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Show Ill - I Dorothy Dix Talks j WMt TRAINING GIRLS FOR WIVES I, I The great majority of mothers want I their girls to marry. They think, and MM rightly, that the career of wife and rjBjl mother is the foreordained one for H woman, and tho one in which she finds II ( her greatest usefulness and content IK i ' with life. II Naturally every mother desires PUB, I that her daughter's marrlnge shall be &M ' successful, and that it will result, like Wm t ' tlie fa"'J' tnle ,n "and so they WM wero married and lived happily ever Wtitl i afterwards," instead of ending in the m 2 ' dlvorco court. w j This being true, the greatest marvel m ( i on earth is, that the average mother J 1 1 does absolutely nothing to fit her daughter for the business of wifehood. I w ' ie leacnes kr nothing, either theo ySljj retlcally or practically, that she will w need to know when she is married and Si. has a husband, and a home to manage. JP She sends her out to tackle the most . - difficult, and the most complicated Job j on earth without having given her a v k single direction about how to even be- I J; gin her gigantic task. v& No Wonder Marriages Fail. IS ' No wonder that so many marriages ft are failures 1 It speaks volumes for If 1 the patience ,and tho forbearance, and If jj tho dovotlon of men that inoro of them m J do not bundle back their ignorant, un- jr: m taught, untrained brides to the moth ft ers who have foisted them oft on un- i X suspecting men who wanted, and v4 thought they were getting, wives who 2 1 could do their part, as the men do U theirs, in tho making of a home. 1 And the curious part of It all is that r - , these women, who send their unfitted ,;' daughters into the dangers of mai- . j rlage, do not thus recklessly risk their girls 'happiness through any splto or malignancy, though hatred Itself could C do no cruoler thing. They love their x girls. They want them to be happy, They want them to get along wjth I their husbands. They want them to be & good and thrifty housekeepers, but jKl they want these things to bo accom- I plished in some mysterious manner Wjjs without their having to go to any Wmr' trouble about it. V Soggy Bread Kills Romance, H Yet every married woman knows, from her own experience, that tho basis of a happy married life is bound f M ,0 06 laid on tho solid foundation of '.I i comfortable, well ordered, and well 1 1 run home. There is no romance that -' M will survive soggy bread, and watery potatoes, overdone or underdone menr , H Thero Is no sunshine in a house where ."" the wife has always got up the rainy m weather flag of tears over the pies she ' 9 bas burnt. No man can look forward M .to coming homo at night, after a hard day's work, to a cluttered house where the beds are unmade, and the floor un-swept, un-swept, and everything is at sixes and I sevens. No love survives the perpct-; ual pounding of the bill collector on the door. Quarrels Over Incompetency. The first quarrel that the great majority ma-jority of young couples have is over the wife's incompetency lo manage her end of the joint matrimonial partnership. partner-ship. She can neither cook, nor keep a cook. She has no idea of how to buy, and runs her husband in debt-His debt-His first disillusion comes when he finds out that instead of getting a helpmeet, ho has taken on himself a burden, and that tho home that ho had looked forward to for so many years Is not the place of rest and peace of his dreams, but a place of turmoil where a hysterical bride weeps over food that Is first aid to the undertaker nnd sobs out that she wishes aho hud never married and was back with! m-o-t-h o-r. In which she is fervently. If silently Joined by the poor goat of a husband. Of course, in time, the young wife generally does learn to cook, and to keep house, and to keep tho bills Jn reason, but by the time sho has acquired acquir-ed all of this valuablo Information, that sho should have started out with, sho has brushed the first bloom off of marriage, and its finest rapture is gone. Her husband will never more see her upon a pedestal, but as a blundering blun-dering amateur, who didn't know her Job, and learned on him at the expense of his digestion. Every mother might save her daughter daugh-ter from this disastrous experience If they would, for no matter wnat other advantages or lack of advantages they may have, every' mother can teach her girls how to cook, and how 1.0 market, and how to sew. And no matter mat-ter what olse she does In tho world she is sure to be called u,pon at some time to have to do these things. That girls are reared without any domestic knowledge is tho mother's fault, because all girls have an instinctive in-stinctive yearning towards their heredity he-redity occupation. You can sec thio In tiio way little girls always play "keeping house," and making mud pies and having their doll tea parties. Dut mothers are so jealous of their own prerogatives, they are so bossy and so afraid that somebody else will have some authority In their houses, that they keep their daughters out of tho kitchen and never give them a chance to learn the things they need to know. Mother wants her daughter to hely, but she will never let them take any responsibility, and it is only u.. .1.1.. . u : ....i. ....... 1 1 that one gets a working knowledge of how to do them properly. Nor do mothers teach their daughters daugh-ters anything of the ethical duties of wifehood. They do npt tell them that j marriage means sacrifice, that it means unselfishness and putting of someone else's happiness before thoir own, that it calls for patience and self control, and understanding, and tenderness, and that when a woman takes a man for better or worse, It means being a good sport who swallows swal-lows the bitter with the sweet without making faces. There is only one person on earth who can settle the divorce problem. And that is mother. In her hands rests the domestic happiness of the men and women of the world, and she doesn't trouble to safeguard it. What a pity! 00 |