The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-04-16
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
BIZ DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.
The Danger of Calf Love.

sweet-and twenty. Then they are in
love with love, and SO sloshing over
with septiment and romance that they
are ready to spill it on any female who
happens to- be around handy. Their
hearts burn in their bosoms like dol
lar in small boys pocket, and they
can't be happy until they have spent
their treasure.
1t is then that a youth yields to the
insidious temptation to make love to
any girl who happens to be in his en-
vironment, or who chances to be
enamored of him.
He isn't really in love with her, and
he knows it. He isn't ready to marry.
He doesn't want to marry, and espec-
tally he doesn't want to marry that
particular girl Nevertheless he can
not resist the sentimental impulse to
say soft things to her, and the result
only too often is the breach of prom
Use suit. or the long engagement of
which he wearies and which have
done more to wreck the careers of
promising young men than anything
else in the world
For calf love is not a subject of
jest, as we are generally pleased to
regard 1t 1t is one of the greatest
dangers along the pathway of youth.
Sentimentally speaking, there are
three points of peril in a mans life.
and II he can be piloted safely by these
the chances are that he will have a
pleasant and prosperous yoyag e across
the sea of life.
Inc first menace is that calf love
VIII result seriously. Every bow is as
sure 10 nave an attack of this as he is
OF the measles. Fortunately neither
complaint is often fatal if it is Judi
clously treated, and If a bow can es
cape marrying his grandmother. or
the nousemald, or some one of the
oener unsuitable ladies that the calloW
FANCY seems to prefer, he has gotten
, us me Iirst rocky reef on which his
ilttie park was liable to be wrecked.
Onhapplly. not all escape. Some
unes calf love does end in the youth
committing suicide before the altar
anu there is no more pathetic sight on
earth than this of the married bow
or the boy who has taken a wife he
fore he was ready to be bushanS
oefore he had come to himself and
hhe" what he DIS going to be himself
ana sun less knew what he wanted in
a wife. 'eu III
Surely the very angels mus, weep
at the sight of a lad who has hnrdaned
himself down with the cares of a
lamlly IN the very heyday of youth
When he should be exuItins in free-
dom. III iiee
100 early marriage for a man is =
oageo! SO complete that the state
ought to furnish asylums with nadded
cells in which boys who are suffering
from acute attacks of calf love could
be imprisoned until they come to their
senses Just as we shut other Iunatics
themselves ioi ming
The second sentimental danver tba+
threatens a man consists in the. TENN
'ation 20 make love to a girl because
she Is in love with him The theory
.iiat man IS the pursuer and woman
the pursued in matters of affection
Is pretty and polite convention hut
as everyone knows it is far away
from the truth. Common usage does
| not permit woman to openly non
the question to man, but thar does
into making love to her IN sri+e If
hlmself and against his better iude-
| ment. JUS
| 1t is human for all of us to like
| the person who likes us and to ad-
! mlre her taste and respect her iudq-
ment- More than this. it is fntoSicaf-
, ing and flattering to any man to feel
that woman has given him her hea RI
unsought- Every instinct of eaIlan-
try and chivalry bids him be tender
| 10 ner- He feels that he will be al
most brute to be cold to her when
sne looks at him with adoring ewes
| or to withhold the tender speech
when Just word of careless senti-
hent VIII make her flush with happi-
ness and gratitude. 1t is exactly the
same impulse that makes us stroke
the cat that rubs against our knee
! and begs for a caress
N1nety-nine times out of a hundred
the man who is foolhardy enough to
FISK himself in the COMPANY of a
woman who is in love with him will
find himself. before he knows if, muir
! muring words of devotion that he
never intended to say. Also to his
amusement and despair he will find
himself engaged to her
] There is no safety for I,;r.
In hight. Nothing else will preserve
him from saying and doing those
things for which a cold and unfeeling
Jury Will assess damages against him
will result in his being dra
against his will to the altar. There
are times when man must take the
+ risk of being called a coward if he
doesn't want to be called husband.
The third, and perhaps the most
fatal temptation of all. to a boy, is to
make love to some girl merely because
she is acknowledged Propinouity
/ is ever the greatest match maker.
! Throw two young people of opposite
sentiment for lack of other topics of
conversation, and because they know
in their hearts it is a perilous sub
! ject to discuss, and we all like to play
with fire.
This danger of making love to a girl
merely because she is handy, is always
hanging over the boy like the sword
| of Damocles suspended by a single
hair, and there are two occasions when
the hair is especially liable to break
One of these is when the boy is
| leaving home to seek his fortune in
the city. His heart swells with ten
derness towards all from whom he is
about to be parted. The old home takes
! on an aura of beauty and dearness
/ that it never had before People
whom he has regarded with utter in
difference become suddenly precious
to him. For the moment his mind
is clouded, and his judgment obscured
by the romantic melancholy of the
/ last time" sentimentality.
| 1T is then that unless a boy has a
guardian angel who is working over
time on its job that he imagines him