The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-12-13
DOROTEY DIX TALKS
BY DOROTHY DIX
Worlds highest Paid Woman Writer.


Taxing Bachelors.
One of the schemes suggested for
raising war money<is to place a tax
on bachelors. This is on the princi-
pie that taxes should be paid on luxu-
| ries instead of necessities and that
man who enjoys the privilege of single
| blessedness should be made to pay
| for it.
! The plan for taxing bachelors hobs
up now and again and it is always
hailed with wild acclaim from every
body except the proposed victim. For,
like the fat man, nobody loves the
| bachelor, and everybody regards his
pockets as fair game
Women regard the bachelor with
sentiments of baffled rage and despair,
even while they reluctantly admire
him as one who has been supernatu-
rally clever that he has been able to
| escape all the matrimonial traps they
have set for him. Such uncanny clev-
| ernesS seems to them more than hu-
man and they unconsciously attri-
| butte it to diabolic inspiration.
That's why people speak intuitiveJy
| of wicked old bachelors" and why
novelists, when they want to depict
a hard, cruel, crafty, heartIess villain,
| invariably make him a bachelor, and
why we naively picture a bachelors
life as perpetual orgy of wine, wo-
1 man and song, although all the bach
| elorS of our acquaintance are meek
mild, kindly gentlemen who are most
| ~ on the water wagon and the diet
kitchen and whose one and only d.
version is work.
Bachelors have the awful fascina-
ton and antagonism for women that
the big trout has who eIudes you,
| though you angle for him summer
| after summer under the same rock;
or that the red fox has that you are
| always pursuing and never can catch;
or that the riddle has that you never
| can guess
| For widowers, women have a soft,
| tender, haIf maternal feeling that fills
them with pity and sympathy and a
sense of protection. Their attitude
| towards him is that which we. feel
| towards the soldier returning manned
from the battlefield. He is one who
mas dared the dangers of matrimonv
who has fought the good domestic
tignC ana VINO is entitled to spend the
Dalance of his life in celibate peace if
ne SO desires. Therefore she STAYS
ner hand at match making to far as
| he is concerned.
But the bachelor she regards as a
sIacker, yellow gutter, a coward
VINO mas stayed safe in his club and
! Kept his skin whole instead of facing
the domestic bomb. He hasn't done
ms bit, and she feels it her solemn
4uty 10 conscript him into the army of
| therefore, every woman is deter
mined that no bachelor shall escana
the natter if she can help it, and the
very minute one crosses her pathway
she brings up all of her match max
| ing artillery and opens upon him a
heaVy 1lre of pretty girls and rich
/ widows that never ceases untiT he
runs up the white flag of sIrrendar
or flees for his life.
| BESIDES the passion of resentment
that nils the breast of woman at hav-
ing been outwitted by the bachelor
| nrf ~
seeing him spend for his own pleas
| ures and adornments the money that
she reels ought to be spent BY some
woman on French frocks and inn
ported millinery.
| When woman is invited to a bach
elor's home to dinner and finds that
ne has surrounded himself with
peautlIul and artistic furnishings. with
servants who make him utterly and
entirely comfortable. her first thought
IS: What a selfish beasti PIT et
thal humldor cost as much as a pearl
| pendant"
Married men don't love bachelors
| and. out of sheer envy, would like to
soak them to the extent of the law
with taxes
No matter how much man loves
his wife and children he doesn't dis
guise from himself the fact that he
is a domestic slave. He talks about
freedom and independence, but well
to punch the family time clock at the
| appointed hour
| Likewise he realizes that the chief
end of married man is to paw bills
rent bills, grocer's bills dress bills
/ hat bills and school bilIs-and that
| after these are paid it is only the
| deepest pocket that has lone dollar
or two left for the exclusive use and
behoof of the man who earns the
family roll.
The married man observes the
| bachelor free to come and go as he
pleases. at liberty to stay down town
| for dinner with whom he pleases, and
| play little game of cards without
| having to perjure his immortal soul
by giving a lying excuse to his keeper.
The married man sees the bachelor
| indu1ging himself in his little fads and
fancies. He hears the bachelor plan
ming to take a run to Florida in the
| winter for the tarpon fishing, or to
the Rockies for the big game. or the
| Adirondacks in the summer just to
rest and invite his soul
And the married man knows that
none of these joys are for him. He
| fOreSwore them at the altar. He's got
| to go home straight from the office,
because if he doesnt-well, of course
he isn't afraid of Maria-but, hang
| it all, a game of poker or a dinner
isn't worth going through a spell of
Mysteries of q curtain lecture. And
there are no little trips for him, be-
cause Maria and the children monopo-
lie all the travelling and vacations,
and by the tine he gets through pay
ing for that there isn't enough money
| left to do more than take a ferry
ride
OF course, family life is the happiest
| life. 1t must be so because we've
4 been told it for thousanas of years,
and most people believe in the theory
enough to put it into practical execu-
! ton, but there are times and seasons
when the ma rried have their suspic-
ions that the holy estate has been over
touted. Then it is that the married
man feels towards the bachelor as the