The Washington herald., 1918-07-29
FORCE OF SYMPATHY
By DOROTHY DIX e..
THE WORLDS HIGHEST PAID WOMAN WRITER

Robert Louis Stevenson once said
that we live by catch words. Ger
tainly this Is true Of women. And
1t is particularly true OF women's
virtues.
This Is why women's virtues are 80
often vices, and the reason why a
good woman. with the best intentions
In the world. can sometimes do more
harm in a minute than scheming
malice can invent in a week. Il is
also why loving and adoring women
have wrecked the lives OF more men
than the whole tribe of vampires
sirens and adventuresses.
Chief among these catch word vir-
tues, that we ascribe to the perfect
woman. Is sympathy. We have made
a slogan of the word sympathy" for
the whole feminine sex to rally to-
When we want to describe the ideal
woman, We say that she 70 sympa-
thetic. When We want to apologize
for the short comings of a woman
we ascribe sympathy to her, and in
so doing we cast over her the mantle
OF charity that covers a multitude OF
sins.
Naturally enough, women themselves
have come to take the same. view
Of the subject. II a woman q ;ust
sloshfng over with sympathy.- she
feels that she Is a great and noble
character. no matter how much OF
a Stacker and a gutter she may be
about doing things II she can sit
down and shed barrels of tears over
the sufferings OF the poor, she feels
that she has done her duty by them.
even II she never fished up a nickel
out Of her hand bag to relieve their
sufferings.
II she grieves because her husband
and children suffer so with their d.
gestions. and look SO shabby and III
kempt, she feels she has compen-
sated them for her shiftlessness in
being too lazy to cook them whole
some food and sew on their buttons.
And the queer part OF II Is that we
all coincide in this view. We admire
the woman who Is n free weeper. be-
cause she lives up to our catch word
She Is so sympathetic. She registers
such tender heart as they. say In
the movies. And we regard with sus.
picion the dry-eyed woman who goes
along and does something practical
to help those in trouble.
furthermore, we expect women q
apply sympathy unfortunately and
with Judgment. We speak of a
just man. but never of a Just woman
When a man commits a brutal muir.
der, and is tried and convicted
nobody expects other men to sob over
him, send him flowers and petition the
governor to grant a pardon. But wo.
men are expected to turn into perfect
Niobes over every woman murderess
and when they don't pity the poor
dear. suffering creature. but think
that she deserves to get what is com.
ing to her. we say how hard womer
are on their own sex, and how little
sympathy they have for their sister s
Now sympathy is one Of the most
beautiful of all virtues In its owr
particular time and place, but It is
like certain deadly drugs. 1t should
only be used in small quantities, and
administered IN emergencies, and ever
then should only be given on a ply.
sician's prescription that 1t is really
needed.
Women have never realized this and
the danger they ran OF killing every.
thing that was worth while in those
they loved by dosing them up on sym
pathy for every little thing that allied
them. They have seen that their pity
was a soothing anodyne, that the suf-
ferer tapped it UP and called for more