory to j nine-tenths of the crimes and misery In the world. BVr Into the mother - hands are given the plastic souls of her chll- I dren. she it Is who iorm and fash I lona them, and turna them Into the I kind of men or women who Ideas or I curse the world. I There is no woman so dull that she doss i-ot kno.v th.. and thai le;o.- I had practcall seiticd hu t.Ac and, tOWlng this, how any mother can loyt her child iiie enough not to at bast try to safeguard its futcr-j, I something that pauses all tfomprehen- 6. on. I a womanTtnows, f.r Instance, that temper probduly wrecks more lles timn any other one cause- It Is un- bridle.! temper thai makes men lay in anger, it is uncontrolled temper that H .."I. thous ind men and women ol ability failures, ThSj vaniot get along With their fel- low woikrnen. ..i Hi- t--' offense H and chuck up their Jobs il the erj moment of u. . ess It Is i. n.iu r th..' . reeki and lends ordanl men aiid woiuc'i to the divorce court i ( i uulead of conquering their elnl- dren a tempers, ana tsncnlng' them elf-, ontrol ill-' great majority of mothers hum.-, thsm in their tan- Hums. Thy haven't the nerve to stand behind the child and force It lo fight Its p&rtleulaf devil and gui the best of It. H And If the bod Ifl mdob nt and las mother lovea it' too well to hold ait H iron hiiml on it. au.l fo.ci li lo work ii forms the habll H of industry. Vet mother knows where H loafers end. All about her she can H s-e the veedy, shabby m-n and wo-men wo-men who weie born loo tired to work, and who have drifted through ibe world sponging a living on others H She knows In what COntSmpI thev aid hald. and yel she lets the maudlin emotion she calls ' mother love" doom H her own child to that fate "J hud to work when was a rhlli s . i dsterml I inj i hildren Bhould I I : 1 1 1 , g to do p 1 a JW I had very lien 1 W was a child, so I made ui mj mind W thai my ohUdren should hav every m thing ihe wanl ' was I i i f never subjscted my children to any I I A These are things that von hear wo- M men continually sa . ,.nd "ii wonder I thai they have not Int. llig. nOS enough I lo see that everything they are, they I were made by the very training they 1 got In ihelr youth. I For we develop strength of char- M acter Just as we do bodily strength by exorcise. It Is fighting hardships that 1 makes us strong not weakly succumb- ' Ing to every temptation. Therefore, r.j try to protect hlldren against every difficulty Is a -rime against them, and to try to remove every thorn out J of their path is to set their feel on vBJ the road that ISsrtfl to perdition jX That is what weak mother love does. an.) there l n.. ij.fort line that can happen to a child to.ua I to having a slacker mothei Who teaches him or her to be a slacker. fg |