The Washington herald., 1917-08-20
by DOROTHY DIX.
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer

Ever since the report went forth
that a dependent wife would save a
man from the conscription draft the
wedding bells have been overworked
| by slackers who thought that they
would find safe refuge from war
in matrimony.
A marriage a minute was the rec
ord for a space OF time in New York
at the matrimonial bureau. And such
marriages as many OF them were.
Boys marrying women old enough to
be their mothers, or almost their
grandmothers! Men marrying girls
with whom they were so little ac-
quainted they had to ask the girls
names in applying for their marriage
licenses! Furtive eyed fellows lead
ing painted-faced. bleached-haired
women to the altar-men marrying z
anybody with enough skirts on for
them to hide behind. And they ali
went away to live scrappily ever after.
For what chance of success could
such marriages possibly have? What
hope OF a man making a good hus-
band who entered into the most sa-
cred obligation OF life from the basest
motives, and who showed by his very
act that he was without loyalty, graft
tude, or any sense of his obligations
and duties? You can't build a home
on such shifting sand as that
II 1t were not such a sordid and
contemplate sight, the spectacle of a
man getting married to avoid going to
war would be one that was sardon-
ically humorous. 1t is jumping out of
the frying pan into the fire with a
vengeance, and the Stacker bride
groom will find his case similar to
that Of the circus man, who, fleeing
from his wife's wrath, took refuge in
the lions cage, before which she stood
and shook her fist and taunted him
with, Come out Of that, you coward,
II you dareH
Certainly the man who thinks he is
going to escape fighting by getting
married has another guess coming to
him. He will find that matrimony is
a fight that never ends. a fight of in
clination. of temperaments, of tastes,
Of habits, a fight of all that goes to
make up two different personalities
a battle royal over the latchkey, over
the pocketbook. over the way the po-
tatoes were cooked. over the multi
tudinous details that constitute daily
life, out of which few come alive and
none unnamed
OF course, the Stacker who Is afraid
to go to war thinks that he would
rather fight a woman than a man his
own size. Alas, here. too. he is due
to have a bitter awakening from his
dream of safety. A wife fights with
her tongue, swifter and more fatal
in its action than any machine gun.
And she aims every time with deadly
~ N,Fw IL l.
spot in her husbands character, and
every shot goes home. And against
that fusillade of invective there is no
barrage of fire to protect him.
Many a husband, coming home late
at night, and exposed to the lombard
ment of the family circle when his
wife turns her Big Berthas upon him
and let's him have a broadside of all
the burning thoughts she has been
thinking while she waited up for him,
has wished himself safe in the
trenches, where there was nothing
but a little shrapnel and bombs and
things to disturb a mans peace and
quiet.
Another thing that the Stacker who
would rather marry than enlist will
find out to his cost is that to avoid
a little trouble he has jumped into
lifelong trouble. To escape doing his
duty to his country for few months
he has made himself responsible for
duties that he will have to do to the
end of his days. To avoid bearing his
part of the burden of citizenship he
has taken upon his back a burden
that he can never lay down.
For the war, at worst, can only last
a very few years. Possibly It will