Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 70, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 December 1914 — LISTEN DAUGHTER! [ARTICLE]

LISTEN DAUGHTER!

Listen daughter, don’t go moping around'the house and sighing like a freight train cutting loose the air brake; and don’t be walking around with your eyes all puffed up and red, from tears, simply because you can’t have clothes that wouldn’t look good anywhere except on one of those freak magazine-cover girls. I know it’s a pretty tough old world, from your range of vision, because,, your ma has forbidden you to wear skirts that are too low'. I know', child, that some of the other girls are chasing around the streets in costumes that would shame a burlesque troupe and attracting lots of attention; but did you ever notice just the kind of attention they attract? Of course you haven’t. You don’t happen to be within earshot when some of the boys say what they really think about the “other girls.’’ You’re too young to know those things yet awhile. You say the other girls laugh at your simple, pretty little frocks and at your freckles. Let ’em laugh! That shows they ARE the other kind of girls. Your mother and I met each other long ago. I loved her enough to ask her to marry me and she cared enough for me to answ'er, “Yes.” We’ve been happy ever since, haven't we ma? Our marriage took. It didn't take any split skirt or silhouette gown to make me fall in love with your mother. She never had such contraptions on in her life. And I didn’t go prancing up and down the main street with a monkey hat on the back of my head and a

cigarette poking out in front of my face. Let the other girls smile if they want to, but just wait for the finish. You won’t find the decent young chaps, the kind I would want to give my little girl to, marrying any of the “other girls.” That’s right, have a good cry if you do, it’ll do you good. But remember, Dad knows best. So put on that pretty little dress, the one we all like —and we’ll all go to the moving picture show and have some ice cream afterwards. Hurry up. It’s getting late, and we don’t want to miss it. That’s right—smile, says the Riverdale Pointer.