Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-04-20
BY DOROTHY DIX.

TN HEN we speak of woman who
loves not wisely but 100 well
We mean, some poor, weak crea-
ture who has let her heart run away
with her head; who has trusted too
much and been deceived.
But the real women who loves not
wisely but too we'll" are the women
who make of their love a grinding ty-
ranuy that holds their husband and
children just as much prisoners as If
they were locked up in in steel bar
red Jail: who make of their love an
insurmountable barrier that stands for
ever between husband and children and
achievement.
The old superstitition that the chief
end of a wife and mother is to love
has made women believe that affection
is a sort of universal panacea that you
only have to apply to domestic life. and
all is well.
Hence. if a woman knows in her own
soul that she loves her husband we'll
enough to die for him, she considers
that that state of feeling fulflls all
of her marital obligations. 1t isn't
necessary for her to bother herself
about keeping a neat, clean house and
providing him with good, wholesome
food. 1t isn't necessary for her to be
thrifty and industrious and good man.
ager. On the contrary, she holds that
she can be lazy and tri1ing. and waste
full and extravagant, and poison him
with bad cooking. because he's the only
man in the world to her. She thinks
that love squares the account with her
triflingness.
" A woman will even justify herself
for nagging her husband to death and
not giving him one inch Of personal
liberty by pleading that her love makes
her so anxious about him that she can
avoid interfering with his every act.
Who does not know some poor, pite-
Gus henpecked man who does not dare
to remain talking with friend hve
minutes after his wife expects him to
punch the home time clock, because he
knows that If he is a half hour late ne
will find his keeper walking the floor
and tearing her hair in frenzy lest he
has been kidnapped on the streets or
has not had intelligence enough to
keep from being run over?
Who has not seen the badgeTed look
on a mans face when his wife remind
ed him at table that everything he
wanted to eat was bad for his stom-
ach, and that he knew that smoking
made men nervous, and that glass
of beer was the way all drunkards
started?
W
wretch who lives in terror of his wife s
jealousy, who would no more dare to
have good looking young girl stenog-
rapher in his office than he would 10
place a dynamite bomb under his swivel
chair; and who cannot even appear in
terested in his dinner partners CONVEX
sation, or dance twice at party with
the same woman, without the certainty
of paying for 1t with a scene at home?
Who does not know the man whose
career has been blasted. whose aspira-
lions crushed. by his wife'e love, which
interferred with his advancement at
every step. and was like the old man of
the sea on his back when he tried to
climb?
Who has not known some mother who
wrecked her children's lives because she
kept them tied TO her apron strings
when they wanted to go out into the
world and seek their fortunes?
These are the woman who love not
wisely but too well, and their love Is
a curse on the individual on whom it
is bestowed far more blighting than any
hate could be.
Among my acquaintance is fat,
placid, middle-aged woman of this sort,
a woman who puts herself upon the
pedestal Of wifehood and motherhood,
and makes a great virtue of her perfect
devotion to her family, and thinks 1t
terrible that any woman should have
any interest outside Of the home.
If you should tell this woman that
her love for her husband and children
had been the greatest possible misfor-
tune that could have happened to them
instead of being a blessing to them, she
would not believe you. If you should
tell her that she was vampire wom-
an far more cruel and constituencies
than the rag and bone. and hank