Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-12-15
WOMEN SOQUICK
TOFIND AN INSULT
Is 1t a Lack of the Sense of
Humor That Makes Them
Ready to Take Offense?
By Dorothy Dix,


Why do women take offense so
much more easily than men? There
is no use, my sisters, in raising an
indignant howl of protest and saying
that they don't. We all know that
they do and that every woman
bristles with feelings as a porcupine
does with quilts.
You cannot deal with n woman
as you can with a man; yon cannot
talk to woman as you can to
man, and on your life you dare not
tell a woman the truth as you would
a man. She always has to be handled
with kid gloves, because, as the
homely old phrase goes, she takes Of
tense where none was intended.
Never Try to Please Woman by Tell
ing Her That Her Waist Gapes.
Thss most curious and abnormal IL
1ustration of this Is to be found in
the fact that If you tell q woman that
something is wrong with her costume,
ninety-nine times out of a hundred
she sees a deadly insult in your kindly
meant attention and gives you a bale
full glare that teaches you to let all
future women go around with their
packets gaping or their shirt waists
unbuttoned if they happen that way
Only recently a woman friend of
mine whose philanthropy no amount
or experience can ever entirely
squelch, was walking up the street
behind lady who had neglected in
making her toilette to hook her skirt
belt and was, in consequence thereof,
in imminent danger of losing an i'm
portant part of her attire. Said my
friend, with a winning smile:
Pardon me, madam, but your skirt
is unfastened in the back and is
about to drop"
Said the other woman. with a look
that brought the temperature down
to zero in that immediate vicinity:
"I dOn'f see that thatta anv b1rai
ness of yours"
Which proposition closed the incl
dent.
This is by no means an isolated
case. Nearly every woman has had
something similar happen to her when
she ventured to tell sister woman
that something was awry with her at
tire. AS for calling woman's at
tention to having gotten her false
hair on crooked, or her figure on
hind part before. or that she had hit
the rouge box too literally, or had
located her eyebrows in the wrong
place, nobody who hasn't a candidate
for martyrdom and heavily insured
for the benefit of her family would
dream of committing such fool
hardy act.
Yet Man Will Thank You for Telling
Him of Some Error in His Attire.
In contradiction to this, imagine
the fervor of gratitude that would be
a mans THANK you. old chap" ifI
some good-hearted brother would
call his attention to the fact that he
had gotten on his clothes in a way
that made him n figure of fun, or that
some unperceived accident had hap
pened to his attire.
If in jam in a store or on the cars
or at the theater you unintentionally
1ostle a woman she adopts the atti- |
Jude of accusing you of having done
1t on purpose and with malice afore-
thought. AS for attempting to apollo |
g1Ze, 1t Is n waste of breath. The |
offended one turns upon you with a
look that says as plainly as print, "I |
knew that you did it on purpose and |
that you have Just been waiting for
this opportunity to step on my skirt
or bump my hat. If you hadn't. why
didn't you tear that other woman's
dress or smash her hat out of shape?
Oh, know your mean, low-down mo-
tives In crowding me. You can't fool
me-"
Women also show a diabolical inge-