The Washington herald., 1917-08-24
How Shell We Educate Our Girls.
By DOROTHY DIX.
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer

Conceding. as most people do. that
marriage is the chief end of woman,
and that a woman as a general propo-
sition is happiest herself and Of most
use to the world when she follows
the ancient avocation of wife and
mother. how shall we best At our
girls for this career?
How shall we educate them? What
shall we teach them so that they
may capture husbands in the first
place. and hold their husbands after
they capture them in the second
place? Shall we teach them domes-
ITCHY or dancing? Shall we teach
them the differential calculus or the
different ways Of flirting? Shall we
teach them how to roll their eyes
effectively or efficiency in rolling n
perambulator?
A Western millionairess has at
tempted to solve this great problem
of female education by having her
young daughter taught all the arts
of allurement-how to dance, how to
dress, how to play and sing, and CO.
quette-without wasting any time Un
such prosaic matters as reading, writ
ing and 'rithmetic.
This girls parents were arraigned
in the probate court of their city
for neElecting her education, and in
justifying their course the mother
said that inasmuch as every woman
of good fortune and family had to
fight with chorus girls, cabaret dan
GERS, actresses and singers, vampires
and coQuettes. for the interest and
affection of men, wife's only safety
consisted in being able to beat pro-
fessional fascinators at their own
game.
This is a novel and interesting sug-
gestion of how to solve one of the
oldest and most difficult problems in
the world, but. alas, it has one fatal
defect. II does not provide any way
of keeping the wife perpetually young
and beautiful. and this is absolutely
necessary in dealing with the type of
man whose ideal OF a perfect home
Is place that you can 60 to when
the curfew rings in the cafes.
The theory that If you teach a girl
to dance like a ballerina her hus-
band will fox-trot down the years
with her without wearying, or that
If she knows every move in the game
of Irritation that she can keep him
always a romantic and sighing lover,
is good one. The only trouble
with it is that. like so many other
good theories, it doesn't work out in
actual practice. Facts are facts. A
mans wife is his wife. Axe will
come. Custom will stale. And the
man who finds his greatest interest in
life in dancing and flirting is bound
&c have a change of partners, some
body always younger and fresher, to
give zest to the game. even If his
wife is past mistress of both arts.
Equally fallacious is the idea that
man finds coquetry as aluring in
the home circle as out of it. Before
marriage it undoubtedly stimulates a
mans interest in a girl and his de.
sire for her If she keeps him guess
ing as to the state of her affection
and whether she really prefers him
to some other other man. But after
marriage, trust and faith are essen
tial to domestic peace and happiness,
and the strongest hold that any wife
has upon her husband is Just his
surety of her unfaltering devotion and
the knowledge that no matter If all
the world turned against him she
would stand unfalteringly at his side.
Undoubtedly, however, the mascu-
line moth is eternally attracted by
glare and glitter and the girl who is
pretty, and snowy. and smartly dress
ed. and who is a good dancer, and
who has the best repertoire of tricks
and wiles, has men swarming around
her like bees around a honey not.
While her prim, demure, domestic, pu-
ritanical sister is left to paper the
wall with never a man in teiephon-
ing distance Of her.
That's fact No. /. Fact No. : is
that although a man may be caught
by glare and glitter. he doesn't often
desire to spend the balance of his lie
circling around an arc lamp. He wants
the quiet, shaded candle light for
the long pull of years. For it is one
of the inexplicable vagaries of the
masculine temperament that a man
generally desires his wife to be an
entirely different woman from the girl
he married.
The thing that attracted him to her
may have been because she was such
a silly cute little doll baby, with such
clinsing ways, but as a wife he ex-
poets her to be wise and common sem
iscal and efficient. He may have fai-
len in love with her because she was
such a good sport and SO mcoGven-
uonal. but as his wife hs demands
that she shall be the PINK of pro-