The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-07-07
The Flirtatious Married
Woman
BY DOROTHY DIX.

The answer is, because they are
fools. !,
Nobody with a grain of sense in
her head would risk so much for so
little as the married woman does
when she engages in a Irritation.
On the one side are the love and
trust Of her husband, the respect
OF the community. home, children,
social position. an assured income.
On the other. the pleasure Of hav-
ing her vanity tickled by the
thought that she can still attract
the attention of men. With the
price OF divorce. and the loss Of
everything worth having for
woman.
There is no other such one-sided
game in the world. and the marvel
Of IL is that any human being, out
side Of the home for the feeble.
minded, could be found reckless
enough and silly enough TO engage
in il. Yet there are thousands OF
women who stake their happiness
on this desperate venture.
II is incredible. but il is true,
that there are women who have all
the goods the gods provide; who
have kind and generous husbands,
lovely children who are rot salts
fed with all of these blessings
but are never happy unless they
think they have secured the admir-
alton of every man in sight.
Such women carry on clandestine
acouaintances with men their hue-
bands do not know. they write
foolish, sentimental letters that
compromise them. they run after
celebrities. and they form the fol
lowing and make the fortunes of
al sorts Of false prophets and ex
ploiters OF new cults. Without
them the fashionable preacher
could not go TO Europe for six
months in the year nor the fash
ionable doctors roll around in lin.
cuisines, Nor is there any extent
20 which they will not 20 in their
mad desire 10 attract the attention
of men. IL there is nobody else
about, thew will make ewes at the
disrepu.able old FOUNDERS that
hang about cafes and rosdhouses.
Ago, that should bring inteIli.
gence and discretion. seems TO
bring to these women only An add.
tional recklsssness and folly, so
that they are less careful of their
conduct than the fiehtiest girl
would be. Yet they know, if they
would only stop 10 think that the
faults that the world excuses IL
youth ii does not excuse in sober
maturity.
II is curious fnct that the most
susceptible time of a woman's life
is not when she is sweet and TWEEN
ty, but when she is fat and forty,
and old enough to know better.
But she doesn T. A young girl NAV
suspicion mans motives and as
say his compliments TO see how
weigh his vows Of devotion to as
certain how heavy they are with
real feelings, but fhe middle. a ged
woman's vanity is so hungry and
40 voracious that she swallows
whole every honeyed speech man
makes her.
Possibly this explains the middle
aged married woman who still tries
to flirt, but il does not excuse her.
Nothing excuses her except the as-
sumption that she has not enough
gray matter in her head to compre-
hend the danger she runs and the
harm she does, and the certainty
that she has not enough sense or
humor to perceive the figure of fun
she makes of herself,
For there is nothing under the
sun more grotesque than the spec.
tacle Of the middle-agcd mother Of
a family aping the airs and graces
of a debutante, and trying TO act
kittenish and cute when her antics
are only those of performing
elephant. Yet how often do we sec
this done, and how many women
do we know and laugh at who be-
lieve themselves to be fascinators
because they ara surrounded BY
horde of svcophantic men who flat
ter them for the sake of eating the
sitting in the opera boxes, and
spending weeks ends mt the country
places that the women's husbands
paw for.
Be sure that if any of these
fhrtatious middle.aged married
women could hear what their ad-
mirers say of them behind their
fat backs, they would be instantly
and forever cured of the belief that
thew were second edition Cleo.
patras, with weather and age-procf
charms.
These married flirts consider
themselves good women and pll.
lars Of society because they hold
TO the letter Of the moral law and
only transgTess the spirit. But
they Judge themselves too lenient'
". The wife who seeks the ad-
miration of other men than her
husband, and who lures them on,
as we'll as she is able. into max
ing love speeches 10 her. is fnlse
at heart and untrue TO her mar
riage vows. She has no reason to
draw her skirts away from her sis-
ters of the street. Indeed. they
may be better women fhhn she rs,
for she, at least. has not known
their temptation.
1t is one thing for woman To
be driven into wroDg'doiug by
hunger. and cold. and want, or
some deadly injury that has been
practiced upon her. II is another
thing for her to deliberately daily
with sin. the finery her husband
has given her on her back. within
the shelter Of her home, and with
the tenderness and love OF a good
man protecting her
Yet that is what fhrtatious
married woman does, and IT makes
her offeuse q particularly iniquit'
Gus one. II is hard on woman TO
he married TO a man who fliTts.
but il is dorbly. hard on a man
10 have q flirtatious wife. because
society pities and puts halo
about the head of the wife who