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Show El Dorothy Dix Talks j THE FAMILY MARTYR. H A young woman was engaged to be married to a .splendid young fellow who went to the w.u and did a man's part in 11. lie Is back now and is IHV pressing her to marry him, which the j3Ti wants lo do because they love each Hflfl other dearly and long to make real th" home of thetr dreams, lint the woman's sister hits recently died, leav-ing leav-ing four children, and the girl's family B tell her that It Is her duty to give up her own happlnes.3 und devote her life to rearing thes mot in rless littb- ones 1 A woman, well in the thirties, has toiled like a slave ever since she was fifteen years old, to support a mother and sisters and brothers, and to give the younger chlldieu the education H and advantages she- never had. Al- though she earns a fine salary, she has never been able to save a cent for her old age, or even to Indulge herself in any luxuries as she went along, be-cause be-cause It took all she could make to give the others ihe things they thought they were bound to have. Ihe sisters b and brothers are now all grown and at' veol-. . or married, but tne refuse to gH alJ lii supporting their mother, and j H slill come home lor the Cinderella SlS-J ter '. o support thoin wl.n i.. an out Hp of a Job. or want to take a vacation : i9p?e without paying board. HBH A woman who is B Heaven born gen- HHh lus as a dresdinakei und who could HHV make her thousands every year in any HHh city, lives in a small village where she, IPjPU works fur 0 pittance because her j mother, whom she has to support, will HHh not leave her old home and her old HHV friends and go lo a strange place j HHJ where she will have nobody with whom lo gossip over the back feme I The three women, who are the heroines hero-ines of these domestic tragedies, rjk ' me what they shall do. and whether! HBs they shall sacrifice themselves for HBb their families or not. HBh I say no. 1 believe that nine times HBs out of ten a Bat rlflt not only made HBV in vain, but that It harms instead of' HB) helps those whom it was destined to h especially (iocs ine domestic bucii- HBg (ice breed selfishness and parasitism. HBV and turn Its recipients into human HBW ghoul who have neither compassion HBV nor mercy upon the poor martyrs upon HBh whose very life blood they live HBb Tntnk of the families you know in HBh which then is some one poor creature HBl who has sacrificed herself for the bal- HBb ancc, and Who Is unthahked and uure- HBV garded, even despised, b cause she has BBt not spirit enough to demand hei rights 1:l5l' Think of the poor shabby oldei HBb tew that you know who wear patched HBV ." hoes, and j ear-before-lust's huts, so HBV that their pretty young sisters may HBl huve si Ives slippers to dance In und HHJ the latest thing in millinery! Think HJB of the worn old women boarding-house HM keepers who know who Work (heir HBsj fingers to the bones to keep husky Bh lads playing on football tea ma in col-l HBs Think of the old maid aunts who HBV' have given their youth to rearing Other HBW people's children, and who in then Hli old age an- regarded as burdens by the HBb very nephews unci nieces for whom they have sacrificed their lives! Think HBg of the uld maid daughters who hive been slaves to tyrannical mothers who HBfl have foregone matrimony or the ca-' HBh reers they might have had, to stay ut HJ home and coddb- a cranky old worn- HBl au's whims, and whom mothers always HH speaks of as 'poor Mary or poor Jane'' s and says that sho never was brilliant like- her other child, e. The truth is thaht we wrap so niu h of ihe pink c hiffon of sentiment., IK . around sacrifice, that we have lost 'Ight of Justice and common sense In H the matter yei when all ts said whs should on" person be sacrificed to un- Othsi Why isn't, one Individual as entitled to happiness as anothei ? Why j isn't one life worm us muc.i us an-' other'.' in the main, sacrifices are not only useless, but wiong. Struggle and haru-slnp haru-slnp develop Character and sharpen Wits, Just us exercise strengthens the 'body und develops suppic.ic sm. Tnere-fore, Tnere-fore, vvhen We stand between an in- I dividual and wht we can te hard- .snips of life, we aie doing him or her an injury, instead of n kindness. And we commit a crime against another jwiien we foster greed, unci egotism and self vill in him or her I So the mother who works herself to death that her children may le Idle. Instead of maklne them bear their Just I Share of earning their daily bread, dees them a wrong. The men who' achieve things In the world have not 'been the ones who had mothers who kept them In cotton wool. Nobody can accept aa sacrifice without with-out being brutalized by it. You will never find a man whose wife supports him who does not abuse her. Nor a son who permits his mother to make a door mat of herself tor him who does not trample all over her heart Nor will you ever behold a family grateful to the women who is the sac-: riflcrd goal. Also a sacrifice is generally a boomerang boom-erang thut annihilates the source fromi ll'hlf-h It or. . ... rr A ('..v.ll.. ..Ill ( ( r. .1 brilliant and talented girl to the cook' stove, and make her sacrifice her career ca-reer because tin y think she should help mother, vvhen. If they vvould let her go. she could make enough money to hire- a regiment of cooks. Or they will persuade u soft-hearted girl, With an in-growing conscience, to give up her happiness In order to play nurse' maid to children, or cater to a selfish' and self -centered old mother or father, fath-er, and then bemoan the fabt that they have to have her tag on to the r families, fam-ilies, because she has never matrled and and hud a homed f her own. So 1 say that sacrifice is folly. Don't: let anybody make- a goat of you. oo |