The Washington herald., 1917-09-03
THE NEGLECTED WIFE.
BY DOROTHY DIX.
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.

leW oays ago q M1Qole-a8eo Woln-
an, her handsome clothes torn into
ribbons, her gray hair streaming wild
ly 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 II
was discovered that she had gone raw
ing mad.
What a strange case" said the few
people who knew her Here Is a
woman apparently In good health who
leads the easiest possible life in lux
urious hotel. with no work. no respon-
sibilities, no care, no bother with ser
ants. no children to worry her. and
with 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 life
that had in 1t neither interest, duty
nor purpose.
The woman's husband wasn't inten-
tionally a bad or a cruel man. He was
just absolutely selfish and incapable
Of perceiving that any other human
being had any rights when they con-
fiicted with his pleasure. Least of all
that a wife had any claim upon a hus-
band that went beyond her board and
keep. These he laylshly supplied, and
having bought her Paris clothes and
set her down in an expensive suite in
hotel. he felt that he had done his
full duty toward her and that IL she
wasn't happy and satisfied il was her
own fault, and because OF the unrea-
son OF woman.
Long, long ago she had ceased to in
terest him, or TO be anything but a
negligible factor in his life. For the
most part he was a mans man, alb
sorbed in business, playing the great
game of money making for the games
sake. He took his pleasures also most
ly among men-stiff games Of golf,
luncheons and dinners at which big
deals were settled between the fsh and
the salad.
He did not care much for women,
but the ones that he found most at
tractive were those who appeal TO
the tired business man-pretty. young,
silly chorus girls that pleased a mans
49, anu WIN
rowdy playfulness, as he might have
been amused at the antics of 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 saiI TO
some invisible port he called down.
town. TO which she could not follow
him even in her thoughts. And she
never EnnU N he to-
back from this strange land. Some
times he came home to dinner. Often
er he did not Sometimes he would
telephone that he was not coming.
Sometimes he would forget
And the woman had nothing or
earth with which to fiIl up her in.
terminable days and still more inter.
minable evenings. She had wanted
to keep house, but her husband would
not agree TO IL He said he Ioathed
home cooking and that the. very
thought Of the clumsy maid and the
unsophisticated boiled mutton and
potatoes of the family dinner turned
him faint with loathing. What he
really meant was that he wanted tc
escape the weight OF the hearthstont
that holds a man down 10 some ele.
mentsry sense OF domestic duty.
So the woman was cut of from
! even the poor feminine refuge Of doilies
and bedspreads and monogran1ins
things and fussing over pots and 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
vacuum cleaned hotel suite but
think. And when a woman thinks toe
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
circles until at last something snapped
in her brain and she went ravins
mad.
The tragedy Of the neglected wife Is
always a heart rending one, but Il de-
pends upon the woman, herself, who
is the victim OF one of these unforcu-
nate marriages, whether she will sue
cumb to her fate or triumph over IL.
1t is up to her TO decide whether
she will let her selfish husband make
life an arid desert for her, or whether
she will get busy and by her own ef-
forts, and independent of him, make Il
blossom like the rose.
Marriage is not the whole Of the uni
verse. Neither is a husband the only
individual in II. and you can be happy
with both, or in spite Of both, II you
are determined enough to get the
sweet instead of the bitter out OF life.
There are two plans open to the
woman who finds herself in the posi-
! ton of the neglected wife. One is "a
pack her trunk and buy a ticket to
Reno, and separate herself once and
for all from the husband who fails
to appreciate her. and who shows that
he is deadly tired of her.
That is one way out. The other way
Is for the neglected wife to i'll her
life so full of outside interests she
won't have time to notice that she is
neglected. Instead of sitting dowr
supinely and waiting for her husband
to come home at any old time, let her
put on her hat and hustle out and find
something so agreeable to do that she
will find her husband waiting for her
when she gets back.
AS Stevenson aptly remarked: The
world is SO full of a number OF
things" that everybody can find some
fascinating occupation II only they
have enough energy TO seek II. There
are clothes for the woman who loves
to dress; society and clubs; pbiian-
thropies and charities: books and lee
| lures; business and the professions-a