The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-02-26
DOROTMY DIX TALKS
BY DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.
Spinsters and Widows.

Il wish" said the Bachelor Maid,
that had been born I. widow with
two curly haired little larlings."
II can understand about the kid
dies" replied her friend, dream chill
dren are SO much more agreeable to
have around the premises than real
children are, but why the yearning to
be a widow?
TT seems to me that you bachelor
girls have all the pleasures and profits
that appertain to widowhood without
having to go thru the divorce court
or the cemetery to get them.
Both of you have your own latch
key and you both have your own
pocket books You have control of
your own money if you've got any,
and if you haven't you have the same
right to go out and rustic living for
yourself as the widow has. And you've
got the same liberty, for nobody is
silly enough now to hold to the the
DRY that an unmarried woman re-
mains a perpetual debutante, and has
to be shocked at everything and chap
eroned to the end of her Life. Seems
to me a bachelor girl has little cause
to envy any bereaved fluffy ruffles
her crepe"
All" replied the bachelor maid,
that is because you have never prop
erIy considered this subject. An old
maid occupies a distinctly inferior
position in the world to widow The
old maid doesn't cut as much ice
socially as the widow does. and she
hasn't half the chance to get on either
in business or to marry as the widow
has. The old maid is standing joke
at which all people laugh. The widow
is sob stuff over which they drop a
sympathetic tear.
you don't believe that the widow is
better off than the old maid? Listen:
Lets begin to cite the advantages
that the widow has over the old maid
with the most important thing of all to
woman-age Being a widow is a
sort of fountain of perpetual youth:
I'm thirty-eight, for instance, and for
several years my friends have been
locking at me slantwise and saying
1 was an old maid. When they talk
about mo to other people I'm perfectly
aware that they describe me in that
way.
They say that she's nice. and in
telligent, and we'll off-but she's an
old maid. But if 1 were window they
would call me a rich young widow.
In some mysterious ways that don't
pretend to explain the mere fact of
having had a husband would. take
the curse of age off of me. and lop
off about ten birthdays in the public
estimation.
ALSO. in some occult way that is
widow throws a mystic charm about
a woman that never encircles the
spinster, and that makes her more
sought otter socially than the OLD
mad is Now if 1 were somebody's
relict instead of being my own posses
sion, 1 would not be a whit better
looking than I am. I would not be
more adaptable, or carry a more en-
PERTAINING line of conversation, or play
a better game of bridge, or have any
graces and accomplishments that do
not now possess
But hosteSses would invite me
oftener because they have to explain
or apologize for an old maid guest
no matter how attractive she may be-
while a god looking, lively young
widow is presumed to infuse pep into
any party, and to be an addition to it
also a man, even if he is dodder-
ing on the verge of the grave, feels
that he has been hooded if he draws
an old maid for a dinner partner,
whereas he blesses his luck if he gets
a widow, no matter how stupid she
may be.
"Of course 1 know that this attitude
torya rds the spinster is the result of
ancient prejudices founded on the
days when women made a profession
of marriage, and none but the freaks,
and the shrews and the idiots failed
TO land some sort of a husband But
what 1 am getting at is that this
prejudice against spinsters exists in
the back of mems minds. and that it
makes the social going hard shedding