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Show j J- J j Dorothy Dix Talks THE BLESSING OF POVERTY By DOROTHY DIX, the World's Highest Paid Woman Writer. i I The one thing about poert that tie VT oraan fin,Jp lf nardcr to en" e (i,an even thing else combined. the thought that she cannot give her hjdren tho advantages that rich peo-lle peo-lle can give theirs. I The sacrifices, the privations, the nxieties. the labor that are the lot of i poor, she can bear for herself with ! 'h,io9ophv and resignation, but -when Ke ?,.c h r Lo forced inm the unks I nf the toilers at an age when oiher 7 Kvs are starting off to college, and hen she think? of her uaughters bav-I bav-I to' s'and behind counters instead I if pouring tea a' fashionable functions, i .he iron of poverty enters her souL I j. r, a pity thai these mothers ean-' ean-' r(: i-onif'Ti ihi'in-'h(s b realizing 3 That wealth is far ofteuer a curse than i .. blessing to the young that, indeed, j" is nulv the most exceptionally well-balanced well-balanced boy or girl, with an extra -I ordinaril si ront: character, who is not I puned by the po.-.ess.on ni much money. The temptations of life are great ( enough for any boy. but w hen ou fill hi? pockets with money and keep his J-.and? id le. you have simply greased I the skids u perdition for him He is the foreordained prey of eil men and vomen who show him the short cuts to all the pits into which vouth may jumble Von cannot pick up a news-sper news-sper without reading an account of I fome young milliona're who is suing f for a divorce from some adventuress I rhom he married during a drunken orgy- or who ha4; been suspended trom ! college for gambling, or who has been injured in an automobile accident! ; vhile jov riding at sixty miles an hour lth a lot ol disreputable companions J There is no such safeguard against dissipation as lacking the price. Those ho can only afford cold water run I no risk of becoming drunkards. The' outh with a thin pockof book i- nev- j er a welcome guest in the haunts of vice The women whose kises have Kb price tag on them save Hieir lip.--i I for the man who can pay. . These are a lew cold, hard facts that' the mother who pries es that her son L can't have the advantages of rich! men's ?ons. mav well lay to heart. I Bttlso, the further fact, that Satan still I finds work for idle hands to do, and' I that if outh is not expending its en I I erg and its enthusiasm, and its rest - ! I lessne?? on some worthy obpject, it1 I -will be wasting them on an unworthy1 ! on? ' Therefore, (he boy who has some I definite job lo do, who has something I worth while, something real and vital I to occupy his thoughts and that it requires re-quires all the skill of his handrf. and, i I the strength of his mind to do, Is ten thousand times safer than the youth 1 who has to manufacture his own di version and devise hii own ways of killing time. ' And. after all, the great adventure I is the quest that ambition leads a man i I on and the mo?t absorbing, and fas- ! I cinating, and thrilling game In the! world are the moves by which one achieves success This reut Jo uf life the poor boy knows, and the rich boy is out off from knowing, and it is not the poor boy who is the loser in real happiness. Let mother also J consider this 1 Of course there is no reason wh the rich bo) should not be as ambitious. a and achieve ;is much as the poor buy Logically he should go farther only in real life he hardlv ever does. You could, count up on the fingers of your two hands almost all of the men who are the sons of rich fathers who have made great names for themselves in art. or literature, or music, or finance, but it takes the whole history of the world to record the names of the great 'men In every line who sprung from ! the depths of poverty to a place in i the sun. There is something deadening in riches. Luxury wraps us in a slothful ease that we have not the courage to struggle out of Why toil and struggle strug-gle and suffer when we don't need to? ' What's the use? But povertv i.s ,i spur in our ide.s that makes us speed up. The desire 'for the luxuries and comforts thai we j can only get by our efforts drives us on. It is necessity that is the mother I of achievement. Besides this, poverty teaches something some-thing that is not In the books. It is the university of hard knocks In which la man barns lo read the bear) ol bis 1 fellow man, to know its nobleness and Its meanness, its craft and guile and its simplicity, and from it he learns tenderness sympathy ;ind understanding. understand-ing. That is why genius has nearly always al-ways been cradled in poverty instead of palaces, and why those who can plav upon our emotions, as upon a harp with a thousand strings, are almost invariably the nun and women who have known and suffered every hardship hard-ship themselves. So let no woman who has a talented child bemoan hersell thai Its genius is being blighted by poverty. Poverty is the forcing house of genius and If her son or daughter really has the divine di-vine flame she 1- giving it the advan tage that no rich mother could give her child, for wr.ilih may smother genius. Poverty never can. The mistake thai poor mothers make is in pitying their children for heme poor and teaching theni to pitv themselves them-selves and to feel they are handicapped. handi-capped. Just the reverse of this is true. Therefore mothers, stop talking to our children about the misfortunes of poverty. Talk to them of the opportunity op-portunity that the poor boy has. Call for them the roll of almost every great name in America and you will see that he or she was a poor boy or girl. Thus shall you put courage and heart into your children and send them forth to Join that glorious company. oo |