Show Dorothy Dix Talks T alk t THE STARTLING DISCOVERY OF THIS AGE IS THAT WE CAN SOLVE OUR PROBLEMS BY COMMON SENSE SENSE INSTEAD INSTEAD I OF BEMOANING OUR FATES WE USE A LITTLE GUMPTION GUMPTION AND AND EVERYBODY'S HAP HAP- HAPPIER HAPPIER PIER ALL AROUND AROUND A A WOMAN WO said uld to me the other day Whatever other criticism may maybe maybe tk be brought against this present era bra It must be given Riven credit for Its Us good hard bard horse sense and tho the practical way ay In which It faces life me Indeed I think It will go BO down In history as z r i the beginning ot of the tho ago age ot of reason We talk about the marvelous discoveries l that have been roads made in this age age of ot lC the tho won won- wonders I ders ot wireless telegraphy and tho radio and the airplane and the phonograph and sending pictures over a wire and so 80 ito But Bat they are arc I- I not half haIC as Important a a. contribution to human I happiness as tho the discovery that we can apply I a little gumption to the solution of ot ur problems I b lems hems and reduce tho the sum sure ot of human misery by Ic half ha If k- k As AI an n example of this take this letter which I have Ju Just t received It ItIs ItIs Is from a girl of 18 who la I. at t col college lege and nd who tells tell me that her wid widowed owed mother Is about to marry again s How Now when I was a girl about that DOROT HY HV Y mx DIX same ume age aDe that very same lime thing hap hap- hapY to me and I had hysterics all allover allOver allover over the place and an Just Jut about bout broke my own and my mothers mother's heart h e art I I 1 CAN CA still remember my Idiotic ravings about my m mother dishonor- dishonor dishonorIng I Ing In my poor dear dead fathers father's memory and about her letting a stranger come between her and her Iter children and about her forgetting her duty toward her children and the nightmare that I conjured up ot of ota oCa ofa a cruel stepfather who would spend his life He torturing the poor little victims who would fall Into his hands Fortunately my mother had enough sense anti and courage not to pay J any attention to my diatribes She went on an an married d a very floe fine l' l gentleman who made her hen very happy and anti was a real father to her chil chil- children dren and of ot j hom we became very fond But there were years of Jealousy and bitterness In which we children suffered and made our mother and our stepfather suffer and that left behind rankling memories that will never be obliterated However that was the attitude that half grown children always took In those thore days toward the remarriage of a father or mother They got all of the misery they could out of the stepfather or stepmother situation COlli r PARE that with tho common sense way children look at the v U matter nutter today This girl who writes me mo that her mother is going to marry expresses her own and her sisters sister's antI and an brothers brother's delight She says that her mother is still young and has many years of life lICe be be- before fore her and that she he needs companionship and nd her own home and her own interacts in fn life lICe We children have practically left home now says this girl We are off oft at school and as soon loon ze G we have graduated from college we will be going about ut our careers or getting married and we dont don't want mother to be lonely so 10 we are very glad that she has found somebody who will be a congenial companion to her We like Mr A very much and feel sure that we will be the best of friends And that's that No buckets of tears tearl No tragedy stuff Children want to lead their own lives and are willing to grant mother the same ume privilege Children realize that they will be bs freer and mother will be happier If It she marries marries' again so bless bien you mother dear and happy and satisfied and tho the episode closed THEN THEN look at the way people used to meet trouble and tho the way vay they 1 I meet it now When did you ever see ace a woman swathed from fromI I head to foot toot In mourning and with a crepe veil ell that weighed a ton over o her head and coming down to her feet When did you ever have havea a lady come and spend the day weeping Into a bordered black handkerchief over some misfortune that happened to her twenty years ears ago Yet a generation back these things were common People made a cult of grief and all allot ot us knew women who took pride in the fact that they had never gotten over ove the death of some lome someone someone one they loved They were morbid ghouls who spent their lives digging In the graves of their dead GOD trOD rOD knows we e have the same sam tear our hearts now as have torn U hearts since the beginning of ot the tho world But when our dar dar- darlings darlings lings linga are snatched from our arms we realize that our tears and our lamentations cannot bring them back to us and so we bury our sor sort sorrows sorrows rows and try try- to console ourselves so BO that at we may do our duty to the living Instead of sitting Idly brooding g we set let ourselves fUNo ly Iy to work so we may not have time to think Instead of f keep keep- keepIng keepIng Ing our houses shut up and dark we flood them with light and sunshine Instead of indulging In l unavailing grief we travel If we can afford and it-and It it and go to 10 places where fresh and startling scenes give us new Interest In life And so we heal over the tha surface at least of the wound that fate has dealt us AND CAND AND consider the difference between being poor now and being poor n ii in the past Think how we used to pity a poor girl and well we e might when all she abc could do was to sit at home and envy those better off ort than herself herselt It wasn't want respectable for her to work ork and earn money monel and all she site could do was to cat eat her heart out In bitterness or marry anything in the tho shape of a man that came along But Dut the poor girl now In this commonsense age which teaches that If It you want a thing to go out and get It gets ge s her hera a Job and arid buys all the pretty clothes she wants And as she works among men she has twice as many dates and ten times the chances to make a good marriage as the rich girl has AND RAND ND look hook how common sense is solving tho problem that has caused ii more misery and than anything else In the world that of ot uncongenial people being forced to live together Now among enlightened people they simply dont don't do it It Mothers are getting enough sense not to try to live and fight with their In Even children and parents are not al always al ai- ways harmonious and supporting self daughters are setting up their own establishments when they find that they cant can't stand mothers mother's nagging and bossing any more HIT lilT JT USED to be that people who ho stood In a n certain relationship toward 1 I each other felt that they had to live hive together no matter how much they hated each other but now they go their separate ways and discover that there is nothing like distance to promote family affection Yes my dear this Is the age of reason and the most won won- wonderful wonderful thing In Is U it the discovery that you can solve almost any problem by the use of a little gumption So efficacious Is this that I am hoping that some time we will use a little common commonsense commonsense commonsense sense In dealing with the great mystery of how to make mar mar- marriage marrage age r a success DOROTHY DIX Copyright by Public Ledger |