OCR Text |
Show HL j Dorothy Dix Talks j Mr PARTNERS IN GUILT J I By DOROTHY DIX, the World's Kifeheul Paid Woman Writer j r The Chinese, who are the most locl- Ical people on earth, have a comprehensive compre-hensive way of dealing out" justice. When a crime is committed they not only punish the wrong doer but everyone every-one who could, or should, have prevented pre-vented it. Thus, not long aro, in a report in a Shanghai newspaper of the court proceedings, pro-ceedings, there was an account of a i razy man, who had suddenly developed develop-ed a homicidial mania and klllcl two people. The maniac was put in an asylum and everv member of his family, fam-ily, even to remote cousins, aud the entire population of the village In Which he lived, were fined because they knew the map to be mentall) unbalanced, vet had taken no measure to protect the public against htm In another case a youth was convicted con-victed of having rooaed his emplocr. He was sent to Jail, and his father BSSBBBBBl , sentenced to a severe flogging for hav- flflX ing reared a thief, und for having neg lected to instill the principles of honor' and honest) In h!a on. We of the western world might well, adupt this Chinese setem of administering administ-ering justice. For no man sms by 1 htmsell alone, and we are all more or' less responsible for the evil done by those about us. WATCH ST 1X1 on No one will deny, for example, that1 We are ail accessory before the imie of the political corruption trnu. curses our country, w e pay taxes that should make every road in the Btaie B velvet spread boulevard, and every city a Spellcsd town. Then we ;dt supinely uown and watch road commissioners and aldermjen s'ai millions, while we1 bump .noon oei rbe ruts and un-meiided un-meiided nignways, anu have our chll- dr ii sicken and die of ciu filth, j ie niaKf our politicians grafters because we make u perfectly safe for them to loot t lie public treasury and i ve .,te jusi as mucli their partners in gain as Is the servant girl who Imvm i Ii l(nir iiiiiii, L.l mn tlixt i.nrir. i l.irv m.ij mine in and help themtel ves ! to the family silver. v e deserve to have to pay the txxes, Under which we groan. We deserve I more. Wei deserve to serve a term In stripes by the side of the men we have encouraged in tnir thieverj by our neglect of our dutv as citizens. ; l or we could prevent the plunaeringl of ihe public fund if we would talce the trouble to do so. in domestic life tne Chinese .system of justice even more udeiiuately makes the punishment fit toe crone, and fastens the guilt on the real criminal. Uecaue when a man or woman ko Wronc or Calls In hie, nine times out) of ten he or she could truthfully sayri "This is my parents' fault. They are) to blame more than I." I ki PS TO BLAME I have never seen a boy standing In a felon's dock without thinking that; his father anil mother should be stanJ- ing beside him, and that the) are; more responsible than he was. They let him grow uo with an-un-' governed temper and In some moment of rage he committed murder. Or; they never taught him to control hh appetite, or deny himself anything he wanted, and so when he lacked the money to Indulge himself In what he, desired he stole to get U. The father was absorbed In busl-1 ness. The mother in society or clubs, and they left the boy to grow up on the streets and learn his code of con-' auct from hoodlums. Neither futher nor mother ever took the trouble to get acquainted with the boy. to be his friend and confidant and to instill m his youthful soul those high Ideala of principle that keep a lad straight through the temptations of life. ;.nu so he became a criminal I never sco a drab of the Btreeti without thinking that It is her motlie, from whom we should draw awas on. ikirtS, and not her, poor soul. If her mother had inculcated modesty and purity In her, if her mother had taught her strength and virtue, and ingrained into the very fibre of her soul that feeling that makes a woman hold her chastity above her life, no man could have lured her Into the primrose- path, no waau or poverty oould have driven her to the streets. But her mother was weak and careless, care-less, oi she was frivolous and vain. She taught her daughter indirectly If not directly, that dre. was the rhost Important thing In the world for a woman, and that she niusi have flner no matter how she got It. and so the girl was hardly to blame If she sold her soul for a yard of chiffon Or she let the. girl go about half-Clothed half-Clothed and her modest, perished fori modesty can only exist when It is cov-pied cov-pied bj the seven veils of reticence. Above all. the glil': mother nevei warned her tout a woman Is alwayi In more danger from herself than she Is from any man. And 80 tile girl fell, and her sin Is on her mothers head 1 never see an unhappy home, or hear of a divorce that I do not think that the real co-respondents who should be named In the auit, are the pa rents o;i both sales. They have brought their Children up to be selfish, sel-fish, with no Idea "f owng a dutj to anyone but themselves and vhpn they find out that matrimony consists of more bills than billing. m.,r i.mil, than cooing, they have not the courage cour-age to endure thi sacrifices it demand.. de-mand.. ll n OF PARENTS If mothers would prepare their daughters for wife-hood by teaching them to be thrifty managers and good housekeepers, and that marriage means a woman bin kliiiK to and dolnir her duty, no matter how hard 11 may be In the estate unto which she has called herself; and If fathers would teach their sons that it is a solemn thing for a man to take 'a girl'j lite into his hands, ami if he doesa't fulfill ful-fill all his obligations to her Just by feeding and ilothing her. but that he must do all in his power to reallj make her happy, why marriage would ceaae to be a failure. It is the par- em's who wreck then- children's domestic do-mestic Happiness by not luting them to be goou nUsbands amd wives And it is the parents who are rc sponsible lor the lailures thp poor weaklings who have not the grit to stand up and fi;ht the battle of llf. . and so are conquered bv late. Mother ano" father couldn't bear to see Johnny and Alar) WorH and so they let them grow to become lazy loafers. .Mother and father hadn't the heart to hear Johnny and afar) cty, and bo they let them develop Into soft cowards who Rave up In the face of every difficulty, diffi-culty, and became parnsltea that hung onto the strong instead of standing on their own feol. And Johnny and Mary have the right to curse mother and father for what they arc. We are all partners in guilt when things go wrong, and wo may well pray as did the little priest whenever he heard of anyone committing a erlme May God forgive you and me for that man's sin.'" oo |