El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-06-22
Dorothy Dix On "a ... s.. s'.'.'. H''-
The Advent of Baby Has the Separation


, that I see other well-dressed women
out with several babies, she claims
that they either neglect their children,
or have regiments Of servants, which
1 know is not true
Feels Like a Mere Boarder.
LAS 1 said before, 1 am just a mere
boarder in my own house except that 1
pay all the bills, and give my wife more
money than she asks for, so that she
may not have that excuse for being
shabby and combining herself so close
to the home
Now 1 am tired and discouraged at
this way Of life. 1 want the love of a
wife, the attentions of a wife, the COM
partnership of a wife. How am I 10
wake this woman up and make her see
that she has some duty to her husband
as " ell as her child2
''Is il fair that 1 should sacrifice all
of my happiness for the sake of rats
ing and educating this child. that 1
also love, or would 1 be justified in
supplying money for its education and
upbringing and allow the mother to
take it-since that is all she cared for
while 1 go my, way and seek happi-
ness with some woman OF my own kind,
and who would be a real wife and help
meet to me, and not just merely q
nursing maid?"
I have quoted this letter at length
because it sets forth. more forcibly
than I could do, the proposition that
many a man finds himself up against
when his first child is born and when
he realizes that the thing he has look
ed forward TO as the browning joy Of
his existence turn out to be the tragedy
that wrecks his domestic bliss.
Maternity always works a miracle in
a womans character, but it is quite as
likely to mar as to make it. so far as
a husband is concerned Many man
has seen the sweet, dainty, pretty &C
complished and interesting girl he mar
ried changed by the advent Of her
baby into a slovenly, tiresome slave.
who had no thought or time or inter-
est in anything except the red-faced,
sQualling thing in the cradle.
Baby Is Her Whole Life.
Such a woman lives and moves and
has her being in the nursery. She re-
fuses to dress up because 1t is easier
to handle the baby in frowsy wrap
per. She declines to go out with her
husband because something might hap
pen to baby if she did She gives up
her music because it wakens baby for
her to practice She cannot talk or
think of anything but baby, and her
society becomes aboft as appetizing and
The husband is utterly neglected. In
fact, he comes to exist only as a useful
and necessary purveyor to babys needs.
a provider of perambulators,s and en-
broideries, and frills, and doctors TO hts
royal highness, the heir apparent
Now men. except in exceedingly rare
instances, have not a crazy paternal
passion as many women have a ma
ternal mania. The average man accepts
a child very calmly. and loves it with
in reason. He Wants to provide for it;
to see that it IS well taken care OF;
but he wants also some life beyond
that.
Because there is a baby in the nurs-
cry doesn't keep him from wanting the
society of his wife, and the attentions
he has been accustimed to from her
Nor does it diminish his interest in the
theater, or his desire to take his wife
out to little dinners and places Of
amusement.
The young mother, obsessed by little