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Show Kathleen Norris Says: The Wayward Daughter Bell Syndicate. WNU Features. 77ie giVZ ;Ao survived in a party of five sat in the dark with her dead chum in her arms, wailing for dawn and help to come. By KATHLEEN NORRIS FIRST, keep your young sons and daughters away from dangerous amusements amuse-ments and associations; and Second, provide them with occupations and entertainment entertain-ment enough to prevent their wanting to enjoy forbidden things. This sounds simple. But it is actually the great and terrible ter-rible problem of parenthood in these days. If it could be solved we should hear less of juvenile delinquency and youthful immorality than we do. It has always been a problem. prob-lem. But it is more than ever one now, with war confusions, war changes, war irresponsibility upsetting upset-ting every town and city and village vil-lage and social group in the entire nation. Even when children have a good devoted father and mother, a good home, church influences, proper schooling, they sometimes break away. The forces of independence and rebellion are too strong. , They take chances with their eyes open; they want to take chances. This story is of a girl who took chances and had her fun and wasn't to be run by any old-fashioned rules of decency or decorum. Her predicament predica-ment isn't a typical one; its very unusualness makes it interesting. Daughter Got Out of Control. Sylvia was about 16 when she began be-gan to worry her father and mother out of their senses. They are quiet people; they didn't feel equal to entertaining en-tertaining systematically for Sylvia, seeing that she got to know a comfortable com-fortable little group of friends, keeping keep-ing her safely busy with her own group. When they awakened to what was going on it was too late, by that time Sylvia was running with a dangerous crowd, and not to be controlled. She was drinking and smoking too much, she was out late nights, asleep half the morning; she was never quite a sane, clean, sobor girl, always sleepy or hysterical or intoxicated, always dashing from one date to another, or rolled in blankets sound asleep. Some time ago she announced that she was married. To whom? Well, to a man her parents didn't know. Violet and Bill had dared her into it; it was sort of a "joke." They'd all been drinking. This was about four years ago. After a few weeks of marriage, Sylvia and her husband quarreled; he enlisted in the army, disappeared from the scene, and Sylvia returned to her night-club life, more independent inde-pendent than ever. She has regularly regular-ly received money from Leo. About two years ago Sylvia met a fine man, whose friendship and admiration had upon her the immediate imme-diate effect of developing the fiv.er side of her character. Everything her father and mother ever had hoped for her was realized; she seemed at last to grow up. She vrote at once to Leo asking 'or a divorce, but there was no answer, and when Paul was sent to a defense de-fense plant in another city Sylvia went with him as his wife. A beautiful beau-tiful girl was born to them, now a fascinating little creature. Last month, Leo came home, lamed but not disqualified for any work. But while agreeing to divorce Sylvia, he claims the child, Maureen, as his, born while Sylvia was legally his wife. First Husband Demands Child. This has staggered Paul and Sylvia. Syl-via. They adore their child. They shudder at the idea of handing her over to Leo, who professes no affection af-fection for her, naturally resenting her very existence. He is perfectly willing that Sylvia shall return to him as his wife, but otherwise he will take Maureen to his sister, who has two older children. Sylvia, at 25, writes me that an overdose of sleeping pills will be her way 'out if Leo insists, and I don't know what to advise. Not every girl who is going the night-club route will find herself in such a predicament, but hundreds of them have gotten into different sorts of trouble, causing their families fami-lies infinite anxiety and distress, and sometimes getting into the hands of authorities and finding themselves trying tearfully to explain in court just how it all came about. One case here some years ago was of returning merrymakers whose intoxicated in-toxicated young driver sent the car over a bank. The one girl who survived, sur-vived, in a party of five, sat for three hours in the dark with her dead chum in her arms, waiting for dawn and help to come. Another case, quoted in this column col-umn before, was that of the mother who was trying to tell a bandaged , 17-year-old, in a hospital, that she the young daughter, victim of a drunk-driver accident would always be blind. Last week's case was of the social-register beauty who was cut about the eyes with a broken plate in a night club, when she got between two quarrelsome boys. They have saved her sight; she will see. But when she looks in the mirror, she won't like what she sees. But even these young tragedies don't seem to me as sad as the mental and moral scars that these reckless youngsters carry all their lives. Girls who really want to become be-come fine women some day, to be cultured and admired human beings, be-ings, are busy in the precious years between 15 and 25, coarsening and destroying everything they hope to save. Debauchery Leaves Scars. No girl, no matter how smart she is, can touch that sort of pitch and not be defiled. To lounge in smoke-filled, smoke-filled, liquor-scented places, night after night, laughing vacuously, dancing and drinking herself into disorder and incoherence, to keep bad hours, to waste money she doej not earn, to listen to vulgar talk and indecent jokes all this is poor preparation prep-aration for a responsible, respectable respect-able life to follow. It must be evident evi-dent even to the most self-willed girl that these things leave their mark. They are not to be picked up for a while and then dropped again, permitting per-mitting her to transform herself overnight from a rowdy into a gentlewoman. gen-tlewoman. Fine women instantly perceive the difference. Sylvia may have her fun now, for a few years, but she pays for it all her life. Over and over again, considering some entertainment, entertain-ment, some distinction, some club honor or social event, the men and women in charge of arrangements find themselves faced wuh the difficult dif-ficult problem of coarsepersonalities. |