The Washington herald., 1912-01-15
By DOROTHY DIX.

I've had a curious experience lately.
One day I CHANGED to hear discussion
among three college girls, who talked of
life with big L. They all expected to
elevate the world and were very serious
IN their views OF the uplift they would
give. but as nearly as I could make out
from the consensus OF opinions expressed,
the two things that they regarded as the
greatest calamity that could befall a
woman were, first, to get married, and.
secondly, to be tied down to a home
The next day / met a beautiful and
wealthy young woman, who was a reign
ing belle in society, who calmly told me
that she had broken her engagement to
the young man to whom she was engaged
to be married. She gave as a reason
for doing this that she had been to see
one Of her girl friends, who had been
married a couple Of years, and who
looked faded and weary, and whom she
found wrestling with a crying baby. no
servants, and husband who was cross
because there was no dinner. "Of course,
I'm awfully fond Of Jack" the girl went
on, but took one look at Lulu and one
Rt myself, and I came home and wrote
Jack that matrimony was too strenuous
For me-"
The third day heard somebody ask
q working girl II she ever intended TO
marry, to which she replied, with en-
Phasis, Never. Catch me giving my
Pocketbook and latch key for any man
that lives"
These three groups of women may not
represent their sex as a whole, but they
do undoubtedly represent the three types
Of women OF to-day-the intellectual,
the gay and frivolous. and the work
ing woman, and the thing that struck
me so forcibly was that all of them
displayed an absolute lack Of sentiment.
Various Reasons.
The college bred woman did not want
to marry because II would interfere with
her career. The society girl did not want
10 marry because she would lose her
beauty and have to worry about servants.
The business woman did not want 20
marry because she would have to give
up her liberty and her salary.
All three Travelled by different roads,
but they reached the same goal To them
matrimony was a life sentence, and home
Q prison, and 1t was plain that II love
ever came into their lives, it would be in
the nature of a surprise party. II was
nothing that they counted on. They were
not on the lookout for the fairy prince
They were lodging him.
Two straws that show which way a
woman's mind moves are the facts that
women have ceased to swoon, and almost
cease to weep. The woman Of the past
was SO sentimental that she could be
touched to tears by anything. She wept|
for joy. and she wept for sorrow, just az
she swOOned away when anything un-
expected happened.
This was esteemed interesting. but a
woman now who couldn't control herself
would be considered the victim OF hys-
terra and would hustle on to the nearest
nerve specialist to get herself treated,
because she would know that she was an
object of derision to other women.
No Successors.
The ladies who died of broken hearts
because they were Tilted by a faithIess
swain. and who spent forty or fifty years ,
weeping over a packet OF yeIIow-oId let
ters, seem also to have left no successors.
A woman who had no more backbone
and pride than to pine away for a faith
less lover does not now appeal to other
women as a romantic 1gure. On the con-
trary. they have such a contempt for her
that It stings her into braclng herself up,
and keeping quiet If sne does not adopt
the modern tactics Of the forsaken. and
sue for damages to her heart, and bad
and vulgar as the breach of promise suit !
is, II is better than for a woman to
grieve over a man who didn't want her. |
Even the deserted wife, who surely has
cause, II any one has, to bemoan her |
fate, is beginning to take a less sent- |
mental and more practical view OF her
situation. It has been the traditional at |
titude for a woman whose husband for |
sook her to bemoan her loss and love |
him still and wait patiently for his re- |
turn.
But women are beginning to ask them |
selves why they should grieve for the |
loss Of a worthless man or weep over |
being deprived Of a husband who was |
willing to humiliate them? And the re- |
suit has been eminently satisfactory.
Cause of Much Divorce.
To the fact that women regard the |
marriage tie with less sentiment is also |
attributed much of the increase in d. |
vorce. There used to be a sentiment |
about the matrimonial fetter that gilded |
it and made women endure any kind Of /
treatment rather than break it. There |
was even a halo about husband that |
made It right for him to be cruel and |
tyrannical, and gave him the right to do |
as he pleased. She could not even i'm
agine a life in which she would have to 1
stand alone, and so she endured an un-
happy married life as being the better Of |
two evils.
That was the sentimental point Of view.
The practical one is that man is human,
and marriage a contract, and that II her
yoke gals uEendurably she has
4 right to free herself from It. Just as
many women in the past had grievances