The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-02-02
DoRoTMY DIX TALKS
BY DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.
The Domestic Morale.

The Domestic Morale.
We hear great deal about the i'm
porrance of keeping uo the morale of
our army, and we are continually told
that our soldiers can only put up a
winning fight if their morale is good,
and they are cheerful, contented and
happy.
So vital a connection is there be-
tween soldiers morale-which
means his state of mind-and his eff
ficiency that General Haig is reported
to have declared that one man who
sings and jokes in the trenches is
worth half a dozen who crouch and
gloom
Do you get that, sisters? Think it
over a bit. Cheerfulness puts pep and
ginger into a man. 1t gives strength
to his arms to fight and win against
any odds. 1t fills his heart with the
courage to dare danger. Above all. it
makes him feel that life is worth liv-
ing, and there's something in the
world worth fighting for.
OF all the lessons that the war has
taught women none is SO valuable as
this of the Importance of keeping up
our morale for it applies just as much
to the hearthstone as it does to the
battlefield and to ones husband and
children. as it does to soldiers.
1t will make women realize for the
first time that the spiritual atmos-
phere of a home is of far more i'm
poreance than its physical air; that
to have a good time at the table is
of more Importance than for the meal
to be on time to the dot, and that it
is better for her family for a woman
to make good jokes than. to make
good pie, If she can't make both.
rt,nr 1.-
sex, are melancholy lot that they
have never realized the Importance of
keeping up the domestic morale.
Women simply revel in gloom. When
they wish to divert themselves by go
ing to the theater they pick out a
three handkerchief play thru which
they can sob with prosecuted heroine
and Rave a perfectly beautiful after
noon When two or three women
cronies get together to spend an en-
joyable talkfest they tell each other
their troubles and weep on each 9TH
erS breasts.
When women speak of another
woman as a noble. angelic creature
she is invariably a thin, pale, forlorn
creature who looks as if she was af-
flicted with dyspepsia ard a seer,
sorrow, whereas her own sex is in
variahly suspicious of a fat, jolly
woman with laugh hung on a hair
trigger, and no worry wrinkles around
her eyes.
Because women themselves really
prefer to pull the blinds down, and sit
in pessimistic gloom they have not
senscd the effect that it has upon their
husbands and children, or realized
that the main reason that husbands
and children wander away from home
is to get out of the darkness and into
the sunshine
Conscientious women who are
anxious to do their full duty/and make
good homes for their families have
worked themselves to death sweeping
and scrubbing. and keeping things
clean, and offered themselves I'D as
burnt sacrifices on the kitchen stove
cooking delicious food, and then had
all their efforts go tor naught because
they neglected the most important
part They didn't keep up the family
! morale. They fed their husbands and
their children's bodies and let their
spirits starve.
Have you not heard many a
querulous, whining, complaining wo-
man moan out that she was sure that
there wasn't neater kept house in
town, or better cook than she was.
or any family who had all of their
whims more catered to than hers, vet
that she never could keep her hus-
band or children at home? The
| minute they had had their dinner
1
lodge, or somebody else's house.
And you couldn't tell the woman
that it was her fault anG that Won
didn't blame the husband and the
children for beating it away from a
place that was as dreary as the grave.
where the very atmosphere was so
thick with gloom that you could cut
it with a knife. and where the whole
note of domestic conversation was
keyed to fretting and scrapping
l. And on the other hand, did you
| ever know Of a home presided over
by jolly, good natured. good temper
ed, easy going woman that wasn't a
| center ABOUT which everyone who
knew her gathered? That sort OF
woman never has to complain that her
husband and children don't stay at
home. They camp there and bring
| their friends.
The woman who laughs and radi-
| ates good cheer may not be a model
housekeeper, or a Gordon bleu as a
| cook, but her family doesn't care a
whoop. she Keeps everyone bright
and interested, and happy, and that's
the thing that counts with them.
And in thus keeping up the morale
| of her family the woman does some
thing more than merely make them
happy. She puts into them the cour-
age to fight and the ability to win,
! just as keeping up the morale of the
army gives the soldier the spirit that
! ca rries him on to victory
! Figure it out yourself. All day a
| man has been fighting in his office
| to hold his own, fighting just as des-
perately as any soldier ever fought
on the battlefield. He comes home
exhausted in mind and body his
nerves strained to the breaking point,
| his soul faintfng within him with
WEAKNESS. What he needs, more than
anything in the world, is something to
wrest his mind into different chan
mel something to cheer him, to com
! fort him, and put fresh heart into
| him.
Suppose he finds a dark and un1it
| house, children. that are quarreline
and grouchipg. and who pounce upon
| him like young wolves demanding this
and that. and who snarl if they can't
have it. and wife who deluges him
| with ALL the nefty worries Of har dc :,