The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-06-16
Dorothy DiG Says
Why Do Men Prefer Second Rate
Women?
BY DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer

noblest and best in their characters is
because they get no help or encour-
agement from men in doing SO. On
the contrary, men. perhaps uncon-
sciously and internationally, but none
the less definitely and most universal
ly, put premium on all woman'S
weakness and faults.
And this being the case woman nat
urally asks herself, What's the use?''
If the women who are dull and stupid
and lazy and extravagant and selfish,
get the capital matrimonial prizes, and
have the most adoring and generous
and considerate husbands, what's the
use in woman breaking her neck
trying to be a real helpmate to her
husband. when the kind CT wife of
whom a man never seems to tire is
one he calls "Tiddlums'' and who has
the conversational repertoire of a hen?
Nobody knows. It's merely SO.
Of course, men will deny this and
swear that their ideal of womanhood
is everything that is grand and lofty.
Maybe it is, but they don't marry
unless there is nothing else around
handy when they happen to be in
matrimonial mood. That is why the
women who are fitted to make the
best wives seldom get chance to do
it, and when they do they don't ge.
many cheers from their husbands.
The truth is that while men may
admire women for their virtues, they
every married woman will bear test1-
mony to the fact that her husband is
never so tender and affectionate to
her as when she is making three-ply
fool of herself.
Take the matter of brains. for in
stance. The more thoroly they are
scrambled in a feminine head, the bet
ter the average man likes them 1t is
a truism to say that any pretty ldloI
can marry five times to college grad
yates once. This is such palpable
fact that thoughtful mothers Hesitate
to try to give their daughters a thoro
education, and when they do they ad-
lure them for heavens sake to keep
quiet about it and never let any man
find out how much they know.
OF course, there are a few excep-
tional men who like intelligent wo-
ment and enjoy their society, but they
are as scarce as hens teeth. The rank
and file flee woman or readlng ana
culture as they would the smallpox
If you were inviting young men to
come and see a girl visitor, you would
conceal the fact that she was highly
educated as carefully as you would a
physical deformity, for well you would
know that wild horses couldn't drag
them near her. It's the maldens with
two-by-four minds who think Brown
ing is the name of a kodak, and that
this war is Just awful because it has
put up the prices. of silk stockings,
who are bellies with men, with SWANS
galore signing at their feet, Never
Miss VassaI of Bryan Mawr.
And the queer thing is that the
charm Of the marked down intellect in
a woman appears to hold even after
marriage. You would think that an
intelligent man would be bored to
death by a wife with whom he could
not discuss any subject more profound
than the cost of groceries and the
| baby's new tooth. You would think
he would pine for some real compan-
ionship in his own home, woman
who would read what he read, think
his thoughts, catch his subtle allus-
ions, but this does not seem to be a
masculine need.
| Generally speaking the happiest
marriages are those in which the wife
| is not in the husbands class intel
| lectually, and where she prefaces ev-
| cry sentence with John says" and
| thinks he hung the moon instead of
| having taken a course in astronomy.
| Also, generally speaking, men have
so little appreciation of the sacrifices
a woman makes for them, that one
wonders why generation after genera
| ton of wives continue to make them.
A girl marries a poor young fellow. In
| order to help him along she makes of
| her shoulders a ladder on which he
may climb to success.
| She tolls and stints and saves. She
burns her beauty out over the cooking
| stove. She wastes her youth in petty
economies. She denies herself all the
little daintinesses and luxuries that
women crave. You would think that
the nobility of soul that could offer
| itself up that freely on the altar of
| love would fill the man with such awe
and reverence that he would wor-
| ship before it.
You would think that he could not
do enough to show his devotion to
such a woman; that he could not be
| tender enough to her, thank her
his appreciation. But does he? Not
at all. Oftener than not the man
knows in his inner consciousness that
! his wife has made Lin. hates her for
! it.
He is not big enough to be grateful
to a woman. When he doesn't hate
her, he is Indifferent to her. That she
has grown old before her time and
lost her looks in his service counts
nothing to him. All he sees is that
she is faded and homely, and behind
the times, and doesn't match with his
altered fortune.
Therefore Patient Griselda is left
| behind at home while the Successful
Man fares forth into the gay world
of second class women who haven't
worn themselves out toiling to help
any man, but whose hardest labor has
been in assisting him to spend his
| money. And the man holds their
soft, manicured hands, and pities him.
| self because he is tied to a wife with
knots on her fingers that she made
at the scrubbing board washing his
shirts.
| And pray, look at the premium men
/ put on SelhShpesS and greedinesS and
| graspingness in women. Who are the
wives who are petted and coddled and
| bedecked in fine raiment and jewels
| The good, faithful, devoted wives and
4 mothers who have done their duty
! by their families? Not a bit of it.
They are almost invariably the cold
| blooded, self-Seeking women who
have never loved a human being but
| themselves, or had q thought or desire
that was not centered on themselves
They regard husbands as mere beasts
of burden, designed by kind pro-