The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-04-06
OOROTHY DIX TALKS
BY DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer
The Value of Love


would you sell the love of your wife?
the alteration OF your children? How
much for the friendship of the men
and women of your little circle?
| So far the only attempts that have
ever been made to give love a market
rating have been in breach of promise
suits where forsaken damsels have
valued the loss of the affection of
their faithless suitors, and the con-
sequent damage to their hearts. at
sums that have ranged all the way
| from a hundred thousand dollars
down to five thousand.
That these estimates have generally
| been considered excessive and have
been literally cut down by the juries,
/ is not to be considered constituting
a standard of value for love. Most of
US are inclined to be cynical regard
! ing the wounds to affection that can
only be healed by an application of a
! yellowback poultice.
! Yet for all that love is not listed
among the negotiable securities and
| there is no Cupid Consolidation,
Mutual Affection or Union Devotion
quoted over the tape. still love has an
actual cash value, and is one of the
most valuable assets that any man or
! woman can possess.
| Nor does this refer to any senti-
mental consideration, or any emotion
al happiness that one may get out of
| being loved. 1t is simply a cold, hard
! business proposition that the ability to
win affection is just as much fac
! tor in anyone's practical success in
the world as is any other talent or gift.
! Consider this. Who are the people
whom we help and push on to for
tune. Are they the worthy? The most
| deserving? The most needy. Not at
all. 1t is the people whom we like.
Who are the ones we boost up the lad
der? The especially gifted? The
unusually fit? Not a bit of it. 1t is
| those who have charm, and have
way with them that wins our affec-
ton.
Genius allied to an unpleasing per-
sonality still starves in garrets, while
agreeable mediocrity has golden OPP
| portunities thrown in its way All OF
us do things for people because we ike
them that we wouldn't do for them
because it is their due to save their
lives.
There are plenty of men who might
have capitalized their friendship at
million dollars without being guilty
of initiating it's value penny.
The most forcible illustrations. how
! ever. that the world affords of the real
| cash value of love is to be found in the
domestic r~.ctio.-shiI. A oh esti-
mate of tho worth of a genuine case
| of affection for lis wife, wou,t run the
! capital on which any man is doing
| business up $50,
! If he is madly in love with her this
= e may De safely oou ed while if
h thinks that she is the only woman
| in the world, and that nothing is good
enough fer her. he has pra ctically un-
! limited backing an is healed TO be-
come a trust magnate.
This is not an exaggerated state
ment Love for some woman has
made moro men milliona:res, and
raised more men from obscurity to
| fame than all other causes combined.
1t is power SO great that it cons I'll
tutes a talent in itself.
1t is love that makes man want
to deck his wife out in silks and dia-
monds. and give her limousines to ride
around in and a place in the sun of
society; that turns lazy men into
! hustlers and fires the ambition of
easy-going men, and makes of them
! the fighters that nothing can keep
from winning out.
! Just the knowledge that woman
| believes in him and expects him to
succeed nerves a man up to his very
| best, just as the knowledge that his
wife is indifferent to him and will nag
| him, and twit him with his failures,
saps his energies and paralyzes his
courage. A quiet, peaceful, happy
home is such an element in a mans
achievements; tender, affectionate
| loving wife is such an inspir alton to
! him, that it is a wonder even selfish
women who care for only what they
can get out of their husbands. have
not sense enough to see that IN failing
to give man any appreciation they
are literally starving to d=ath the
: goose that lays the golden egg.
A cheerful loving wife is money in
I a mans pocket. A fretful unioving
wife is the first aid to bankruptcy and
thus it happens that love mems pros
perity as well as domestic peace and
happiness
So far as women are concerned,
husbands could find out to their profit
that it pays to love their wives 1t is
a common naratil joke that the man
who quarrels with his wife has tc
square himself by means of silk frocks
and imported millinery. What men
do not know is that when women are
unhappy they take to extrava 9ance. as
men do to drink, for consolation
Many an unloved wife whose ex-
trava gance we criticise is trying to
make up for the emptiness of her
heart by overlooking her body with
finery.
AS long as a woman belie-es in r:
| husbands affection she can be h.
| in a shabby cottage, or two b. ia
| flat, and it is because love fiss- ,ut
so often at the win = nat NJ lss1f"';
money has to c1tz1H ~ he door.
/ As long as . Hssa:. - IS wife that
to him sEn tfiF rst beautiful
woman in .Sa@ ID s.. viii wear
her last az hs1 st made over
gown WI :: III Crff = CssA - QlScCntent
AS long >. husband ICES any inter
est in hold: .i.-..- = ~. a woman will
work the 4 bone for him.
and think : privileged to do It.
And this being the case. it is a wonder
that the sex that prides~ itself on its
financial sagacity has never thought it
worth while to bestow more kisses ard
compliments, and less coin on its wife
1t is queer but true that a woman's
affection for a man can be accurately
gagged by the money standard The
very first symptom that a girl shows
of falling in love with a man is when
she begins lc be merciful towards his
pocket book As long as young
woman lets young man sperd on her
/ without protest every cent he can af-