The Washington herald., 1918-04-19
A woman's Home Is Her casde
by DOROTHY DIX
The Worlds Highest Paid
Woman Writer.

A Western man and his wife
quarreled over what company
should be invited to their house.
and in refereeing the domestic bat
tie that followed. the Supreme
Court decided that a husband has
just as much right to the home as
the wife has.
A fair and just decision. The
only trouble with it is that It will
take more than bench full Of old
gentlemen in black silk petticoats
to enforce IT. Having a right, and
the ability to use it are two diff
ferent stories. and women. who are
only amenable to such laws as
they choose TO obey. will simply
snap their fingers at this one, and
say. "oh, very we'll Here I am in
full possession OF the hearthstone.
Gust me IL you can"'
OF course. theoretically and legal
ly, husband has as many rights
in the home as the wife. He even
has more because he is enormously
spoken OF as the head of the house.
but in real life the only right that
the average man has in his home
Is the right to pay the bills.
Every woman's home, whether II
is a 1913 palace or a two-by-four fat.
is her castle. and she runs IL to
please herself. and no matter how
big. and important a man her hus-
band may be somewhere else, he is
~ ~
IL the truth were known Mr.. Will
son. Gen. Wood and Mr.. Carnegie
wipe their feet on the door mat be-
fore they dare enter their homes,
and hang their haloes up in the
front hall when they come in OF an
evening.
The average woman's idea OF her
husbands rights in the home is
about like those of the stage angel
who pays the expenses and lets the
star get all the limelights and the
profit. She never even considers
his tastes and his preference in de-
Gliding where they shall live, or
how the house shall be furnished.
When he makes money she pulls
him up by the roots from the old
house in which he has lived for
twenty years, and from among the
old friends he knows and loves, and
transports him to q fashionable
avenue to exist among strangers
who do not desire his acquaintance.
She smothers him with squashy
empire effects, or makes corns on
his anatomy with hard mission
stuff, according as she tries to be
artistic or picturesque in her fur
nishings.
The sight Of a large. fat man
| wandering forlornly around his
own house trying to find a chair
that will bear his weight when he
sits down is q pathetic spectacle
with which we are all too familiar.
No man would ever be guilty Of
buying fragile gilt chairs that
break II you look at them. or hand
painted sofsL cushions that a wom-
an never forgivss anybody for
using. They are the wife's ideas.
purchased with no reference to
hubby's comfort or convenience.
And no matter how big a house is,
no man, except one with a streak of
! Bluebeard in his composition, ever
gets a single, solitary room for his
very own. The man who even has a
single closet for his own individual
behoof and benefit only achieves that
perquisite after years and years of
struggle and his wife always secretly
feels that he is a mean, selfish, grasp
ing old thing who IL trying to get
more than is coming to him. And
| that he's peculiar. And fussy. Very.
| What use can a man have for a
whole closet for himself? Especially
when he knows that every other
closet in the house is just overfiowing
with her things, but men never have
any consideration for their poor
| wives
OF course every now and then there
is a man with a daring spirit, and Of
an optimistic temperament, who fits
up for himself a room in his house
that ne calls his den. and where he
| thinks he can gather about him his
own personal belongings, and have a
place to keep his little collections, and
his old fishing pole. and the other
| junk that he never gets to handle
because they are stored in the base
ment or this Gttie.
This is my own particular part Of
the house" he announces with a
lordly air, but did you ever see a
married mans den yet where the
most prominent article of furniture
wasn't a sewing machine, and that
didn't have in it more boxes of choc-
olate creams than cigars, and where
the women of the family didn't habit
ually camp with all of their jim
cracks?
No. The gentleman who pays the
rent, or settles with the tax collec-
tor, is lucky if he has even one chair
in his own home to which he has an
undisputed right. As for authority,
he is about on a par with the ex-czar
Of Russia under the Bolsheviki
regime.
He doesn't dare to ask company to
his owp house. And this is so well
known that nobody but a fool would
accept married mans invitation
until IL was O.K'd hHy his wife She