OCR Text |
Show Dorothy Dix Talks j I j By DOROTHY DIX, the World's Highest Paid Woman Writse j DEMOCRACY IN LOVE A girl of a good family Is In love i with a young man of no family at all. Her ancestors camo to America In the I Mayflower or with Lord Baltimore, or In somo other highly proper manner. Hlw parents arrived in America, via tho btecrage ot an Immigrant ship. The young man la himself unexcep- ! tlonable He La Intelligent, woll educated edu-cated well mannered, a gentleman Also he, is a climber who is already making a place for himself In tho sun. but tho girl does not know whether to marry him or not becaueo ho does not. belong to her own caste. Suppose he doesn't, what of It? It's the man himself, and not his pedigree that concerns his wife, and surely, it IS better to have a husband with a future fu-ture than one with a pasL Likewise. S woman can be a mllPon times more proud of a man who Is doing things himself, than she can of ono whoso grandfather, or great, great grandfather grandfath-er did something Of all forms of futile vanity, surely tho most pitiful Is that which is founa-ed founa-ed on ancestor worship, and which puffs out Its poor, little puny chest and 6truts around basking in tho glory of others. It Is too weak and 1', . . .. . ..1,1, .1.1 .A..,., . wvsb Miiucn iinyiiimn liseil ill is too dull, and stupid, and lacking In energy and purpose to do anything on Its own account, but it lives on the reputation of dead and gone men and Women, who had the ability to carve out a fortune for themselves Yet, how many of these weaklings we know. Poverty-stricken people who are too proud to work at am thing but mahogany desk Jobs because their families used to be rich und Important Import-ant before the Civil war! Insignificant people who never let you forget for an Instant that their great, groat, great grandfather, or granduncle was a governor or a Judge! Down-and-out people who have never seen the opportunities oppor-tunities that came their way because they were alirsya looking back on the past grandeur of their forebears' Cultivating a family tiee In America Ameri-ca where we arc all constitutionally born free and equal, Is merely a hobby hob-by th it i Interesting to the cultivator, and amusing to the on-lookers as long as It remains merely an occupation for an Idle hour If it makes the Adamses Ad-amses and the Eveses happy to claim that they were the original family that settled the Garden of Eden, by all means let them have that pleasure, and paint on their motor cars a coat of arms comprised of a fic leaf couch-ant couch-ant and a serpent rampant on an azure field If a rich bootlegger wants to spend his newly acquired money In h.ivmer B myt hologlcal ancestry, traced back to the Norman conauest, let m ono begrudge the price he pays a hearldry shark. Nothing adds to the gaiety of life mure than the newly aristocratic, but when peopJo begin to take the color ot their blood seriously, tho matter ceases ceas-es to bo humorous, and becomes tragic. trag-ic. Boys are kept from going into tne. trades for which their natural aptitudes apti-tudes fit them. and in which they could make fortunes, and are thruat Into professions for which thoy lack the qualifications, and where they fall because thoy belong to families In which the men have- been doctors, or lawyers, or teachers. Matches are broken off and hearts wounded, and lives wrecked, because, silly old, casts bound women are still pinning their faith to the Vere de Vero stuff Therefore, John, one of whose remote ancestors was a signer of tho I'eriaratlon of Independence, must not marry' Sally Jones who Is gooa, pretty, nnd sweet, but whose father never sign, l anything but a check where his name was mighty highly respected at the bank. And Mary Isn't permitted to mary Tom Smith whom she ioves with all J her heart because Tom is nobody, and doesn't go with hor set, and Mary lives to see the day when Tom la a L nltcd States senator, and his wKo.s limousine splashes mud on her as she walks to and from her dally work. gggggH ( It Is right that a girl should consider the blood that runs in the veins of the man she marries, and know something some-thing of his famlh. She should find out If he ha.s clean blood free from the taint of hereditary diseases, and she should know the stock from which he spring. hether they are honest I decent people, who have taught their children to go true and straight, or to -----H be thieves and crooks. But that is about all that a man s family amounts to, so far as his cllgl- ------- billty as a husband comes to. The balance Is all uo to the man himself. The pretense of aristocracy Is a Joke because there arc mighty few Amerl-can Amerl-can families In which you can go back three or four generations without --.-.H stumbling over a washtub or a spade Position Is a farce, because the wheel turns round, and those who arc up to-day to-day are down tomorrow. It doca not cv. n pay to marry for money, because I the youth who was a catch at 25 t often a pauper at 50, while often the poor boy has become a millionaire at age. Therefore, a girl Is foolish who lets the dead rule her, and p'ck out a hus-band hus-band for her, or who Is bound by tho snobbery of her family. Let her mar-ry mar-ry the man she wants, Irrespective of who his grandparents were. It Is . man's future that matters, not his pa&t, and there Is mure profit In making u name for yourself than there is In bragging about one that somebody else made Dorothy Dix's articles appear In this paper every Monday, Wednesday and |