The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-04-03
Dorothy DIG Says
BY DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer
Solitary confinement is the maximum
punishment in a penitentiary and no
man has right to inflict that an
innocent wife evening after evening.

Solitary confinement Is the maximum
punishment in penftentiary and
man has a right to infIict that on an
innocent wife evening after evening.
So far as can gather from the
many heart walls that reach me on
the subject, the two things, from the
feminine point Of view, that prevent
matrimony from being the grand,
sweet song it should be, and turn it
into the scrapping match that it too
often is, are the absence of the indi-
vidual pocket book and the presence
of the latch key.
And of these two enemies to do
mestic peace and happiness, the chief
offender is the latch key. Women
would rather do without their own
money when they go shopping in the
morning than to do without the socie-
ty of their husbands in the home of
evenings
In the course of a year I literally
get hundreds of letters on this sub
ject, written by wives who piteously
beg for some good, reliable recipe for
keep ping man nailed to his own fire
side at night. And the burden of
these letters is always the same It's
the loneliness of women who spend
long, dull. monotonOuS hours with no.
body to talk to, nobody to look at.
even, nothing to do but just to yawn
at the clock till they yawn themselves
to bed.
These women write that as soon as
dinner is over their husbands put on
their hats and fare forth to enjoy
themselves. Sometimes they don't
even come home to dinner, but tele-
phone that they've been detained
down town by important business.
Sometimes they make excuse that
they have to meet a customer or sit
up with sick friend, and sometimes
they just don't offer any apologies.
hcT
them.
The result is the same to the wo-
man. She's worked all day just as
hard as her husband, maybe a little
harder, cooking, sewing, mending,
busting, taking care of the children
1t has been solitary work, done in the
home, with nobody to exchange a
thought with, nobody to give her a
fresh idea, or to tell her a good story
that Will give her the mental fillip of
laugh No other work in the world
is so wearing as domestic tasks inst
because there are no outside interests
to tighten and brighten them as there
is to work that is done outside of the
home.
Therefore, when night comes and
the children are safely tucked into
bed and the household affairs set
tied, the woman is starved for COM
panlonship and amusement She wants
| to talk and to be talked to. to hea r
something fresh that will give her
thoughts new turn. The only per
son to whom she can safely look to
supply this need is her husband, and
If instead of doing it he goes down
town and leaves her to add a lonely
evening to a lonely day, it is nothing
short of tragica1 to her.
Probably-at least let US suppose
so for humanity's sake-the man who
does this does not realize how cruel he
| is TO his Wife, OF else he would STAY
at home and try to entertain her or
| at least take her along with him TO
some place of amusement Certainly
no man with a heart in his bosom. or
one spark of affection for the woman
ne is married to, would, evening after
evening, leave her to her own dull
and gloomy society, of which she's had
far more than a sufficiency thru the
day. if he ever stopped to visualize
4 how lonely and forlorn a figure d
woman is sitting up solitary and alone
her one diversion waiting hour after
hour for the click of a key in a lock
and her imagination busy picturing
scenes of merriment in which her hus-
band is participating, and sirens who
are snatching him away from her
| Just by way of illustration, let .