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Show I Dorothy Dix Talks j UTHE INSANITY OF MOTHERHOOD. K By LOl;'-' n I i DIX, the World s Highesl Paid Woman Writer j j i . novel and unique defem s was re-1 re-1 Icentby ou'ered in ;i murd- . iri.il in 1 - 0 half of a woman who killed hi di- 1 BSrced husband because he n-fus '1 to " isumnuer their lu I-- ;., ' In r Her lawyers claimed the just: flea i kion of her ar; at me i.; k- she " - i n -ir.i.ic! .! crime she w ; s th .diui i of i" in 'in ia Materna, iB Dementia Materna.' Crazy mother nlov Mother iov- that has no reason I Eo logic, no j-mt-jv . n -. no ..ppi-cia ! Bon of consequence, Lunatic mother Bovc that m. k'S ;i w. man . i. j Bit do not ::.-: an--'. rndei h lh Etble of disiinuuiMi.ng between fact land fane.. Dementia Materna." Why, It's the commoner complaint in ih Nine tf-n.h- ul th- wi.nnn who have IthliiJren en af icted with il I Q(l If Btny alien 1m cmUI l.- lound villi skill SB enough to uiini-ter to a mind di Cflfi Vrilh per1, erted maternal allcrrjnn. and Hors a v oman to such a degrer- ni Bnnit thai she would be able to re-ward re-ward her children from a normal stand ppoini ':. ..U' I ! ' greatest bene-MJ bene-MJ factor of the human race. JE h is th'.i in.-. me nujLlit i love thai rtakf? nn . r 1 1 , 1 1 1 1 ul cause ami effect, jEbt flouts the Biblical dictum of Jyou sow. so shall 'D'i reap;" that re-'fuses re-'fuses to protit by the experience of I Hfhers, thai shuts its eye to the warn- I ings that it sees right before it, that' I stupidly and blindl believes that j I some miracle is going to nave It from (the effects of its own folly and weak 1 j ness that is at the bottom of almost all of the sin. and misery, and failure In the world I . One of the mysteries of the universe I has been the curious way that motherhood mother-hood affects women Often it seems to rob them not only of every vestige I of intelligence, but of all sense, honor, and honesty, and common decency. It lis as It their children . eliminated alL the finer attributes of their charac-i charac-i ter. These are hard words, but look ' about you for their confirmation. Do : you know two women who control their children, and who are bringing! ihrm up to have any regard icr the rights of other people, or any respect I for personal property, or io be anything any-thing but selfish little brutes, who are; determined to get whatever they want; at any cost to others? There's Sally who would be incapable incapa-ble of destroying your property herself, her-self, but she can't see Why you ar? not willing for her children to draw pic- turea with a pin on you; best mahogany, mahog-any, and make cute prints with the nails on their heels on the doors of your automobile There is Jenn. who vibrates with sympathy for all Buffer ing; but who considers the sick woman next door a crank because she com plains about the noise darling little Freddie makes when he rings tha dinner din-ner bell by the hour when he is playing play-ing choo choo cars. It is this mother craziness that accounts ac-counts for so many other mad things that women do, too There is the matter mat-ter of self control, for instance. If you should talk io any woman In full possession pos-session of her faculties, she would agree with you that the most important impor-tant thing that any mother could do would be to bring up her children to be masters of their own souls She would agree with vou in Hie hypothesis that the boy is taught to , i ep an iron hand on his temper Will never commit murder: that the boy who learns in his childhood to curb his appetite will never become a drunkard, drunk-ard, that the boy who forms the habit of industry in his early youth will never be an idler, or a loafer or a pauper She will agree with you that the ::irl who learns to control her tongue will be a blesinc; mstrad of a curse to the man who marries her: that the girl who was taucht to follow the right instead of the impulse of the moment will never be one of those for whom a police call is sent out All thesp things the woman knows abstractly, bqt Dementia Materna has so addled hr poor brain that she does not e en attempt to apply her knowl ledge to her own children. She lets lo r lohnnie and SusU rage and howl unrabuked. She lets them make themselves them-selves sick gorpinc on candy. She en-courag en-courag 3 them In being slackera she breeds selfishness in them by sacrificing sacri-ficing herself to their whims. She j weakens their strength by saving :bem I from every hardship She does everything on earth that is possible to unfit them for the batilej n( life that she knows they are bound to licht. She bends and breaks the) weapon on which 'heir salvation depends, de-pends, and she does this in love. Not hate. There can be no greater proof of Insanitj than this What are the mothers thinking of. We hear continually asked, to let their daughters go half naked to parties land balls0 What are the mothers .thinking Of Who lel 'heir dauphfers re-celve re-celve the .(Mentions of married men ' and men of evil reputation for the sake of the automobile rides, the thentres. and dinners and pood times these men an Pive the girls? The answer is, these mothers don't think at nil. They have Dementi Ma terna. They are crazy. They are so obsessed hy their passion for Ihelr, children that they ran t see that their daughters are m the same danger as other people's eiaughterr- are, or that their girls are just as weak and foolish fool-ish as auy other pirls li s a terrible affliction thi. Dementia Demen-tia Materna And it's incurable. More's the pity. |