Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-09-12
THE NEGLECTED WIFE
BY DOROTHY DIX
The Highest Paid Woman Writer

FEW days ago a middle aged
n woman, her handsome clothes
~ torn into ribbons, her gray lair
streaming wildly about her face, ran
shrieking through the lobby Of the
hotel in which she had lived for
many years. When she was caught
and overpowered, it was discovered
that she had gone ravfng mad.
What a strange CASE said the
few people who knew her. Here is
q woman apparently in good health
who leads the easiest possible lie
in a luxurious hotel, with no work. no
responsibilities, no care, no bother,
with servants, no children TO worry
her, and with a rich and generous
husband who gives her everything
that money can buy, and yet she goes
crazy. What do you suppose allied
herr"
And no one even guessed that the
woman had been driven mad by neg
lect and the sheer boredom OF ltfef
that had in 1t neither interest, duty
nor purpose. :.
The woman's husband wasn't in.
tentionalIy bad or cruel man. He
was Just absolutely selfish and IN
capable OF perceiving that any other
human being had any rights when
they conflicted with his pleasure. least
of all that a wife had any claim upon
a husband that went beyond her beard
and keep. These he layishly sup
piled, and having bought her Paris
clothes and set her down in an expen-
siye suite in a hotel, he felt that
he had done his full duty towards
her and that she wasn't happy and
satisfied 1t was her own fault, and
because of the unreason OF woman.
Long, long ago she had ceased TO
interest him, or to be anything but
a negligible factor in his life. For
the most part he was a mans man.
absorbed in business, playing the
great game of money making for the
games sake, He took his pleasures
also mostly among men-stih games
of golf. luncheons and dinners al
which big deals were settled between
the fish and the salad. III
He did not care much Tor womeD'
but the ones that he found most at
tractive were those who appeal 70 the |
tired business man-pretty, silly cho-
rus girls that pleased mans eyes,
and amused him with their rowdy
playfulness, as he might have been
amused at the antics Of a kitten.
His whole life was as much apart
from his wife's as II they had lived
on different spheres. When he went
away in the morning he set sail to
sone visible port he called down
town to which she could not follow
him even In her thoughts. And sne
never knew when he was coming
hack from this strange land. Some
fines he came home to dinner. VI
tener he did not. Sometimes ne
would telephone that he was not COM
ing. Sometimes he would forget
And the woman had nothing on
earth with which to I'LL up her inter
minable days and still more intermin-
abie evenings. She had wanted 70
keen house, but her husband would
not agree to 1t. He said he loatheo
home cooking and that the very
thought of the clumsy maid and the
unsophisticated boiled mutton and po-
tatoes of the family dinner turned
nm faint with loathing. What M
REALM meant was that he wanted TO
sscape the weight of the hearthstone
that holds a man down to some ele-
mentary sense Of domestic duty.
So. the woman was cut of rom
even the poor refuge Of doilies and
bed spreads and menograming things
and fussing over pots ana pans and
cooking up elaborate dishes, in which
so many women find an outlet for
their energies and affections.
There Is nothing that you can DO
In a vacuum cleaned hotel suite but
think. And when woman thinks too
much she gets morbid. That was
what happened to this woman. She
sat and thought hour after hour, and
day after day, dull black thoughts
that went round in darker and darker