The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-18
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
BY DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.
Cornelia's Jewels.


on a suit" inconspicuous and plain,
the kind of a garment that denotes
that its wearer must get much wear
and service out of her clothes, while
the other woman was gowned in a
CONNECTION" that SIMPLY shrieked
Paris at the beholder.
You may send this sable scarf to
me- said she of the glad raiment to
the shop keeper.
"Oh, you lucky woman rrurmured
the woman of the blue serge, envious-
ly. you can buy anything you want,
while 1 have to pinch and scrape and
economic to get the few things 1 am
actually bound to have to present a
decent appearance
Il have fine clothes, you have fine
children the richly dressed woman
replied. looking her sister steadily IN
the eye.
Yes responded the other lightly,
II am like Cornelia, my children are
my jewels-and, believe me, they are
all the jewels I've got and most of the
clothes"
"CorneIia's jewels" echoed the wom-
an in the CONNECTION, you've got Cor
nelias jewels and you are not willing
to pay the price for themi You moth
ers are welchers. You make me tired,
4 >
money dressing themselves up in silly
finery because they have no daughters
to buy pretties for, or no boys to
spend their money on.
"Oh, you are not the only one.
Every friend I've got who has children
is always coveting my new hats and
gowns and furbelows, and saying what
/ a wonderful husband I've got, and
| how devoted he is to me because he
gives me a diamond ring or a new
/ ri h iV~fl hid in
that they are poor, neglected, martyred
creatures because they can't have all
the things that 1 have, and they feel
that they have been unlucky enough
to marry men who haven't gotten on
very well because their husbands can't
make them as handsome gifts as 1
| have.
'.And they don't take into account
the fact that John and have no chill
dren, and that John has nobody on
! they also forget that raising a family
is just about the most expensive lux
ury that anybody can indulge in.
| Take your own case, for instance.
Your husband is just as good a BUSH
ness man as mine is, and l don't
doubt that he has made just as much
money, but you have always had to
Skimp and deny yourself while have
had plenty and have been able to in
dulge myself. The reason for this diff
and 1 had none. Why, you spent
more money on sterilized milk and
trained nurse and baby specialists in
the years when your children were
little than I spent on trips to Europe.
| 'And when your children got big
ger and were sent off to school and
college you could have bought a string
| of pearls any year with what their
school expenses cost you, and an i'm
| ported motor car with their allow
And now that your girls are grown
up and have to have street clothes,
and dancing clothes, and sport clothes,
and the millions of little things that
girls require to set off their youth
and beauty and enable them to go
with the kind of people they want to
go with, why, the wonder to me is
/ that any family pocket book, short of
a millionaire's, can stand it. No won
der your husband, after paying the
family bif1s. can't present you with
! diamond tiaras.
keeping a yacht or running a rae
/ ing stable isn't a bit more expensive
than raising a house full of children,
tiates that financial undertaking puts
the man who merely decks out his
wife like a milliner's and a jeweler's
show windows in the piker Glass;
Il guess that is true,'' said the wo-
man in the blue serge. thoughtfully.
t'Of course it's true" replied the
other woman, look about you and
when you see a middle aged woman
dolled up like the Queen of Sheba,
! nine times out of ten you will find
out that she is a childless woman, and
that she's driven to dressing herself
up because she hasn't got any daugh-
/ tiers to dress up, and instead of envy
ing her you ought to pity her.
! DO you suppose that any woman
gets as much fun out of sitting and
embroidering cobwebby lingerie for
herself as she would out of working
| little frocks for baby? Do you sup
woman gets the thrills out of buying
a pink satin evening gown for herself
that she would get out of buying one
for rosebud young daughter? Do
you suppose that there's any woman
with a real heart and soul in her who
wouldn't rather spend her money on
giving fine, intelligent son a college
education than putting it in a new
limousine or a diamond stomacher?
Nv hich would you rather have, my
memory of pleasant trips in foreign
lands or your own memory of your
children's babyhood? w Guild you
rather be able to order set of furs
sent home from fashionable shop,
or when you get home to have the
clinging arms of your little grand
children about your neck?
1T won't take you two minutes to
decide that question You wouldn't
exchange your children and the Joy
you have out of them for the contents
of all the Fifth Avenues, the Bond
Streets and Rue de la Paix in the
| universe. But the trouble with you
is that you are greedy. You want the
earth You want all of the finery
that we poor childless women have
to- cover up our empty hearts with,
and you want your children besides
well, the most of us don't get
everything. We get ore thing or the
! other, and life makes feirer 1ivide
of pleasures and perquisites than we
are accustomed to think
Yes here are you with your child
reh and the thousand living, vital
eternal interests that they bring daily
into your life, envying me because I've
got an unlimited shopping ticket. And
only Yesterday met Grace Tompkins.