The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-02-23
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
Marriage as a Help or a Hindrancc
BY DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.

Marriage as a Help or a Hindrance.
/ Is it selfish for a woman who loves
a poor young man to marry him?
This is very interesting problem
that is discussed in a brilliant new
play. In this play the young woman
is in love with a young scientist who
has just begun to climb the ladder of
success, and who is on the threshold of
achieving fame and fortune for him
self, and of doing great good to hui
manity. He needs every cent of his
small salary for books. instruments.
study and travel.
These he cannot have if what he
earns has to go to support a family,
and the girl feels that she loves him
too well to permit him to sacrifice his
| career by marrying her. The play set
ties the question, as it is not settled
in real life, by phiianthropist coming
along and giving the young couple
plenty of money to marry on. SO that
they can have their cake and eat it,
too.
The dramatist has touched upon one
of the most vital and perplexing Ques-
tons of our day, and one that is trou-
F, bling thousands of intelligent, edu-
Gated, thinking young people. They
are in love. They want to marry, but
they are poor and ambitious, and even
his aspirations on the altar of domes-
ITCHY, the woman hesitates to let him
make the sacrifice.
Both have seen so much genius
smothered under butchers, bakers
and grocery bills Both have seen the
the face of a shabby coat and broken
shoes Both have seen the man who
could have climbed held down to the
earth by the weight of the wife and
pack of children on his back.
There was A with his wonderful
gifts as a surgeon who might have ris-
en- to the top of his profession If he
had stayed single. But he married
He had to go and live in a shabby
neighborhood, and take any kind of a
cheap practice in order that his fam
lily might be supported. He had Meth
er time nor money to take special
courses or to go among the people
who could push his fortune. His mar
rage doomed him to obscurity and
poverty.
And there's B who was already gain
ing reputation as a novelist of unusual
freshness and charm. The critics
were prophesying great things for him
But he got married, and with wife
to support he could not risk the un-
certain income of one who had to wait
on inspiration. So he was forced to
harness his Pegasus to the family
dinner cart, and do whatever hack
work would pay him best The ne
cessity of feeding the children of his
body starved to death the children of
his brain, and he who might have
been great. sunk into mediocrity.
pulled down by marriage.
And there was c who has spent all
his life on a clerks stool. Yet when
C was young he was clever and ener-
getic, and alert, and thought to have
unusual promise in him. But c mar
ried while he was getting small sal
airy. The babies came quick and fast.
and expenses piled up on him so
swiftly that he has never been a lap
ahead of the bill collector. He has
never dared to ask for raise in sal
+ airy, look for a better situation. or
make any move that would jeopardize
his job because there was always the
nest full of hungry mouths to feed at
home. He has run way behind the
field in the financial race simply be-
cause the matrimonial handicap was
, too heavy for him to carry.
Every young couple knows dozens,
of cases like these. They know that
nothing breaks mans spirit, moth
ing takes the snap and ginger out of
him. nothing Stays ambition as does
the daily fight with the wolf at the
door. Nothing takes the heart out Of
a man as does the incessant nagging
of poverty. 1t tortures him with the
perpetual fear of bills that must be
paid. and leaves him no clear moment
. In which to give his whole thoughts TO
his work.
After all Success is a snob who
smiles her sweetest on those who