El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-11-16
Divorce Cause Starts Early
Great Mistake of MntrimOny Is For
Husbands and Wives Not TO
BE COmpaniOnabIe.
-By Dorothy Dix-

n OR husbands and wives not to be
! n cOmpanionabIe is a serious mis-
| = take OF matrimOny.
Outside of the countries in which
women are shut up in harems, there
/ is no place where husbands and wives
| have so little in common as in America
/ And America leads the world in di-
/ vOrces-
! In this country it iS hardly too much
/ to say that the separation OF husband
/ and wife begins on their wedding day.
| He goes one way She goes another.
He absOrbs himself in business She
| absorbs herself in her. housekeeping. or
| society. or her clubs. He entertains his
1 friends, as a general thing. downtown.
and she doesn't even know the names of
I his masculine cronles- She gives her
parties to women that he does not know
by sight. Each has a life distinct and
separate from the other.
You VIII see the Englishman and his
wife playing golf together, or riding
to the hounds together, or tramping to-
gether in long walks over the country
You will see the thrifty French bOur-
Csois and his wife keeping the store
together during the week, and then off
together on Sunday on some little eX-
cursIOn, or making little feast You
will see the German and his wife
spending their evenings together, hap
PLY and placidly, in some German beer
garden, but the American husband and
wife nearly always take their pleasure
singly.
II is distinctiveIy American joke
in which. when a man says that he is
going to Paris, his friend asks him:
Are you going to take your wife
along with yOu2"
Why, no." exclaimed the man in
surprise, of course not. Didn't I tell
you 1 was going on pleasure trip"
One of the main reasons why mar
riaSe is a failure is because both hus-
=
mOSphere of the average home is as
heavy as lead. and the converse tiOnal
range better fitted for the inmates of
a feeble minded institution than for in
telligent and cultivated men and
women.
They Yavvn.
It is literally true that unless a couple
nave children they have nothing what
ever to talk about, no subject in which
they are mutually interested, and so
they sit up and yawn in each others
faces. and take to quarreling as 4 kind
of life saving station to prevent them
from perishing of ennuf.
Ihls seems an eXaggeratiOn but Just
note the domestic conversation at any
breakfast table you know Isn't it
about Johnnie's new shoes. or Mary's
going to SCHOOL, Then about the cat?
Then about the servant? Then a re-
quest Tor money? And when there are
no children the repertoire is cut down
by one topic. Thrillingly interesting.
madly exciting, isn't it,
Yet, what else have the husband and
wife to say to each other2 What else
have they got in common except the
children. and the pug dog, and the
cook. and the household expenses?
Nothing. The husbands work neces- |
sarily takes him into an environment
of which his wife can know NOTHING,
and when he isn't at work he goes off
win other men to enjoy himself. for
II IS not the custom for American men
and women to play together
To give US due credit have Hun
dered INTO this state of affairs through |
bhndly following the line of least re- 1
sIstance. Men have taken their pleas
ures IN the way they liked best So
have women, and it must be confessed
the ideal of a good time differs in the
sexes There are q very few American
women VINO really enjoy athletic sports. |
Wllie the average American married /
man only att3ins. through fasting and !
prayer, to the pinnacle where he can (
endure teas and receptions with an ex- |
preston that indicates jOy
They Must Learn
Nevertheless if a husband and wife I
mean to make a success of their life to- ]
gether they. must learn to play to- /
gether for there are no ties stronger
than those that bind US to the com
rades of our happy hours. no society
SO dear as that which we can fill in /
with a succession Of DO you remem-
bers2"
That this is true needs no better
proof than the fact that we never UUes-
ton the domestic felicity OF THAI couple
that we see setting out on their holt
days together. When we observe the
Smiths packing their camp kit for a
run down to Florida for tarpon fishing /
or meet the Joneses at suffrage meet
ing. We know that all is well in those /
two households
But when we hear that Mrs. Smith
has had 40 new dresses made for Palm !
Beach, and that Mr. Smith has gone to
for the tobOgganing OF we
meet Mrs. Jones at 4 hen CTub and NJ I
Jones at a poker club, we aren't in the |
least surprised when we pick I'D the !
paper some morning and read that !
these couples, who didn't know how to /
play together anyway. have decided to
break away from each other and try /
playing in somebody else's backward
The moral of all this is that if hus-
bands and wives would be happy