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Show Bj Dorothy Dix Talks I i By DOROTHY DIX, Uie World's Highest Paid Woman Writer i ' HOW TO BREAKOFF AJATCH j I -k A mother writes T I My daughter Is in love with a inos' H II unworthy man, and insists upon mar- I I O ing him. I hao reasoned w ith her, I r plead with her, tiled In everj waj to H J convince her of tne miserable fail H r that surely awaits her If she becomes H I, this man's wife, but to no nail She H r, deaf to my entreaties and erayeri H Can you tell mo any way in which I an prevent this foolisn girl from 'y reeking if dlsaa- H . :rous marriage?" i i There are a good many ways by j which undesirable marriages may be HI broken off. but the one way In which (j ' they never can be broken off is the way that parents nearly always boo.- imi ... Vhd that la bj the strong-arm i .pd. Opposition is thi first aid to fool ? weddings, and is responsible for more fj ill advised unions than any other one L i hlng on ea rih M Especially itlon .9 ta lc n Ith a gli !. Iv. I t .. I I . woman is a partisan by nature. SI i : rallies Instinctively t. the attacked u P ,jog, ami jou have only to criticise one if hei friends i" put her on the d tense, and btnrt her out with a Bean h $ warrant to find his, or her good W Eceldcs. opposition rouses hr fights' fight-s' ir.g blood. Forbid the house to a oung man and any girl with the -r;'!fi?j spirit of a mouse will meet him on I the outside, even if he bores her to tears. Abuse a man enough, and I I ji him b i jttso until Bht Imaglm love with him. Forbid a girl to inar- bo will do it bei kso romantic, and herself so like a mo- T vio heroine with hard hearted parents, m 1 ' Nevertheless, a match can be brok- M. en off. a nd perhaps no Itei m hod k has Isod than HH ' ed by Colonel Nowconib In d ilmi. I with the acute heart attack of his nephew, Arthur Pendcnnis. You re- ! member that the Colonel raised no I objections to the match. Tie said H V nothing of the disparity of age bc-.jm bc-.jm j sweetneart. He offered no objection :S "ii the score of the lad morali H j social position, both of which were I! dubious. H j He merely remarked, as he looked H F over one of her love letters, "Ah, I V 1 sco that she spells affection with one M J jr.'f and that turned the trick The M youth who was prepared to fight fam- 9 1 i objections to the last ditch, wen' J : .v. n before the first snet i 51 ' And ridiculi Is still thi mi - potenl 'zm weapon that anj on can usi against M II youth The young cannot stand bo- gfl ing laughed at, and tt ilcki to disillusion anyone is to poke fun 29 V, thi ' tM W be willing to marry man who ha. jj I nc morals, but she will never marrj I s n ivhosi clothes and manners are 1 j a source of Jest and amusement to h-r 8J S fumily A boy may resist his mother's gj 2 cars and entreaties, and persist in his Infatuation f'.r an utterly uhworth; 29jjK ghi. but It Ls all off the minute b B BHJ friends commence joking him about nHBjVi his girl eating peas with a knife. SflK In formei parting a couple, who thought themcslves In love was Z. esteemed the best a. of bn a match It generally had the con-rary con-rary i ffect, and hurried it up. becauso (there is nothing like absence and dis-tanco dis-tanco to clothe any one In the ffhlf-'fons ffhlf-'fons of romance, and put a halo about 1 his or her head. I it Isn't absence that is th test of love, it's presence, and if yu want to break off a match there Is nothing like giving a young couple an over-dost; over-dost; Of each other's society. A lOffU motor trip, with tire trouble, is guaranteed guar-anteed to break off any match except the kind that Is made In heaven. Bometimes when a girl refuses Co listen lis-ten to argument, mother can deal with the Incident quite efficaciously by having hav-ing a little heart to heart talk with the man. I knew one such case, In which a mother gently shunted away tin the tracks several Inpecunlo'us suitors, suit-ors, by artlessly telling them how eac-travagant eac-travagant Mamie was in her tastes, and how devoted to dn-.s 1 1 was, and how much money It took to support her, and how miserably she would be If she didn't have all of the Imported finery to whlh she had been accustomed. accus-tomed. They couldn't see themselves qualifying as bill payer for thai kind ot a wife, and so they quietly faded away. Another mother. Whose daughter thought she had a mission to reform a young rdund r by marrying him. was saved from the fate of a drunkard' wife by her mother's sending her to; visl one of her old friends who had made Just such an unfortunate marriage. mar-riage. One week's observation of the poverty, and the makeshifts of a aruhdard'fl household; one week's ob-' strvalion of the heartbroken. care-burAencd care-burAencd woman, old before her time, whose romance bad ended In a sordid struggle with life, was all the girl needed to cure her of her folly, and to koep her from making the fatal mistake of throwing in her lot with that of a weakling. -But the best time to break off an unsuitable match Is before it begins In love, an ounce of prevention h worth a pound of cure. As far as possible pos-sible keep your boys and girls from associating with those whom you would not be willing to accept 4n a pinch as an In-law. After that, the matter is on the knees of the gods. |