The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-04-13
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
By DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.
Woman Is woman's Best Friend.

woman say that she doesn't ike
women and women don't like her and
that if a woman wants any real
friendship, she has to find it among
| man.
| The poor, silly, little goose who
makes this statement. hasn't enough
intelligence to realize that when she
says this she is card indexing her own
! character, and registering herself
among those Mr.. Roosevelt happily
denominated undesirable citizens"
For you will never find a woman
who is big of heart, brain and sym
pathy who doesn't like other women,
and whom other women do not like
II is the vain, the selfish, the shallow
women who are amateur or protes-
sional vamps. trying to snare every
man they meet, the women who have
black pages in their history that they
| do not want any feminine eyes to see.
who 90 not like other women. AND
| it Is the mean souled women, the
| untrustworthy, the catty women that
other women instinctively fear and
| dislike.
| Talk to any woman criminal
murderess, a shop litter, blackmaii,
! err, a dive keeper-and she Will tell
YOU that she doesn't like women and
| that VIC omen are cruel to their own
| sex Rut the great women, the Susan
| B. Anthonys, the Anna Shaws. the
Carrie Chapman Cats, the Helen
! Coulds so love their sex that they
| have given their lives to its service
and they are worshipped by millions
| of women.
| Sc absolutely unfailing is this rule
that a good woman loves women ana
| is ,oyed by them, that it is always
well 10 regard with suspicion one
who shuns her own sex and is given
| the cold shoulder by it
As for woman finding her best
| friend among men there was never
more fallacious theory, nor one that
| was a more broken reed on which to
lean. So far from this being the
| truth wcman's best friends. almost
the OILY ones on whom she can de-
pend, are women
Men have deep, true, sincere
friendships for other men, but tney
are fair weather friends to women.
A man is a woman's friend as long
as the skies are bright and she is gay
and laughing. He likes her when she
has on her prettiest gown, when she
is in ner most sparkling mood. when
she is ready to amuse and entertain
him.
| But let the storms descend upon
her. Let her get sick and haggard;
and ugly. Let her laughter be turned
to tears, and it's goodbye to Mr..
Friend.
1t isn't that the man minds giving
her a little money if he has 1T. or that
he isn't sorry for her, for he is. and
if long distance sympathy is any SOL
ace to her she's welcome to it. But
he doesn't want to see her. He doesn't
want to personally be made uncom-
Portable by having to behold her
grief or witness the rava ges that trou-
BILE has made in her appearance Still
less does he yearn' to listen to her tale
of woe, and as for deliberately bring
ing this upon himself by going and
| hunting his afflicted friend up-why
it's piece of heroism that the aver.
age man simply can't force himself
to do. ,.--.-
He'd rather face man eating lion
than a woman who is going to sob
| out the story of her misfortune
Therefore, when a woman finds her.
self in trouble she simultaneously
finds that all of her men friends have
suddenly dropped away.
On the other hand. when a woman
is in trouble it draws the hearts of
other women to her. and it is when
she needs human companionship most
that they draw closest to her.
When death robs a woman of the
one who is nearest and dearest to her,
it is invariably a woman friend. not a
man friend who treads the bitter
path of her Gethsemane with her, and
who listens with divine patience while
the broken heart pours out its weary,
dreary lamentations.
1t is a woman's woman friends, not
her men friends. who bring to the
| house of mourning the cheer of their
presence and whose sympathy make
her feel that there are still those who
love her.
And when woman meets with
financial misfortune, it is women who
first come to her assistance. who think
of something she can do, and try to
get her on her feet. Perhaps men
give the money or the employment
for women generally have little money
of their own, but behind nearly every
mans benefactions is his wife's sug-
gestion.
There isn't a philanthropy for the
amelicrating of the hard lot of wom-
en-, from the homes for old and help
| less women to the rescue of young
and Maynard ones, that has not been
| inspired by the love of woman for
woman. There isn't a girl in any Of
flee OF store, or factory who isn't try
ing to get some other girl a good
! situation. or teach some new girl her
job so as to help her on. Every
where you will find woman's hand
| stretched out to woman in pure
friendliness
A woman's friendship for another
woman is one of the most unselfish
relations in life A mans friendship
for a woman is the most selfish for
in it he considers only his own pleas
ure ard good. Never the woman's.
In proof of this take the so-caHed
platonic friendship by means of which
| a man serves notice OF a woman that
his attentions are without intention,
and then feels free in his conscience
| to go along and win her love. monop-
oiize her time. and drive away eligi-
| BILE men.
Nothing more unfair to the woman
| than a platonic friendship could be
devised. : gives to the man the very
| best years of woman's youth, the
freshness of her heart, the first
sparkle of her wit, the sweetest If
| her romance, and then leaves him
perfectly free to ride away when her
| charms begin to fail.
/ frria nj. toll