The Washington herald., 1917-06-29
Ware of the
Summer Girls, Boys
BY DOROTHY DIX.
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman
Writer.

You are about to start forth on
your summer vacation, son, with
money in your pocket, and peace in
your soul, and nothing on your mind
heavier than your new split straw.
All thoughts of matrimony, and dis
ease, and death, and the other catas-
trophies that are liable to overtake
mankind, sooner or later, are afar
from you; yet anon shall you return
engaged and spend the balance OF
your life in wondering how it hap
pened. So sudden, like that
For no one has warned you against
the perils you are about to face, or
handed you a friendly tip to the ef-
feet that summer is the open season
for husband hunting when all girls
90 cunning for their prey. Nor has
any anyy. one told you that the summer
| looks so that the maiden who was
merely nice looking in the winter IL
tearing beauty in the summer, and
she with whom you would have dis
cussed Ibsen and Shaw and suffrage
In December you will make love to In
July.
Nobody knows why these things
are SO. They merely are, and that 5
all there is to it. II there were no
more summers there would be pre-
cious few weddings. There is some
occult connection between the state
Of a mans affections and the ther-
mometer, which Is amply proven by
go the rarer become old bachelors,
\ until when you reach the tropic lati-
tudes you find matrimony a continu-
Gus epidemic.
But, be that as 1t may, what we
| are concerned with now Is not the
| fate Of those who marry early and
often, but of those who desire to de-
fer tho hliaaful until
as they have had a raise in salary
and can contemplate the high cost of
loving without having cold chillS
chase each other up and down in
| their spineS.
"Forewarned is forearmed," says
the old proverb. To know where
danger lies gives a man, at least, a
| Let us, then, consider some of the
| types OF summer girls against whom
\ a young man should be on his guard
unless he is anxious to quickstep up
to the altar to the tune of that
Loaengrtn thing.
First, and most obvious, is the gen.
| uine, old fashioned bottle
summer girl in white muslin and with
a dropping hat wreathed with flowers.
| She's summer annual that has been
| Eden, but every successive genera
] tion of men, from Adam down, have
| fallen for her, because she looks eN-
actly like every man thinks the ideal
woman ought to look.
To all outward appearances she is
a gentle, shy. fiuttering innocent, and
when she glances demurely up In a
mans face from under that Hopping
hat brim, his heart turns over like
| dying fish and he's done for. II
you'd get all the men you know who
are married to flabby, wishy-washy,
| dull Gil1V NEfVaz m the witness stand
and make them tell how and when
and where they proposed to the ladies
| to whom they are tied for life, you
would find that nine-tenths of them
popped the question to a white mus
| lin dress on a starry night in June.
Ware the muslin dress, son, as you
value your freedom. Reflect that
things are not always what they seem
| and that any girl who hasn't got
three chins. and carrotty hair looks
| that laundry comes high. and the
! simpler a dress Is the more it costs.
Therefore, when the maiden in white
seeks to decoy you into strols in
the moonlight along the beach, say
her nay. Keep her under the big cleo
tric light in the crowded veranda,
lest you become the victim Of her
| millinery.
Twin sisters to the white muslin
girl is the helpless clnging girl, who
Is always having things happen to
| her that require masculine assistance.
| She has little feet and she can never
learn to tie her shoe laces so they
don't come undone. cit takes a
I woman with a No. foot to tie a
shoe string in a knot that tornado
/ couldn't budge) II she goes for a
walk she sprains her ankle and has
| to lean on some strong arm. II she
takes an automobile ride, she's al
ways getting frightened and clutching
at some man for protection.
It's all very pretty and appealing,
son, and it makes you feel about seven
feet high and as strong as Jess Will
lard, but watch out. Some day you
/ will put that protecting arm around
her to guard her-she's such a timid