Omaha daily bee., 1916-05-12
W inding Your
.Oun Business
Greatest Art
ny DOROTHY DIX.

considered the finest art In the world
To this promptly responded: This
art % minding your own business" and
added with a sigh, ITS an art that
seems to be beyond the grasp OF my own
/ eek
! And that Is sad sad truth. Women
f can learn anything else except to let
/ other people run their own affairs That
1 is as much beyond the average woman
az flight 10 the stars. II takes wo-
/ man Of heroic mould to arrive at the
point OF grace when she can behold an
other Individual making pie without
/ thrustlng her finger IN II.
1 Woman IL great original and unre-
/ constructed Buttlnsky. She always has
! been like that She was built that way.
/ And It always has been her bane. She
\ has broken her heart over other peoples
\ sorrow. She has lain awake 0t night
/ and lost sleep over other peoples worries,
I She has bankrupted herself paying
other peoples debts She has brought
on nervous prostration trying to run
other peoples lives. She has stirred UP
moro heart burnings md jealousy and
bitterness and strife by not minding her
own business than have been caused by
anything else IN the world,
~ course there are men meddlers, but
they arc few and far between. The ma
mia for interfering In other peoples bust
ness IL distinctly feminine, The average
man feels that he has got about all thai
he can manage with his own affairs and
trouble enough Of his own without Dor
rowing his nclghbors
The average woman attends to her
business IN tie intervals when she ism
worrying about why the Browns don't
send their children 10 the public school
instead OF TO a private one, when Brown
Is only on salary. and how the smiths
con afford o new automobile this season
And the aueerest part Of II all Is that
by some qulrk Of feminine logic this On,
warranted butting into other peoples
affairs h accounted a virtue by her In
stead o. vice
A woman'H definition of selfishness ~
an Individual who attends strictly TO bis
own business and who doesn't Interfere
with odglee wien other people are ~
trouble nor prescribe on his own hook
for a sck ptrson.
This inability to attend 10 her own busi-
ness and leave other people 10 RON theirs
without any assistance from her goea
long way toward explaining why women
no often fall In their undertakings. For
instance II is the principal reason Why
80 many women break down physicians.
They try 10 carry the universe on theif
shoulders. ia.
They could manage well enough WIN
their own work and bear with suthclcht
fortltudc their own troubles, put "hsh
they add 20 that the accumulated ar
Elections Of everybody with whom they
are acquainted they collapse under the
burden Of voc.
II Il doubtless n pity THAT Mrs. Jones
ghould be such poor manager and 50
wasteful and cNtrnvagant II 10 mueh
10 be regretted that young Blank does
not 20 TO work and support his NidoWen
mother Ii ID a crying shame that the Gray
baby should be fed on saner kraut ana
beer instead Of sterllized milk, but, after
all the other women In tbs neighbor-
hood ore not responsible for these al
fairs. and there isn't a blessed thing they
can do about them, so why should they
worry. Yet they do.
There lsn't a wife and mother for
blocks around who isn't wearing herseh
into e FRAGILE over the way the Joneses
\ and the Blanks and the Grays Of their
communities conduct their households,
and all 10 no purpose, for the Joneses
and the Blanks and the Grays don't want
their advice. and won't have II at any
price.
OF course. when there is any need OF
Solomon. every woman feels eapable
/ OF speaking right up and answering the
call, but st is well to occasionally re-
fleet that other people are almost as
capable OF running their own affairs as
we would be. This Is always surpriss
| TO us, but II " fact. nevertheless.
| There was probably never marriage
when everybody In the. community dion :
/ feel that they could have made a much
more iudlcious selection for both parties
than they had made for themselves, yet
divorce is comparatively rare. Every
one OF Us Is dead sure that we could
/ bring Up every body else's children mueh
better than they are doing H. yet other
peoples children seem to turn out about
a. well as our own,
We women generally affiict ourselves
\ about these matters, We are reduced 70
/ tears because sallie Peters Is going n
marry the man shs wants TO instead 81
\ the man whom We think would suit her
We aEgratate our souls because Mrs
Perkins lets her bahy play In the back
yard with the eat instead ~ having n
Z folding paper mats At the kindergarten
Z IN the sympathy We lavish on psopl-
I vha don't nssd II nor desire n, and the
amount u enstsy We eNptnd on o'hsf
peoples affairs could he applied e our
oan business We should AL be shining
examples y sueeess
y reoplf are always wondering shat thA
I pra ~ cts NE 10 les maln attraction =
that IN . bis cts yau are delivered from
mtsrferihs neiEahofs We never 81 20
knos people sell enough for them -
ad1las ia and There q such wsat psses
I aua bsppintss b beine permitted - man
ass our npn sffstu in eur ceu way
llhAi "a amRenAtga far @eFH 90 glts
people suffer The mi.'enlam slll hssa
Arrived HHaN 80 RH ltaGh ia miua aH{
Ihwu b8atHes n3i i hNl - en ttth
GdtH sthagf = sifs6F namsn tn