The Washington herald., 1918-05-27
"A School for Husbands
BY DOROTHY DIX,
THE WORLDS HIGHEST PAID WOMAN WRITER

L ~
It Is announced that one of our
leading educational institutions pro.
poses to open q department that will
teach girls not only the arts OF
Ihousewifery. but the whole psychol-
ogy Of how to be happy though mar
ried-not only how to feed the
brutes to whom they are united
but how to jolly them along, how
to manage servants. and deal with
butchers without committing either
bankruptcy or murder. and how to
generally oil up the household ma
chinery SO that 1t will run without
a hitch instead of groaning and
squeaking as it goes. as II its pres
emit custom.
Only gilt edge wives will be
turned out. and blue ribboned dip
Iona from this school will be q
guarantee that the holder thereof
10 q domestic angle, destined to
bless any man lucky enough to get
her.
This is q move in the right d.
rection. Ignorance IL the blame oil
life. 1t Is sadly true that all ex-
perience comes at the wrong end OF
things, and by the time we acquire
working capital of them 1t is toe
late to use It. And this IL espe-
cially the case in matrimonial ex-
perience.
Before a girl has learned to KEEP
house. or manage q husband. she
has generally killed him with dys.
pepsia, or lost his affection, and
therefore derives no benefit from heI
hardly acquired knowledge. So the
advantage to q man of marrying =
woman who knows her business
and Is q trained professional. SO &c
speak. instead Of q bungling half
baked amateur bride is too obvious
to need insisting upon.
1t gives to the fortunate man who
gets her all Of the advantages OF
espousing widow, without the
drawback of being No. 2, and al
ways suspicious that one Is being
fed upon warmed over love. and re-
hashed romance.
Certainly q school to prepare
women for matrimony fills a long
felt want, but why should such d
good thing remain q feminine mo-
nopoly? After all. marriage is not
solitaire. 1t Is q two-handed game
in which both sexes take part. just
Is many men marry women as wom-
IN wed men, and there is just as
wide a field for missionary effort
among prospective benedicts as
there is among prospective brides
Certainly a husband who had taken
a postgraduate course in the arts
and crafts Of domestic life, to say
nothing Of the amenities thereof,
would be a preferred risk as a life
partner. and have foxy maidens, with
ain eye to the main chance. pursuing
MIN even more strenuously than they
do a youth with a new racing car.
Far too little attention has been
paid heretofore to the mans part in
making a happy home and keeping
the family. out of the divorce courts.
II has been held that was the wom-
ans business, but the numerous mat
rimonial wrecks with which society is
strewn seem TO prove that the task
is too big for any wife to accomplish
alone, and that to turn out a real
first-Class. workman-like job OF a
happy marriage requires the expert
labor of both husband and wife.
Up to now a mans sole idea of 1T
ting himself for matrimony has been
to make enough money to pay the
bills. So far so good. Undoubtedly
every happy home is bound to have
a good strong financial foundation.
and the man who can meet the first
OF the month without having hys-
terics himself, or throwing his wife
into hts. has undoubtedly the first
qualification towards being a good
husband.
But there are other things that he
should know. and it is this specific
knowledge that the school for hus-
bands could teach with such great
profit to the man, and comfort to his
prospective wife. for the sins of the
American man towards the woman he
marries are generally sins OF ignorance.
and not Of intent. When he tramples
all over the flower bed in his wife's
heart 1t Is because he doesn't know
any better. and is so dull he can't
read the Keep of the grass" signs
that women erect all over their little
feelings and sensibilities.
To begin with. then. the school for
husbands should commence with a