The Oklahoma City times. [volume] (Oklahoma City, Okla.) 1908-1984, 1918-05-17
Engagements Are Not Bind
! Ing, Woman Writer De-
cIares, But Says They Are
Best Times to Find Out
What Proposed Mate Really
I Is Like,
BY DOROTHY DIX.
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman
Writer.

A girl writes to me that she is en-
"A gagged TO a worthy young man
\ with whom no fault can be found,
but who nevertheless fails to fire her
fancy She says that she likes and
respects this youth and that she cannot
bear to think Of causing him any sor-
row, but that he bores her stiff, and
that when she thinks OF being married
no him and having to spend endless
evenings in his stodgy society 1t makes
her feel like yawning herself to death
And she wants to know what to do
whether she shall break the young
mans heart by breaking the engage
3ment, or make a sacrifcial offering OF
herself on the altar OF matrmony.
/ Break the Engagement.
There is but one answer TO this ques-
tion. Break the engagement II either
man or woman has the slightest
doubt that the one TO whom he or she
Is betrothed is the Only One; II he or
she is stricken with the slightest symp-
tom OF cold feet when he or she con
templates the long trail of matrmony; ;
~ he or she does not hang cnraptured
ON every word his or her beloved ut
.ters, then break the engagement though
the wedding bells were ringing, lest
worse fate beiall him or her.
4 Acquiring a husband or wife Is
like acquiring any other possession
only a million times more so. You
know how it is when you buy a new
gown, or house, or automobile. Alter
sou get it home il never looks quite
as good to you as it did in the store.
4 Then You Find Flaws
2 After it is yours for keeps you begin
20 find unsuspected flaws and defects
and unless you were mad with longing
Bor it before you got it and that halo
still hangs around it, you soon get to
hate it. If you we're not keen about
il in the first place you never can
abide it, and get rid of it at the first
opportunity.
IT'S the same way about husband or
i wife. Unless you were passion
ately, romantically, ideally in love with
some man or woman before you married
him or her, you will never be able to
endure the establishments that matri-
mony inevitably brings. The fading
out of the glamor through which man
beheld a woman as pin feathered
angel, and a woman saw'a man as
knightly hero, comes soon enough,
Heaven knows, but God help those
whose eyes have never been dazzled by
'fhY celestial vision
She'll Be Worse Bored After.
: The woman who is bored by mans
line of conversation before marriage
will be ten million times more bored
by it after marriage. The woman who
Kinds a man uncongcnlal and unsympa-
thetic before marriage, will find he
Gets unon her nerves insupportably
sitter marriage. The woman who
Gearies a man before marriage will tire
him to death after marriage The wom-
sn who does not appeal to a man be
lore marriage will be repellent TO him
after marriage.
For matrimony has no magic that
changes either Our own taste or the
characteristics OF those whom we marry.
It's only erect is 10 INTENSITY our ukcA
and dislikes, to make dearer to ia the
charms Of those we love, and more un-
endurabc tho faults OF those 10 whom
we are Indifferent, and whose blemishes
We are forced to contemplate in the
rlose confines Of the family circle.
Engagement Not Really Binding,
A great many people look upon an
engagement az being as sacred and
binding morally as a marriage, This
is a great mistake The real province
of an engagement is to be a life-saving
station in which people can honorabll
draw back from disastrous marriage
before it is too late.
AN engagement gives man and
A woman the first opportunity they
have 10 become really acquainted and
10 find out something about what each
one really is, Up to that time all the
man has known is that the girl has ;
willowy figure, a peaches and cream
flhIoooooI Joro In