The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-05-29
Dorothy Die Says
By DOROTHY DIX
worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer
Why Divorce Increases.

wonder among their Ir1enOS anu az
quaintances. Everyone is discussing
it and nobody can understand it.
1T must be Mrs. Adamss fault.
say the men, for finer man, with
higher sense of honor than Jack
Adams doesn't live"
You needn't tell US that Mrs.
Adams is to blame" cry the women,
for a sweeter, tenderer, more loyal
or more conscientious woman than
Marian Adams is, the good Lord never
made"
| And if ever there vas love match
it was theirs" exclaim the chorus of
their friends in unison. Why, they
were simply mad about each other,
| and how they could ever come to the
parting of the ways is beyond our i'm
agining.
Their little world has never COM
| pretended the real reason of the
Adams divorce. Perhaps the Adamses
| themselves do not understand the true
inwardneSS of it, or know that in
way they are the victims of their day
and generation, and of the two forces
| that so often oppose each other
| heredity and progress.
| More particularly they are the vic
| Tins of the new feminist movement,
| in which the woman has gone forward
| into new world with different ideals,
a different faith, another outlook from
| that occupied by the grandmother,
| while the man has stayed still in the
very spot where his grandfather stood,
and regards women from precisely the
same standpoint that his grandfather
did.
| The story of the Adams divorce is
a novel in three volumes. Let US
read it.
Volume 1:
Sixty years ago Jonathan Adams
| was married to Mary Brown. Jona-
lthan was good man. He loved his
wife, and he meant to be a good huS-
band, but his idea of what constituted
a good husband was identical with the
| slave owners idea of what constitutes
good master. He thought he had
| done his full duty by his wife when he
saw that she had enough to eat,
| house to live in, and such clothes as
| he considered proper to give her.
For the rest, he expected his wife
| to bear his children, perform all the
| duties of a perfectly trained upper
servant, be properly grateful to him
for all that he did for her, and to look
| upon him as a superior and godlike
creature whom she was glad to obey
He never conceived of her as having
any life apart from his own, or think
ing a thought that differed from his
And it never entered his mind to do
| anything actively to make her happy
generation as her husband. She had
never seen a woman regarded as any
thing but an inferior creature, whose
privilege it was to minister to the
pleasure of man, and so altho she re-
belled inWardly at the way she was
| treated, she accepted with heroic pa
tience as the unacceptable lot of wo-
man.
She got along in peace with her
husband because she bowed her hea d
witt aal II tn Ia f0y- =
had been bred in her that a wife must
submit to her husband.
i Volume 2:
Thirty years ago John Adams mar
ried Mamie Brown. John Adams s
eulogists were never weary of saying
that he was a chip off of the old
block. and a worthy son of his worthy
father, and it was true. John held
) to his fathers rigid code of honesty
in his business dealings. He also sub
scribed to his fathers views concern
ing women.
He treated his wife as he had al
ways seen his father treat his moth
er. He had never seen his mother
considered, so he thought it quite I'M
necessary to be considerate of the feel
ings of a mere wife, or to take any
pains to give her pleasure. Her part
in life was to bear children, and make
a man comfortable home.
I'm the head of this house." was
the phrase that was ofteneSt on his
lips, and he made of himself a domes-
tic tyrant before whom his wife and
children trembled.
} John belonged to his fathers gem
Grafton domestically. but Mamie did
not belong to her mothers generation.
She belonged to a generation of wo-
men who had taken one step forward
and who had begun to revolt against
the serfdom of wives, and to see the
dawn of a new day of freedom for
! women.
Mamie did not submit with the pa
tience that her mother-in-law had
shown to her husbands tyrannies. She
fiercely rebelled against it. She fought
back tooth and nail
To a degree, Mamie was bound by
the old order because divorce was still
looked upon askance, and she had
been trained to no gainful occupation,
and she was financially dependant
upon her husband. So she stayed with
him, hating him as only a slave can
, hate an unjust master, and their home
was a place of never ending turmoil
and strife.
Volume 5:
Five years ago Jack Adams and
Marian Brown were married. Jack
was fine fellow, but he followed in
the footsteps of his father and grand
father, and began to treat his wife as
he had seen his mother and grand
mother treated.
81 am the head of the house." he
declared imperiously.
| Nonsense" laughed Marian, I'VE
are matrimonial partners with equal
authority"
81 demand that you shall obey me
as my mother and grandmother obey
ed their husbands" insisted Jack.
81 shall respect your wishes as far
} as possible, but it is childish to talk
\ of my obeying you. 1 am a grown
woman, intelligent, educated, not a
fool or slave to give blind obed-
ience," replied Marian.
That was the beginning of the
, struggle between them that ended
with love lying dead at their feet.
Jack was determined to conquer Ma
rian, to break her spirit, to force her
} into the attitude of subservience that
| IL his mother. nd d