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Show 2 - I Dorothy Dix Talks I B DON'T CODDLE YOUR THOUGHTS Ml ISSSS1! -y'ghy gj Woman Writer I (Copyright. 1920. by the Wheeler sBW Syndicate, Inc.) WB "I know I have a beastly temper. Little things irritate me and whan I get Into a rage I say thing that stab my wife to the heart., and that terrify the children, and make the cat take to the cyclone cellar." "I cm sorrv for my poor husband '&M because I know that I am outrage 1 ously extravagant, but when I see f J lovely things I can't help buving them flj whether we can afford them or not." I "No one loves me I really haven't a friend In the world. People are afraid of me becr.uso I have a sharp tongue, and say sarcastic things, but mffl 1 can't realst making a witty speech no matter whom it hurts." These are somo of the common con-Tensions con-Tensions of faults with which we are KA all familiar. Thrre isn't a day when we do not meet men and women who j coolly vivisect their own characters. aD(l unerringly diagnose the fatal weakness that is tapping their lives and robbing them of happiness and usefulness, but who calmly accept the I situation and make no effort to cure I themselves. R The know with absolute clearness and surety what ails them spiritually. hut they do not try to eradicate the I H j trouble. Yet, if anv one of these same SSjM people even suspected that they had HS a cancer that was eating at their vitals and poisoning their blood. tbe 5r!l would not hesitate, to have It cut out, though they rlrked death in doing so Mi n and women who know thai J 7l have tuberculosis, or diabetes, or any 1 dangerous disease of the body, are willing to spend their last cent and undergo any treatment, no matter what sacrifices and suffering it entails, en-tails, to get rid of It, SICKNESS OF SOUL Sickness of the soul they regard lightly. They may know that they are afflicted with an abnormal growth of Belflshnese; that their tempers register regis-ter a hectic temperature half of the time, that their tongues are cankered IBS'1 1 -i- by hi'. temers ; that everything good, LBf j and generous in them has atrophied, and they have hardening of the heart. 1 but they perform no major surgical 1 III operations on their characters. I'll They lop off no brutalities of con jljll duct or speech. They take no heroic jjllj remedies to reduce their spleen, nor I 'ill do they quicken their heart action into ill normal by stimulating it by showing a ! in little love to those about them. I'.llj So much more stress do we put on i our physical health than we do on our i spiritual. Yet, when all is said, our 111 happiness dep. rids upon the well-being ( I of our souls more, than it does upon Ii 1 tho well-being of our bodies. If Now, it wouid be had enough if we fl; sinned through ignoranco and wore I, so besotted by self-conceit that we Vj could not perceive thRt we had a Bin- V gle defect concealed about our per- V sons. But what excuse can be offen d II for us when wo sin knowingly; when J we recugnizi our weaknesses yot make J no effort to brace up; when we aro 1 aware of our faults yet make no at-1 at-1 tempt to overcome them? III Yet, that is precisely what nine out 1JBL-' of leu PwPlf' do. Instead of using the knowledge of their faults ro extermi nate them, root and branch, they regard re-gard their defects with affection, and A man will tell you that he is al-w-ays stone broke because he never Jean save money. It sllpr, through his fingers. Or he will say that he hasn't the faculty of getting along, that he is .always the one vho is laid off in the Place in which he works when they j cut down the force. He recognizes his weakness, but be doesn't trv to con- quer the fault that Is rulning'him He : doesn't let the knowledge that he has 1 ho natural inclination to be a spender make him doubly careful to cultivate tbrlfl Nor does he face the fact that ! because he Is temperamentally Inefficient, Inef-ficient, and has no inborn aptitude for business, la a reason for hfs working ; doubly hard and putting an extra punch into his Job in order to sue ceed. SLACK HOUSEKEEPING We hear women bemoaning their lack of any domestic bent Thcv com plain that their servants waste and Steal; they admit that their kouses are always at sixes and sevens, and their families poisoned by bad food. Hut they take their regret for being failures as wives and mothers out in I talking about it, because it Is lola more comfortable to deplore a weakness weak-ness lhan 10 fight It tooth and nail You would think that a woman who realized that she was a poor housekeeper house-keeper would hare a heart to-heart interview in-terview with heirelf and sav. "That inasmuch as I am not one of the ladles who are born with the stew-pot in one band and a casserole in the other : here's where! outwit nature bv get' ting busy wiih the cookbook, and a budgel and pull off the scientific housekeeping stuff 1 am not going to let my fault I know about get tho better bet-ter of me." CODDLE9 LAZINESS nut she doesn't. She coddles her laziness and ehlfrlet-sncss and expects ,hcr poor unfortunale family to sympathize sym-pathize with her Instead of" despising her for her weakness. Nor is she nlon in this Think of the narrow, prejudiced peopl 0 you know who ad-pit ad-pit that they are narrow and prejudiced, preju-diced, and who shut themselves up in the walls of their own littleness and never broaden on! Think of the peoplo who are never on time for anything and who excuse their dilatoriness by saying. "Oh, well, you know I am always late " Think of the people who never do I anything Just right and who sav carelessly care-lessly that they know that they ar hlt-and miss workers. Why, in heaven's name, when people know thr-lr faults don't they correct itbem? Why doesn't the slow Individual Individ-ual always start an hour ahead of schedule' Why don't tho blundr rers make a fetish of accuracy? Why don't the prejudiced force themselves to look on every side' The truth Is in dealing with our weaknesses wo should be doubly on guard. Just as the man who cannot I drink In moderation should never touch liquor, so we should never dally with our weakness for in this way I and this way only, we can turn our faults into virtues and our weakness into strength. 00 There aro about 60,000 postoffices and routes In the United States 00 . Of tho 48 leglnlatures In the United States, only six meet annually. |