The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-08-24
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
BY DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.
Clothes and the Mani.

A young man is deeply in love with
a pretty and refined girl, who refuses
to marry him because of his slovenly
personal appearance. The girl admits
to the youth that he has touched her
heart, and that she admires his ster-
ling character and clever mind, but
she tells him frankly that she balks
at the prospect of spending her life
with man who is not on visiting
terms with the barber, and who looks
generally as if he needed to be ruiz
thru a steam laundry.
The young man is very indignant at
the girls attitude, which he considers
signal illustration of feminine lack
OF perspective and sense of values.
Is 1t not of more importance for
a mans life to be clean, than for mis-
ii TO be?' he demands righteously.
Is IL not more important for a man
to have walked the narrow path, than
for his trousers to have a razor edge
crease in them? Is it not better Tor
man to have an upright character
than to wear an unwilted collar? Is
that shine, than highly polished
shoes? Is not a. mans attitude To-
wards life of more Importance than
the set Of his coat? Should not a
woman Judge a. man by what he is
rather than by what he wears?"
Yes. Yes. OF course. Certainly.
Quite true. Nevertheless, and not
withstanding, the girl who refuses to
marry a sloppy, untidy. addressed
man makes wise decision, and one
thateshe has small chance of ever re-
penting. For the man who will not
spruce up for his sweetheart, assured
ly will never doll up for his wife, and
only too many men hold to the theory
mat matrimony gives them carte
blanche to wear soiled collars, and
clothes that look as if they had been
slept in, and to sit around home i'll
their stocking feet, than which there
Is no quicker, nor surer way to strip
away the last shred of romance that
wife has wrapped around the man
she loves. and to make her wonder
what made her do it.
In discussing the Inevitable disillu-
s1ons OF the domestic state, women are
adJured-and rightly-to preserve, at
least, the halo that goes with personal
neatness, and never to let their hus-
bands see them in untidy wrappers
with their heads done up in curl pa
pers. 1t is held, and with reason, that
it takes a more robust love than most
men possess to be able to regard a
frowsy slattern as an angel or a god
dess, or to wan. to hold a hand that
is badly in need of manicuring.
No one ever impresses upon men the
Importance of presenting a neat and
yet if dirty, sloppy woman. is a dis
gushing thing to man, a dirty, sloppy
man is ten thousand times more dis
gushing to a woman, because women
care more for their looks than men,
and notice them more, and have keen
er sensibilities that are more easily
offended than any mans. No woman
| can stay in love with a man who goes
about with a three days stubble OF
bristle on his face, and hair strag-
Cling over his collar; with clothes that
bear eloquent testimony to the gravy,
soup and coffee of which its owner
has partaken, and with shoes that are
run down at the heel and cry aloud
| for a polish.
No matter what virtues or talents a
man may possess or how kind he may
be at heart, a woman cannot look al
such a man without a sense of repul-
sion. Her every instinct of daintiness
revolts against him.
Many married men complain that
their wives are cold to them, and that
the usual wife,y kiss is as flabby and
| 1ukewarm as a poor cooks flannel
| cakes. Perhaps If they looked in the
| mirror, they would find the reason fol-
| it. There is not much romance or al
| Iurement in having your cheek scrap
ed by another cheek that needs a
| safety razor, nor being pressed to a
breast that should haveSthe hose turn
| cd nn If