The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-05-11
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
BY DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.

CIinging Vine VS.. Bean Pole.
LAS sor the home, 1 explained TO
Tom that We need not be deprived OF
that for he had an old mother VINO
had to be supported anyway. VINO
would be perfectly happy to feel her
self useful once more, and independ-
emit on che salary we would pay her
for runnin, our little apartment.
which she could do much more eco
nomically and efficiently than l could.
tom demurred little, but all the
logic was on my side, SO we were
married and everything went swim
mingly, as per my schedule. we
would come home in the evening from
our different places of business TO
find a delicious meal awaiting US, anu
a happy old woman to greet us, ana
we'd have the jolliest evening chat
ting, for each of us was full of things
to talk obout-the different expert
eEces we had had during the day, the
different customers we had met. On.
we were not dull like the ordinary
dc mestic couple, where the wife's
been shut up in the house all day,
and has got nothing livelier to talk
about than how the butchers meat
has gone up.
And when the baby came it was
| just that much more joy added to us,
and 1 went back to my business with
my mind perfectly at rest about the
k.ddie. knowing that mother, who
had raised a big family, would do
everything for the little one that love
and experience could suggest.
so things went along for two or
three years and 1 was too happy and
contentad to really take good hard
| look at my scheme and see how II
i was working out. When L did got
a shock that made me sit up, for
have discovered that in trying to help
my husband / am running him.
| Because 1 didn't throw the whole
responsibility of the family support on
his shoulders. shes begun to duck any
share OF the load. He's gotten SO that
he simply stands from under and
let's me pay all the bills. He isn't
even saving his money. He's spending
1t all on himself in useless extrava-
gance.
Worse still, he's getting to be a
loafer. He's changed positions four
times IN the last year for no good
reason except that he just got tired OF
his job, end he was idle longer and
longer between each job, and more
fnnicky. and hard to please about the
sort of position he took. You see
he didn't have to work or go hungry.
He knew there was a comfortable
home with three square meals that he
&C uld come back to, so why should ne
worry?
And he's getting cross and ugly to
! me. Men always are to the wives
who support them. Did you ever see
a poor boarding housekeeper whose
husband didn't abuse her. or a wife
, beaten whose wife didn't take il
washing? The loafing husband in
I variably revenges his shame for h.s
own lack of manhood on his wife.
IT am told there are nearly a mil
J lion able-bodied, husky men in New
York alone who are supported by
, their wives. I'm not going to qualify
, in that sImp class, for the clingins.
, vine man doesn't make any hit with
me, but what am 1 to do? How am
to rouse my husband up to being a
man again and accepting the respon-
, sibility of manhood? Will ne roll III
his sleeves, and go to work again il
he realizes that he has to support his
mother, and the baby and me- or else
We'll starve? Must 1 give up my own
business to make him get busy?
Can. woman ever help her hus-
band without weakening him? Wont
men ever Learn to go fifty-fifty with
us in life. and take half instead of al
when we offer to divide with them %
"Oh, yes" 1 replied, but it will
take time. You see men have locke |
upon wives so long as either slaves d
Iplaythings it is hard for them to get
used to thinking of us as equals