The San Francisco call., 1913-09-01
1.-THE BUSINESS GIRL
AS A WIFE.
BY Dorothy DIX

Ss~.e~>~e.~>~~~~~.~~ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- YOUNG man who has fallen in
~ love with pretty stenographer,
but who. fears that she will not
make a good housekeeper and man.,
ager because she has had no domestic
training. writes. to me for. my opinion
on the business girl as. wife.
What do think of the business girl
as a wife?
/. think she Is the preferred matri.
moniai risk. son, and II were young
man. looking for real helpmeet and
not parlor ornament. no girl would
get me who hadn't the benefit of the
education; the discipline and the ex-
perience that come from having earned
her own bread. and butter. Commerciai'
life has college course or a fin-
ishing school or European travel or
society. left at the post when 1t comes
to fitting girl for real life.
OF course, its unfortunate for a
girl. when she marries, not to be an
expert cook and. marketer. and maybe
while your business girl wife Is learn
ing how to make bread and broil a
steak your digestion may suffer
trife. son. but take my word for It
that any young woman who has had
the intelligence to master the art OF
stenography, to 'hold-down good Job
as clerk or bookkeeper, isn't going
ktfrhon
range knock her out.
She will get busy with the cook
book and before you know it she Will
be turning out things en- casserole
and a la rnaitre d'hotel that Will make
the hit or miss cooking of the girl
who has learned to do things the way
that mother did them seem like a
quick lunch joint compared to Del
monico's.
ADVANTAGES
Any woman who can read can learn
to cook like a Gordon bleu in six
months, II she wants to. and IL she
doesn't want to, the mere fact OF her
having always been at home isn't any
X
Mother makes the angel cake in many
a home where the daughters sit in
the parlor and do fancy work.
In marrying a business girl there
are many compensating advantages
that make up for her not being a
good free hand cook to begin with
The first Of these is, of course. that
the woman who has earned mopey
is invariably a better manager with
1t and more careful than the one who
has not. The woman who has never
made dollar can't get over the idea
that money grows like leaves on a
tree. and that when man Is away
from home at work he Is engaged In
the pleasing pursuit of picking them
of.
The woman who has had to earn
her board and keep knows how much
labor, how much anxiety, how much
sweat and blood go into every dollar,
and she is careful of how she spends
one. If you want thrifty, econom-
ical wife who will take care of your
income and help you to save up
| against rainy day, marry business
girl every time.
The business girl has also been
| trained into habits of order and
promptness and accuracy, and these
are every whit as valuable in rum
ming. q successful business. If you
want your household accounts ball
| anced to q cent, and your meals on
| time. then marry business girl.
EXPERIENCE COUNTS
| The business girl also makes q more
| reasonable and sympathetic wife than
| the domestic girl possibly can. There
/ are certain things that we are obliged
! to have suffered In our own person
| before we know how to appreciate
what they mean to another. The or
| binary woman worries her husband
about tribes. and the minute he comes
home begins pouring upon his unfor-
/ tunate head all of the accumulated
mishaps OF the day. simply because
! she does not comprehend how heavy
| are the burdens he has borne. how
nerve wrecked and exhausted he Is In
| q struggle In which 1t has taken every
| ounce OF his vitality. every particle OF
his intelligence and every bit of his
| courage to hold hs own.
/ The business girl has been through
that mill. She knows that there were
times. after. q strenuous day in store
/
| one more feather weight OF annoy
ance, a single dlsagreeable sugges-
/ tion, even, were added to the burden
that she had borne that It would
crush her. This remembrance will
| give her fellow feeling for her hus-
/ band that will make her wondrous
kind and patient with him.
| She will know that in sheer hui
manity wife should keep her trou-
bles to herself. and make her home q
haven toward which her husband
turns her eyes as e place OF peace and
| rest and comfort and cheer, q piace
/ where a man can gather up his forces
! for the next days battle, not waste
! them In disciplining the children OF
speaking to a refractory cook Your
true husband epoiler Is not the bust
ness girl who understands what hard
work means.
/ SELF-CONTROL II
Above all, the business girl Will
have been taught how to control her