Show kathleen norris nor ris says wrong with dau daughters 9 liters asks dad bell syndicate features feature ia fran one of the twins was married two years when she came horns home with baby boy stand phil a minute longer abl by KATHLEEN NORRIS ERE is a letter from HERE the father of three girls it would make me laugh with its peppery dissatisfaction if it did not come nearer to making me cry what the heck is the matter with girls nowadays it asks paul mcallister my wife and I 1 had three we wanted a boy of course but we got three pretty active girls who grew up to keep the place in an uproar with their dates and their clothes and their boy friends there a day for five or six six years that someone dafun t want a dress or to give a party or was crying over some invitation that come through or some boy wh like her that was bad enough then all three married the little one first and the twins at a double wedding a year later late r that set me back about 0 ut five grand but no matter reatter t the h e girls were settled Sett settled ledl my gosh they dont know the meaning of the word F fran 1 an one of the twins was married i ed two years when she came home with a baby boy st stand nd phil a minute longer eight mantas months later barbara landed back on 0 n us she has no child we thought she would marry again but that was five years ago and she now six years married with two little girls eleanor is home well theres some excuse there her husband Is 13 lazy make any money says bays he is tubercular and wants to live out on the bonert desert discordant household rio fran gets a hundred a month alimony and gives her mother 30 barbara gets and says shell go on this way forever partly to spite ross here we all are mother father three daughters three small children and a good deal ot of refined arguing and criticizing goes on w were e re too big a family the truth the girls cry over their marital troubles blame each other make up surely this the way people ought to live one old man and a lot of detached women who dont have homes or husbands husband sl el eleanor e anor has no money to spend an and d talks of a job barbara is pretty well we I 1 pleased with her settlement and her freedom from responsibility lity and the contrast makes it hard tor for the other girls its the darn dest situation I 1 ever saw they help of course and we all love the kids but it means that my wife getting on in years now is running a family boardinghouse boarding house arent marriages supposed to stick any longer barbara got a thing against ross eleanor might have gone out with her sick husband to arizona and stayed with him to the end fran says now that phil who has married again is one of the finest men she ever knew ew ive I 1 ve known folks who married who stuck to each other a lot better than this rents and housing shortages in our town make it impossible for any of them to find inexpensive apartments anywhere a ny where our house is roomy and comfortable and barbara talks of building on a big room for herself when it Is possible but a house with three young wives in it and no young husbands seems to me pretty queer the girls ages are only 24 24 and 22 this could go on for a long time im not sure 0 0 0 t fit lis claims to go be tubercular PARENTS FAILED TOO A perplexed father whose three daughters have all obtained divorces and returned home asks miss norris what has happened to the old fashioned attitude toward marriage ile he says the girls are all young under 25 and that they had no real grounds for divorce they simply came up against some difficulties and disillusionments disillusionment normal enough even in the happiest unions and they quickly determined ter mined to get out of a situation that entirely satisfactory now they are in in their fathers house with their babies while it is a big house there room for four families I 1 bickering and criticising criticizing critic ising is unavoidable ile he goes on to explain each girls situation and the history ol of her marriage then he tells miss aliss norris that he bisret exactly asking for advice but he wants sympathy if modern girls had a little more endurance durance I 1 and courage he says they could stick it out and make successes of their marriages the fault replies miss aliss norris lies as much with himself and his wife tu ife as with the girls it if th these ese daughters had been impressed all along with the seriousness of marriage its trials and difficulties they would have been better prepared for the great step that they took perhaps too young I 1 that I 1 want your advice this letter ends but I 1 want sympathy lots of it you have it paul but dont forget that much of the responsibility tor for this situation rests with you and with your wife these girls were not brought up to a realization of the seriousness of marriage and the danger of the delusion that divorce is an escape from its inconveniences they felti felt as young wives that marriage was like a school or a house or a hat if you dont like it change it dont put up with the inevitable disappointments and disillusionments that are part of even the happiest marriage just get out the way get out of a job that suppressed and displeased you cant get out rain painlessly lessly marriage like that its roots go deep deep into a woman s life she cannot tear them up and throw them aside without injuring many lives especially her own years ago I 1 knew a girl named elsie she married at 18 with the statement that she care for herb but she wanted to be married at 18 at 27 she had been seven years divorced had bad grown older wiser better she tell fell in love while oh on an ocean voyage with the son of a distinguished conventional wealthy baltimore family they were married and went to his home where she was cordially welcomed no one knew of her divorce until one night at a dinner party her first husband appeared drunk and truculent the episode was passed over somehow but her baby born too soon as a result of agitation died there never lias has been another child dont blame the girls paul blame the parents who train them to be strong women and good wives |