The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-10-23
ABOUT LOVE AND
POVERTY
BY DOROTHY DIX.


ture SO completely tnat it is worth re-
peatmg mere. IN new York there lived
a young couple who We're happy, de-
voted TO eacn other, and rich. through
some miShap the man lost his fortune,
and came home in despair to his wife.
Beng a good and sensible woman in
stead of reprOaching him for his bad
management, or repining at her fate,
she put her arms about MIN and said:
Never mind, Charlie, you can get a
job and | can cook"
End she did. She turned off her
servants, went to live IN an humble
little fiat, and did her own work, and
despite their poverty the couple liv-
ed IN devotion to each other, and peace
and happiness. After two or three
years OF the simple ldyllic life, how
ever, the wheel of fortune again
turned for the young couple and they
inherited riches, but instead of being
a blessing they ~roved a misfortune,
for the husband fell into evil ways,
was untrue to the little wife who had
stood so nobly by him in his evil days,
and the stor-- ended in the divorce
court.
Perhaps this story is not so remark
able, nor its ending as unexpected as
it seems, for the real test of character
is not in meeting poverty bravely. but
Many a man is saved from being a
drunkard by lacking the price of a
drink, and there is no such conserva-
tor to the domestic virtues as for
man having to work SO hard all day
he is too tired to leave his own friends
at night Poverty is a great moralist,
and our purse as often as our princi-
pies decides our course of action
The question thus suggested, how
ever of whether pOVertYt rlCneS
makes for connubial happiness is all
interesting one. According to the old
adage when poverty comes in at the
door loves flies out the window, but
here is a case where riches come down
the chimney love sneaked out the
back stairs, and so the problem is left
unanswered.
Undoubtedly bitter, biting poverty is
a hard test for love to stand. In it's
essence even love must be material
When you are hungry you are more
stomach than heart. When you are
cold you think more of the temperature
of your body than you do of the tenn
perature of your affections. When you
are harasSed by bills and bounded by
collectors, money. and not sentiment
fills your waking thoughts and nightly
dreams. Love has to be comfortable,
so to speak, before it can work.
But on the other hand it can be
ried happiness are among the luxu-
ury. and our common observations, as
well as the records of the divorce
courts, go to show that love and mar
ried happiness are among the lux
ries that no millionaire has money
enough to buy. Occasionally they are
his by chance, but nobody in search
of the ideal Darby and Joan would
hunt for them in the palaces of the
wealthy.
There are many reasons why the
possession of great wealth should tend
to separate people who are married,
instead of drawing them together. The
greatest, in this country is because of
the fact that the American man who
achieves a fortune spends the first
part of his life in making it and the
balance in taking care of it. lie lives
in a world apart from his wife, whose
interests she does not share. and whose
language she does not speak. He gets
up early. and stays out late, and when
he is at home he is generally too ner-
vous and tired to talk. The richer the
man becomes, the higher this barrier
grows. until the wife of the multi
| tnplliendire finds that she has no hus-
bdnd--nothing but a money makiE &
machine.
That money brings temptations to
the rich man that the poor man never
hilONS, goes WlJnOuC saying. In the
first place, if he inherits his money, it
is harder for the camel to go through
the eye of the needle than for him to
escape being married for his possess
sions Then, married or single, Wo-
men smile upon him who can reward
their glances with Jewels, and flowers.
and candy, and so it is that the man
who, had he been poor. would have
been permitted to walk the Strai~ht
.ll n not i'm Ia,
is rich finds himself the victim of ad-
venturesses
Statistics show that the ratio of di-
vorce is much greater in rich and
fashionable society than among the
poor. This does not necessarily i'm
ply, as many seem to suppose, any
greater moral laXness among the rich
than among the poor. Take them man
| for man, and woman for woman the
smart set are probably just as virtuous
and with as high principles as the
bourgeoise who criticise them. There
! is doubtless just as much incompati-
blity of temper and unconGeniality Of
taste in green grocery circles as there
is in banking circles. The only diff
ference is that the green grocer is
lucky enough not to have time to
think of his domestic misery. He is 50
hard worked trying to make both ends
whether his wife represents his ideal
of feminine perfection or not, while
Mrs Greengrocers thoughts are ef-
fectualy and permanently diverted,
from yearnings for a real soul mate
by having to get UP and get breakfast
and patch her husbands trousers. In
sofar, poverty is the hand-maiden OF
| domestic happiness.
The rich miss this aid to maritai
| bliss. Being freed from the daily
| grind. they have abundant leisure to
| take note of each others little imper-
! fections, and the state of their own
affections. Mrs. CroeSus having moth
! ing else to do. and having exhausted
all other pleasures, sits with her fin
| ger on her pulse, and observes that
| her heart beats do not quicken ds
| they did ten years ago when her Henri
| Adolphus approached, from which she
argues that she made a mistake N
matrimony and missed her real mate
| Or. being Of jealous nature she at,-
plies her little thermometer to her
husbands love and finds that from fe-
yer heat it has gone down to nor.
NAL. and the result of her discovery
/ figures as alienation of the affection
| in the divorce court. Or perhaps, il
is Mr.. Croesus. who. observing that his
! Continued on Second Page.)