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Show m Dorothy Dix Talks I BRINGING UP MOTHER 'iPH "There arc a great many advantages I mmm In having u family." said a woman kBBHJ . the other duy. and not the least of lJjjlHJ thrni Is the advantage of being prop-, W crly brought up by your children. 'flSHi: ' "Of course we talk u lot of nonsense JkiiBPlJ about the Influence of parents over IhEXH tbclr children. That is only to save jmnglB our faces. All of us who have chll-l rgXH dren know that they Influence us. unci! : -'.i5J shape our lives a thousand times more ' than we do theirs. , '2B "And I am not referring to thoi L ''; moral uplift of children, either, though! , &Y every baby Inculcates in its parents) a Spartan system of ethics that bc- sBj gins with self abnegation and self-suc-l iwfH rtllco and walking the colic and ends BWJJ with self-control .ml tef raining trouil fdBH doing things we would like to do, but' jjl don't do, because wo would be ashamed for the children to see us! :flr doing them. ' "No I mean that it is our children' jfc vvBV who are a perpetual college extension Mm course to us, who bring us up-to-date,' gjrfj'BB ""1 eeP ua UicTt. who alter our BlRBBj i it thud of living, teach, us the new pi onounclatlon and sc to it that we JtB ire kept on the firing line that is if I they uro good children, imbued with "jJSfBJ - a fitting sense of their responsibility iF 14"d wltn a conscientious desire to do 3jfT2 their duty by their father and njj mother. I l'-ttV When I sec a mlddleaged woman I can tell at a glance whether she has BUBB been properly brought up by her daughters or not. If 9he has, 8ho has KB oi just the right width skirt, and! IHK cung looking shoes, and the most ex-! fM 7 pensive corsot, and her hair lo waved. IK- and her nose la powdered, and she be- '. longs to clubB and reads the six best I " J nel.er imd r,.fn.lni. (r,,, I ' QCM of the complications of diseases gaJl froni which her Aunt SusaTi passed BBJ HH "l"'or her Anne Maria's critical eyes sB liue censored her costume. Her Anne - Maria's skillful hands hae done up Mt her hair. Her Anns Maria's stornful 'Bj oung voice has said; 'For Heaven's Jm ake. Mama, what do you think any- WAJ body wants to hear all of those poet- PJp mortems for!" BJr'i "And Mama meekly wears what Anne Maria picks out for her, and t;oerns her conversation according to Anne MarUi'a code, for of ail people I B In the world there arc none bsforo uhom wo so ardently desire to shins as our own children. "But if a wbman has no daughters. k has daughters who neglect her '-'.lucutlon and penult her to grow middle-aged without their guidance, she Il upl to drOM sloppily and coinfort-ii coinfort-ii My. to comb her hair the easiest way imd to gossip ilM.ut the things she is RC personally Interested in regardless of mm I their affect upon her listener. Bj "For, ulus. she has no Anne Maria to lay a restraining hand upon her, and steer her flat-heeled feet into tho right road. Bl "It Is not to be denied that as the years go by we are apt to slump un-J un-J leal we haVC children who aro on the J Job of properly bringing up their par- BJ enta. We grow careless about our ap- BJ pcaranco and about our speech. We; f..ll Inlo "ways. " and just because ofi our age no one has the authority or! courage io bring us to book, and make us correct faults, except our children, i "They have no finicky delicacy I about going for our most sacred feel-I feel-I lngs with a meat axe. They represent I the brutal candor of a near relation I raised to Its highest power, and thus I our olive branches literally become rods that scourge us into the straight H and narrow path. B ' Now Providence has blessed me I .Hi a daughter who regards It as her . mleslon In life to keep me up to the mirk, .md who Is n severe, but kindly mV ritlc of all of my faults ami frallltles, abd I often wonder what would hael H become of me If I had not had the II benefit of her careful rearing. I "Very likely, ln my besotted ignor- MK once. I should still have been playing ml s, Chopin Instead of ragtime and Jaxz, u anl J" composing a meal. I should flit he vo. gone on putting together thei TJIl diehes that taste well instead of con-1 siderlng whether I was getting a prop-! crly ruilanced ration. And. likely as not 1 should have gone to my grave, without finding out whether a calorie; was a new brand of canned goods or an esoteric religion. "And it makes me blush to think of' how many words 1 pronounced incorrectly, incor-rectly, and how many books I loved 1 that ure not real literature at all, when tested by the highest stundards. and how atrocious my tosto ln household decoration unci dress was. and how little lit-tle 1 understood about the lines or curves of my figure. "Fortunately my Anne Maria took I m In hand In time. She gently, but firmly, corrected my faults, and sup-Plied sup-Plied me with a 1920 vocabulary, with a fair sprinkling of up-to-date slang, and a new wardrobe with short skirts' or.d high-heeled shoes Sho also obllg-Ingly obllg-Ingly refurnished the house In period furniture, and has taught me how to keep house with a budget md cooking! school cooking, which doesn't taste as well as my original brand, but Is doubtless better for our digestions. "I understand that Anne Marie thinks well of her Job of bringing me up, and brags of me to her friends as1 an example of what a conscientious ' daughter can do with a mother when she gives her mind to IL "I can not say that I have invar-lably invar-lably enjoyed the educational advantages advan-tages I hate been privileged lo nave thrust upon mo. but I havP one comfort. com-fort. Anne Mnria Is about to be mar-! tied Some time she will have a daughter of her own. and then she will get her comeuppance. (Copyright, 1920. by The Wheeler! Syndicate. Inc.) |