Show I J l TOO MUCH FAMILY Copyright 1922 by the Wheeler Syndicate Inc A doctor who is a famous nerve specialist said to me the tho other day It is Do you U know OW the prescription on that I give oftener than an any other sen fi fian an over overdose separation of at I have found Tout out that what ails most Peoples People's nerves ls ie is family and tram from it if I can just get Bet m my Patients to break away their husbands and Wives Wives' and children and mothers and fathers ai and tho their sisters ut v themselves and their cousins and ad their aunts themselves they get well wen of at the the main good of sanatoriums They give pe people a respite from their near neal relatives and makes the separation diplomatically diplomatically dip dip- without hurting anybody's feelings FAMILY JAR JARS The ordinary layman has no conception conception concep concep- tion of how the people with whom we live wear upon us us and react upon us but we doctors know We Va know that nearly every case of ot nervous tion means a fretting wife or a nagging husband or a a. meddling mother or a cantankerous can can- tank rous mother in People lay their breakdowns to overwork when it Is really only an overdose of family We e can stand a lot of outside work and worry If things are happy and peaceful at home Its It's the inside Job that gets us and that steals from us health and spirit Very often domesticity Is is' like Samson In the Bible It slays Its thousands with i the jaw bone of an ass I have scores of patients who are simply talked to death by their families and who only need to get of off by themselves and away from fromI I the perpetual family monologue to get well NAGGING KILLS Nagging has killed more people than all of the seven deadly plagues combined com com- and It Is perfectly useless to try to stop nagging g at t the source r because in inthe eS the first pace place rc t the nagger g never admits li to nagging and in the second place nagging nagging nagging nag nag- ging is s generally inspired by over lovu loto and over anxiety and so the nagger ac accounts accounts accounts ac- ac counts her nagging to herself for righteousness righteousness right right- Instead of recognizing it as the greatest fault a human being can have It is love and not hate that causes a woman to make her husbands husband's and children's childrens childrens children's chil chil- drens dren's lives a burden to them by her perpetual perpetual perpetual per per- Dons Dans get your jour feet wet or you will take cold Have you jou ou got on your rubbers Did you jou OU tie up your our throat Do put on a heavier coat Dont wear those thin slippers Dont eat that It is bad for tor your our stomach Dont sit up reading readIng readIng read- read Ing Dont go to that party tonight Its It's too cold or too dry or too wet Day In and day out such a womans woman's family lives to an accompaniment of these perpetual reminders that everything every every- thing they want to do Is bad bad- for tor them and this never-ending never Interference with their personal lIbert liberty She never dreams that she Is Js hacking away at their bodily I and mental fiber tiber and that sooner or later will give away At last her deadly work worie done she comes mad with fear dragging her poor victim along With Ith her to the doctor and we haven't got the courage to say to her 1 Madam you have Just about murdered this poor unfortunate and the only thing that will cure him or her isto Is 13 Isto to be free freo of you OU for the time being at least IN IN DECLINE The other day four solemn serious I looking women dressed in black brought a pale frail young girl to my my- office They said that nothing In n particular seemed the I matter with the girl but she appeared to be going Into a a. decline Had Bad no ap- ap i petite slept badly no energy or Interest in anything thing A few questions brought out the fact that these women were the tho girls girl's grandmother and mother and two old maid aunts who lived In the house with her and who adored her and who had never let her do a thing for herself on an Impulse of her own I 1 told them that I would not undertake undertake under under- take the the- case unless the girl was voAs sent away from home alone They were hor her rifled I told them that she would die If It she sho stayed at home and that what was the matter with her was that they were were sucking her youth and her very S blood from her They were vampires At last J Ji they consented n t to let t the e girl l go i and i in three months s she h g got w well a and blooming Did you jou ever notice how often widows widow and widowers seem to bloom out as soon as they lose ea the h partners 3 of die their lb bosoms Let a womans woman's husband die and by the tho time she lifts her veil she looks as If It she sho had bathed In the mountain of perpetual youth Let a t mans man's wile wife die and he ho spruces up The man who has been hump- hump shouldered straightens himself up he who has shuffled along long dragging his fe feet t steps out like a bo boy FREEDOM ARRIVES Nat Nature re has administered her great anodyne separation They are free to todo todo todo do as they please for the first time ten or twenty years ears They no longer live lI In dread of domestic brutalities 0 of finding fault-finding and abuse They no longer have to steel themselves to endure endue the nagger on the hearth and they suddenly find themselves well and strong again after years of dragging ill health be because because because be- be cause health and happiness walk hand in hand The real value of a vacation Is that it gets people out of their daily dally rut and so I always advise married people to take their hOlidays separately If It they can even when they are happily ma mar mar- I dont don't l know now anything that would do more physically mentally and morally morally morally mor mor- ally for the tho world than for family life Ufa to be run on half time It would do du awa away with divorce and knock us nerva nerve specialists out of tenths nine of our in in- in comes Tho The conventional view is that ol cant can't overdo family life and that th the proper thing is for p people to live with their husbands and wives wives and mothers and brothers and sisters no matter how much they get on each others other's nerves The time will come when we wa will wUl have have- Intelligence enough to save our health our tempers our nerves and happiness by taking the society of our nearest r t re relatives In n broken doses |