| Show I I Dorothy othy Dix s 's 8 Letter Box I ITHE THE PROUD BOAST OF YOUTH THAT IT HAS THE RIGHT TO LIVE AS IT PLEASES FALLS THROUGH IN THE FACE OF EXPERIENCE EXPERIENCE ALL ALL WE CAN HOPE FOR IS TO BRING BRINe OTHERS AS LITTLE PAIN AND AS MUCH PLEASURE AS POSSIBLE THERE is II nothing upon which the tho young oung arc are BO so Insistent as upon their 1 I right rl ht to live their own lives hives In their own way Seek to control or even to offer advice or warning to any girl or boy the and retort Is hurled burled back at you Its as my own life lire I have hava havea a right to live IIvo It as I please Which Is a fine resounding phrase a regu regu- regular regular lar Fourth of ot July emancipation ot of freedom from the shackles that bind and confine S 'S The only trouble with It U is that It ItU ItIs rn Is U a theory that cannot be translated i- i tS Into fact No one lives to himself Our lives all Interlock and alone no noone noone one may do with his life what he pleases because what he does doea affects his family his friends his neighbors neigh bora s society In general S 5 THE other day I heard beard a mother pleading with THE 1 I her frail and delicate daughter to take bet bet- better better betten ter ten care of ot her health DOROTHY DIX Oh for heavens heaven's sake let mo me alone cried the girl Irritably you are arl always alwa's nagging at atm atme atau m au me about dancing too much and staying up too late lato and eating too much candy and not sleeping enough and I am tired to death leath ot of It all Its It's my body and Ive I've got the right to do what hat I please with it and If It I male make myself sick I J am the one who has to suffer Burrer I t have to endure the palo pain True replied the tho mother and If you suffered alono alone you yon perhaps have hue the right to wreck your health If It you chose but the dif dlf difficulty is ia that you cant can't suffer alone You involve so many other people in your our catastrophe When you are sick I pay for It In anguish and anxiety of soul and In weariness during the long hours In which I watch by your bedside Your father pays for It by having to work harder to pay hospital bills and nurses' nurses bills and sani sani- sanitarium I bills t l- I THE fHE lITHE other children pay for ton It In being denied some treat they might 1 I have had if the money had not gone for one your spells And they pay for tor It In the depressed atmosphere of ot the home for sickness is not a cheerful thing to have in inthe the house Some Som day you will marry and your husband will have to suffer uffer for getting a II nervous neurotic woman for a wife Instead of a strong trong and healthy one and your children will have to suf suf- suffer ter fer In their poor sickly little bodies for being brought Into the world by a a mother who had abused her own body Oh no my dear you wont won't be the one who will suffer most mott It If you dont don't take care of your health and you haven't any right In the world to make yourself a semi Invalid If you can possibly avoid doing so AS A I LISTENED to this mother I thought ot of another mother I once 1 heard hurd entreating her daughter not to marry a a. man who was a dis dis- dissipated dissipated us- us neer ne'er Perhaps I am throwing my life away as you ou say sa the tho th girl said but its it's my own life my own happiness that I am risking and I have havo havethe havethe the right to take the chance It if I want to l lm ii the one who haw hau ha to lie He Heon on the bed I make And so she so-she she married her man and nd the mothers mother's heart broke as II she saw her beautiful and gay young daughter grow old and haggard before her time as she was dragged down Into the gut gutter gutter ter by her drunken husband I AND AND at last when the tho girl could stand no longer oner the abuse and neg neg- neglect neglect It lect leet and unfaithfulness of ot the she sho had married she came crawling back to mother broken in health he and spirit sprit and with three thre little children hanging to her shabby shirts The mother had a small Income scraped together for tor tier ter old 01 1 ago age aoby by years and years of self denial and pinching economies It would save Te supported her alone In modest comfort But with three little children to rear and educate It meant that poor peer old grandmother had to work her stiff old fingers to the bone cooking and washing and for these young young- youngsters st tera rs whose whole support her daughter has foisted on her She had to do without all the little littie comforts that soften the rigors ors of age because children have so many necessities W- W ONLY Y in reality the girls who in the passion of ot make such 1 Ill advised marriages could bear alone tho the results of their own sails mis mistakes takes they might have tho right they claim to disregard their parents' parents counsel coun lin In the matter ai al ai marry whom they please But It Is II the parents who have to suffer with them In their unhappIness It Is to poor old father and mother that they thy come corne home with their children after the divorce And it Is fa father fa- fa father J ther and mother who In their old age have to start rearing r another family and spending their pittance supporting poor pOOl Marys Mary's children THEN THEN HEN theres there's the case of the Mr X was a fine business man Al Al- Always T 1 ways made a lot Jot of ot money but he was a spender and a waster No matter how much he earned ho threw it all away Friends used to re reo remonstrate with him and urge him to save sa up something for a rainy lf d d n Not me cried Mr Ir X Its my money mone mone I make It and Ive I've got sot a aright aright aright right to blow It in if it I want to And he did But evil times came lie He fell felt sick and lost his Job Everything went and for years and years now Mr and Mr Mrs X have been living on the charity of their friends char friends char charity ity It which Is I. given grudgingly because every everyone one feels that it itIs It Is dishonest for a man to spend his own money in riotous liv liv- living livIng ing hag and when that I. I gone to expect to be supported by people who have hIve acquired their competence by self SO eo THE proud boast of ot youth that it has the right to live livo Its own lifo I. I falls faUs through in the face tace ot of experience The most mot that we can hope to do is to live our lives so that they will bring as u much pleasure and as little pain to others as Is II possible DOROTHY DIX Copyright by Public Ledger er 10 |
