The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-30
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
BY DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.
Playtine.

ject over which there is more acri-
monious debate in the family circle
than there is over the amusement
question.
The average woman wants to doll
herself up in her best evening clothes
! theaters and restaurants at night.
The average man wants to put on his
slippers and dressing gown and stay
at home.
The average woman. when she tells
you of the fly in the ointment of her
happy married life, and points to the
one defect in her good, kind, loving
husband, complains that she has to
stick at home evenings. that her hus-
band hardly ever takes her out any
where and that wheH he does he goes
with such grooming and disappearing
and wears SO much the look of an
Early Christian Martyr that it takes
all of the pleasure away.
And when the average woman
speaks with unconcealed envy of an
other woman's husband, she invaria-
bly, relates the number of times
week he takes his wife out to dine at
| restaurants, and that they both AXE
dancing lessons and never miss a first
night at the theater.
The average man doesn't say much
but probably his ideal of a perfect
wife is a woman who has lost both
legs in a railroad accident so she is
content to stay put in her own home
1t is not without significance that men
noVelists invaria bly, depict their per-
] feet female characters as fireside an
! gels.
| The thing that furnishes zip and
| pep to this domestic spat about play
| time is that both husband and wife
! can make out a perfectly good case in
/ their own behalf, and that each of
them is perfectly right from his. or
| her own point of view
The man says that when he comes
a r rINf l.
| days labor, it is as much cruelty to
dumb brutes to expect him to put OH
| his soup -and-fishes and fare forth to
dance as it would be to make an old
! plough horse run races at night
| He says that when the days work
! is over he is tired in every fibre of
| his brain and body, so tired that it is
| torture to him to have to think or
| talk' that Ire does not feel able even
! to make the effort of being entertain
| ing and amiable to strangers, and the
| very thought of having to grin and
smirk and pretend to be interested in
| the dr1vel of the bores who constitute
/ the rank and file of society is enough
to send him gibbering to a madhouse
| Furthermore, he AYERS, the little
| narrow margin of the evenings quiet
rest at nome is all that stands between
| him and a nervous breakdown De-
| prive him of that, send him out at
! night into noisy crowds, deprive him
| of three or four hours of sleep; upset
! his stomach with unwholesome eating
! and drinking, and he would break un-
! der the burdens he bears. No man
/ VINO burns the candle at both ends
| even if he burns the candle in the
company of his wife, can hold his own
! in business with the man who con-
serves his wick and gets every particle
of the light out of it that is in it,
Heaven knows" says the man, 81
work like I do for the sake of my
/ family. I give them every indulgence
| that I can possibly afford. 1 lavish
! things with both hands on my wife,
and why on earth she can't see this
| thing from reasonable standpoint
and quit badgering me about running
around at night, beats me. But she
can't, and We are eVerlastingly fight
ing over it, and she considers herself
a poor, neglected, prosecuted wife be-
like a lounge lizard
On her side the woman deposes:
Il work Just as hard as my husband
/ does, and at an occupation infinitely
more monotonous. All day long 1 am
at home, shut up within four walls
doing the same things over and over
again.
4 either cook myself or see to the
cooking, of countless meals that are
eaten up and forgotten. I straighten
hour. I wash little faces that are dirty
! the next minute. I answer million
/ cries a day for mother
Il sew. mend and darn and ans
wer the telephone and run around to
| the butchers and the grOcer's, and do
little dull odd jobs that have no in
terest in them and that do not take up
any of my mind or give me anything
| really to think about It's the in
| finite detail work of making home,
and work that l am glad to do and
| love to do for the sake of my family,
but all the same it's treadmill work,
and by the time night comes I am sick
and tired of it and feel that I must
/ have a change or go mad.
TT rests me more than anything in
the world to dress myself up in my
/ flossiest clothes and to go out and
1 spend the evening at some place of
amusement. 1t does me good in every
4 way.
IF I have been to see a play I am
thinking over every act of it the next
| day as 1 sew my long seams. If 1
have been to a dance it puts a spring
to my feet and a rhythm to the broom
with which I sweep my floors. If 1
have been to party go smiling about
remembering some good talk or fun
! ny story I have heard
And, of course, woman always
! gets everything at last down to the
! personal EQUATION Other women's
husbands take them to places of
amusement and go with them to din
! ners and parties. I feel it a slight to
meas if my husband was possibly
! ashamed of me-that he isn't willing
ever to take me anywhere. More
! than that. woman likes to see and
be seen. and finally I am proud of my
| husband and like to flaunt him off
/ before other women.
so therel That's why 1 think he
I should take me about. and he's mean
and selfish because he won't. And,
| anyway if people give way to the
/ temptation to become hermits they
just dry up in their shells and every
| body forgetS they are living"
/ And there you are with a perfectly
good argument on both sides The
| mans daily life makes him want A
! quiet evening. The woman's daily life
/ makes her want a gay evening.