Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-10-08
WIVES AND BUSINESS
-. BY DOROTHY DIX .. g..
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman
Writer

n WOMAN, VINO IS SUING her Hus-
A band for divorce, gives his occu-
II patton as her reason for asking
for a separation from him.
MY husband is fine and noble
man," she testified on the witness
stand. HE has been kind and, so far
as | know, has been faithful, but he
Is a concert singer and cannot stand
to see the way in which women make
fools OF themselves over him. II
drives me mad to look at them hang.
ing around him, and adoring him after
he has sung some pathetic and heart
touching song or course know That
women are the chief patrons at con-
certs and that his success depends
upon his pleasing them, but can no
longer endure witnessing them max
ing eyes at him and trying to fiirt
with him." -. 7 s
This womans action illustrates one
OF the most peculiar and inexplicabie
of all feminine yagaries Of tempera-
ment, and that is the almost universal
jealousy that wives feel Of their huS-
bands business. Naturally this Is
most pronounced In the cases wnere
a mans occupation throws him in cod
tact with other women, but 1t extends
through every rsmification of employ
ment, even 20. the work that men do
solely. among other men. A vile
can Z Just as jealous Of her hus.
bands Job ii he is a lone fisherman
as SIZE can be of his being a profes.
sional connoisseur Of feminine pol
chritude for Broadway girl sIow.
The thousands of matrimonial
wrecks that strew the theatrical
shores, for instance, are the direct
result of foolhardy actors having
taken unto themselves wives without
giving heed 10 this idiosyncrasy OF
the fair sex. The result was disaster,
for no amount OF argument or logic
or proof could convince the mans
wife that stage business was purely
stage business and nothing more, and
that the passion that he threw into
the wooing of the beauteous heroine
had no more real significance than
would have had the eloquence he
would have extended in persuading a
lady to buy silk dress had he been
In the dry goods line.
Nor can the singers wife be per
suaded thai when her husband IS
singing to the hearts of an audience
of women his efforts are really II.
rected at their pocket books. Shes
no believer In art for arts sake. She's
bound to make it personal and indi7id-
nal. and connected with women who
are no better than they should be,
and thereby enabled to torture her.
self, whether she has any reason TO
or not.
In any green-eyed contest actors
and singers wives would lake the
first prize. The second prize would
70 to doctors wives, who are so filled
with jealousy and suspicion 4 their
husbands. occupation that they scare
many young physicians off from enter.
ing the holy estate at all.
.When think OF my husband
spending his days going from one
woman dressed up in pink and lace
uegligees TO another, and holding
their hands and having to look SYM
pathetic and jolly them along. and
listen TO them tell things they
wouldn't tell their own husbands and
mothers, Il drives me Wild said the
pretty young wife of doctor not long
ago, And then she added bitterly, Il
know it's business, and that II he
didn't do II we would starye, but
sometimes I think. would rather
starve than have him do il"
And that was why women as q
whole sympathized with Mrs. Car
man, when she put a photograph in
her husbands office so that she CO ia
listen to what he said to his patients
and what his patients said to him.
They could understand the gnawing
jealousy that drove woman to do
any act TO find out what went on in
that secret and mysterious place de-
voted to the exercise of mans pro-
fession, and into which mere vile
could not penetrate.
But Il is not only the professions
in which mems patrons are chiefly
women that inspire the jealousy Of
wives. It's any and all business. Lis
ten to the talk of wives. They most
always refer in invidious terms to
fsthat hateful old office" or that hor.
rid old shop" in which their husbands
earn their living, and their tones drip
venom when they speak OF their hus-
hands being so absorbed In their bus
fness that they have no time or
thought for anything else and can't
be dragged away for winter trips and
summer EXCURSIONS.
When q man is late for dinner, or
has TO break an engagement with his
wife. and gives some exigency OF
business as his excuse, she feels Just
as much injured and that she has
inst as much of grievance Is II
he had been detained by some fas.
cinating siren.
II is business that takes up her
b,sband's time and thought and keeps
bir, away from her. that absorbs him
so in the market report OF a morning
that he does not notice that she has
! mn headache and looks pale, AMI that
EXHAUST him SO that he's too tired to
sn,,se her in the evenings. obserya-
ton teaches her that no woman who
has been married to a man fiye years
can car. raise the thrill in his bosom, or
hring the light to his eyes that a
fen noint rise in stocks docs And
so the wife unconsciously comes to
loot upon her husbands business as