The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-03-21
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
By DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.
Like Father Like Son.

Il
A young girl said to me the other
When you marry, do you always
have to buy pig in a poke, as the
Irish say? Is there no way of telling
on the safe side of the altar what sort
of husband a man will make? I've
seen SO many of my friends make ter
rible mistakes-marry men who were
generous, tender and considerable in
the days of courtship, and who turned
into grumpy, surly, stingy husbands.
81 thought each of these girls had
gotten a Prince Charming when 1 at
tended their weddings. When. I visit
them now 1 perceive that they have
got Old Man Trouble as life partners
and it scares me blue when ! think
of taking my own header into the sea
of matrimony.
What brand of husband is my own
delightful young man going to make :?
Am I going to spend the balance of
great god Luck, or cursing my hoo
doc? Isn't there any magic mirror
in which a girl can see how her best
beau will look as a husband? Isn't
there any fortune teller who can fore
tell how he is going to treat her? It's
the most important thing in the world
for a girl to know and it's the secret
that she never finds out until 1t is
too late for the knowledge to do her
any good.
other girls like 1 am who never look
at a young man without saying to
themselves, oh, you're perfect lamb
now and 1 could fall in love with you
der what sort of husband you
make and I don't know how to find
out
You never can tell what the latent
potentialities of any individual are FOR
good or evil" l said in reply Their
so cir
cumstances. Therefore, it is impOs-
sible to prophesy with absolute ac-
curacy the kind of a husband that any
given man will make, but there's one
good line on him and make a guess
that would be the right one nine times
out CT ten.
And that is by giving his father
and mother the once over with a care
full eye, observing how father treats
mother and getting the general atmos-
phere of the home.
Observe whether the family perks
up and looks brighter, as if something
pleasant was about to happen. or
whether it takes to the cyclone cellar
when father-in-law's latch key is
! heard in the door. Notice whether
father-in-law leads in cheerful con-
versation, or whether he glooms,
grouches and never speaks except to
find fault. Particularly notice if
mother IN laws face wears a strained
expression when father-in-law is
around and if she only relaxes and
draws a sigh of relief when he starts
forth to work, or golf
Talk to mother-in-law about the
money problem and find out whether
she has a personal allowance. or
whether she has to screw every penny
F. out of father-in-law- Observe father
in-law's attitude towards mother-in-
I law, whether it is tender. sympathetic
and understanding. or whether it is
/ contemptuous, overbearing and self
/ ish.
| That will give you fatherin-law's
number and when you have his num-
| Der you have got his sons number
and can form a very accurate estima-
ton of what your own married life
: will be if you marry son. For the
/ old proverb, like father like son, holds
good nowhere else SO surely as in the
domestic circle.
Here you have all the combined
forces of heredity and environment to
make a man like his father. To be-
gin with, the boy starts off, most like
! ly, with the same temper, nerves and
disposition that his father has To
these he adds childish impressions,
! early teaching, force of habit, all of
I the influences that run our plastic ma
lures when we are young into mould
: that we cannot break when we are old
The man who has a surly, dis
agreeable, cantankerous father makes
, surly. cantankerous, disagreeable
| husband because he has been brought
up to think that a man has perfect