The Washington herald., 1911-06-12
By DOROTHY DIX.

A schoolma am who knows more about
the differential calculus than she does
about men, became engaged to marry
a youth who was strong on virtues but
short on culture.
No sooner, however, did the lady have
the ring on her finger than she as
to tutor the poor man FOR all he was
worth. She corrected his grammar. She
revised his table manners. She edited
his opinions She showed him the way
he should walk and talk and rise up
and sit down
In short, she became one perpetual
incarnate don't" to him. and, after
standing 1t as long as he could, the
man broke of the engagement and rel
fused to commit himself to a lifetime
of petty nagging by marrying her.
The schooIma'am calls the man all
sorts Of horrid names and is suing him
for breach of promise, claiming she was
strictly within her rights In oil she did.
as she was Just trying to educate her
prospective husband up to her level. so
that he would be suitable companion
for her.
It's easy guessing what a jury win
do with a case like that; but, in any
event, the man has shown his wisdom
In sidestepping a marriage that would
be nothing but course in correction.
No Torture Like Being ELEVATED" ;"
Better were it for him to be stripped
of the last cent he has IN the world to
pay for damages to the Iady's feelings
than to be robbed OF all independence
and freedom of action by having her
IL, 1,Hr
For there is no other torture, short
of being skinned alive, that is so painful
as being elevated to somebody else's
level 1t is a dark and bloody process
that takes no account of the victims
predictions, Of his crushed vanity, his
mutilated self-esteem, his amputated
tastes and habits.
Nor does the ruthless hand Of the ele-
vator stop at the protests, at the cries
and groans and struggles Of the ground
ling who Is being made over to fit the
higher life He, or she, for the torturer
is generally a woman. goes serenely on
her way, sublimely convinced that the
more an individual objects to being
changed the more that benighted soul
needs it.
What men have suffered from superior
wives would make a second book OF
martyrs, and certainly any one who gets
an inkling before marriage that he is
likely to be the subject of his spouse's
reforms shows only common presence
of mind by turning tail and fleeing from
the altar. It is better to be called
coward than to be called down for every
thing you do and don't do.
It is a part of the feminine psychoi-
ogy that no one has ever been able to
explain, and women themselves do not
that women deliberately
marry men with the set purpose of cut
ting these men over according to their
own little perforated paper patterns. They
have the same Joy in "elevating' a
husband that the red Indians took IN
scalping their enemies. And they have
Just as little regard for lis feelings in
doing it.
Man More Considerate.
Men are much more considerate about |
their wives than women are
about correcting their husbands mis-
takes-at least in public. If a man mar
-ies an ignorant woman who murders
the Kings English, he generally lets her |
go her devastating way without comment |
Apparently he doesn't notice her mis-
-akes; but a woman, under such CIR /
will call everybody's atten-
ion to her husbands errors, and humiI-
ate him by going behind him and pick
ng up the dismembered parts of speech |
n a basket
If woman has been brought up to eat |
BE with knife, her husband lets her do ]
30 In peace; but If man doesn't know
which is which in the forks at dinner his
wife imparts. the information to him In
stage whispers. or by cryptic signs that
make him look like a boor.
One can sympathize with the feelings
If a wife who puts great stress on ele-
yance Of manner II her husband is a
'ough diamond, or with the woman who
s cultured If her husband is illiterate; but
he trouble is these women should have
married. in their own class and the type
II men who were congenial to begin with
Having married the other sort of man
hey have no right to harass him, trying