The Washington herald., 1918-02-14
DOROTHY DIX'S TALKS
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman
Writer.
THE FATAL GIFT OF BEAUTY.

Beauty has always been woman's s
one best bet.
The first question a man ever asks
about a woman is not whether she is
good. or intelligent, or interesting,
| but: rs she pretty?'
II every woman were given the de-
sire of her soul she would ask not
for brains. or talent. or a lovely char
acter, but for a peaches and cream
complexion and golden hair; large
blue eyes and willowy figure. No
woman yet has ever reached the point
where she wouldn't prefer to be a
| living picture to a genius. and who
wouldn't rather hear people say az
she passed, How beautiful" rather
than, How clcver!'
Yet, after all, isn't beauty an over
rated quality in women? Is it the open
sesame, in reality. before which all
the doors of opportunity fly open to
| woman? Has the beautiful girl
! any more chance of happiness and
| success in life than her plain-faced
sister?
Take marriage, for instance. One
is inclined to say offhand that a
girls face is her fortune when il
| comes to marrying. and that the
beauty can cut matrimonial circles
all around the homely girl.
Strangely enough this is not true,
| and for all men are such theoretical
| worshippers at the shrine of Venus.
when it comes TO marrying her that's
| another thing altogether. yet, y un-
derstand, Mawruss.
Men like to philander with beauty.
They like to dance with her at balls.
! 1t gratifies their vanity to take girl
to theaters. and restaurants, and pub
| lie places who is so good looking that
| she makes people rubber, but for
some occult reason they don't want
| to tie up with her for life. Therefore,
while the beauty has many beaux, she
has few suitors, and after having
been a belle for a long time she gem
orally ends by picking up a crooked
matrimonial stick.
If you will think over the ex-
traordinarily beautiful women you
have known, you will hardly find
| enc who has made a really good
match. Also. If you will look at
the wives of the successful and
famous men that you know. you
will observe that they are all ladies
who would have never won a blue
| ribbon in a beauty show. Likewise,
If you will consider the women of
your acquaintance who have in
spired the deepest affection in their
husbands breasts, you will note
that not one of them has a pinch
of good looks to spare.
All of which goes to prove that
men are not such devotees of fem
| mime pulchritude as they pretend,
and that if they worship beauty
! they are content to worship it from
afar.
The truth is that while a man
likes a woman who is easy on the
eyes, that's about as far as his
demand for good looks goes. After
that he wants something more sub
stantial than pink and white pret-
tiness. He wants to be interested
and amused, sympathized with,
petted and cajo1ed and admired
himself. and when he finds out that
the beauty's attractions are only
skin deep they soon begin to pail
upon him.
After ALL old Mother Nature
evens things up pretty we'll among
her daughters, and when she gor-
geously adorns the outside of a
woman's head she is nightly apt to
skimp on the inside furnishings. OF
course there are exceptions to this
rule. but as a general thing a
beauty carries a very shy lot of
brains as sideline attraction.
Worse still. from the masculine point
of view, she is sure to be self-centered,
and demand that the domestic spot
light be turned perpetually on herself,
All her life she has been the consider
ed one, the admired one, the one to
awhom the whole family was sacrificed,
and without realizinE It she has been