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Show By DOROTHY DIX THE FAMILY PARASITE f Copyright, 1M1, by ths Wheeler Syndicate, Inc.) Perhaps ther la no other question In the world that la harder to settle than Just how mSeh help the members of the family have a right to demand of us, and the problem beeomee Insoluble when It la a matter of deciding how fax the wife la entitled to sacrifice her husband to her own people. as a generai wing, men nave a healthy selfishness that makes them look out for themselves, and leave others oth-ers to shift for themselves, though occasionally oc-casionally you find one with an ingrowing in-growing conscience who Is the patient ass on whim are packed all the family burdens. We all know old bachelors who have never married becaune their you t h was spent In tolling tn anpport their younger brothers and sisters, and whose pocket books are still regarded as a family till Into which everyone haa a perfect right to dip their hands. CALL FOR HELP. We also know men who can never resist re-sist an appeal for assistance from their brothers and sisters, and who help them at the expense of their own wives and children. Sometimes you will see a thrifty, industrious woman working herself to death to save up the money that her husband lavishes upon an extravagant ex-travagant aister, or a ne'er-do-well s brother. Blood ties are not. however, apt to be so strong with men ss they are with women. It Is women who are still bound, hand sndfoot. tolhs .family from which they sprung, even after th yhave families of their own. A woman's sens of loyalty is hardly ever as great to her husband as It Is to her own people, and for this reason a woman offers up her husband as the sacrificial gnat on the family altar far more often than a man does hia wife. There are not many men mean enough to take away from their wive th money that they have saved up to buy a new dress, or a coveted bit of furniture, or to pay for a much needed vacation, and give it to their own kindred. kin-dred. There are not man" men Inconsiderate Incon-siderate enough of their wives comfort com-fort to keep their own houses so filled with their own kinspeople that there Is neither peace nor quiet In It, nor even a place to sleep except upon a bumpy makedown bed In the living room, or an adamantine counch constructed con-structed on the dining table. WOMEN DO. "i women ao tries things continually. contin-ually. Ther ars thousands upon thousands thou-sands of men who literally spend - ':tir lives, fro mthe day of their mnrrlaxe to th hour of their death, tolling for their wives' family. There are thousands thou-sands upon thousands of men who never have, any rhance to get a..ead. and who are kept poor by their t nis' giving away everything they earn to their own people. And there are millions of men S'ho never know what It is to have 'cir houses to themselves, and who are literally lit-erally eaten out of house and homo by their wives' relatives. - Whether the call of the family Is louder to a woman than the call of her mat, nobody knows; but when mother writes that she need a new set of teeth, and that Bob Is so shabby and must have a new suit of clothes, I and a new pair of shoes, and he hasn't I the money for them because he hasn't had a Job for six months, and Sally j writes that her little Johnny ha to wf1 hav his adenoids taken out and they ' S haven't th wherewithal to pay th. doctor, th woman who gets the letter let-ter robs her husband of th money to pay for her family's needs, although she knows that he can ill spare it. and it means harder work and deprivation to him. victim sTofwives; And when Jennie writes that sne would like to come and spend the winter win-ter and take music lessons, Jennie's aunt Installs her In the best room, and dooms her poor nerve-racked husband to months of torment while his tortured tor-tured ears are assailed by all manner of discords. ' 1 Chief among th saints and martyrs. I are th men who are the victims rf I their wives' families. Great are their ' I sunenngs here below, and great shall be their reward hereafter, but what right have wome nto thrust the mur-, tyr"a crown on the men they marry? What right have either men or women to sacrifice the one they marry to anybody else? None. Moreover, It Isn't playing the game, for if any man should say to a women, before marriage, that she could have what was left over after he got through providing for his trifling relations, rela-tions, ther would be .nothing doing in the matrimonial line ther. Nor wou'd any man lead a maiden to the altar if he knew that whs nhe married her lie waa als oespouslng her father, snd was also espousing r fsther, and brothers-in-law, and sisters-in-law, and uncles, and aunts, and nieces, and nephews, and an invisible bread line that stretched out to her remotest rel- "IE J jnv reui remson mat lamines ar so s i anxious to hav their girls marry ' .4 money, la because they know they can all sponge on Mary. Hhe Is always good for s touch. It's always daughter daugh-ter and sister that the family hold up when they want funds. It's his wife's mother, and father, and widowed slater, sla-ter, that a man supports nine times out ot ten. Not his own. His sister's sis-ter's husband Is taking ear ot incm. BLOOD TIES. Of course, there are family obligations. obliga-tions. Th blood tie does give certain claims that we are all obllked to honor, but her can be no doubt tlmt we make too much of them, and that w encourage parasitism In our families. All of us hav relatives who. when the yhave money, blow It In Ilk drunken drunk-en sailors. They count he cost of nothing and indulge themselves In In wildest extravagance. They would net do thla, but would save their money, if they did not know that they had some relative ho was an easy mark, and who would not let them suffer, when their money was gone. All of us hav lasv. shiftless, ne'er-do-well relatives rela-tives whom we support because they will not work. All of us sr called upon to pay the doctor's bills of those . whos pride will not let them go to a public hospital, but permits them to beg from us. . Thee family parasite should b ' lopped off snd mads to stand alan. W edo there th greatest harm that on human being can do another when w encourage them In becoming - dependents. depend-ents. And this view Is especially com-mended com-mended to women. |