The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-04-20
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
ny DOROTHY DIX
Verde uiKhest Paid Woman Writes.
A Woman,s Homo Is Her Castle.

A Woman's Home Is Her Castle.
A western man and his wife quar-
relied over what company should be
invited to their house, and in referee
ing the domestic battle that followed,
the supreme court decided that hus-
band 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 a bench full of old gentle
men in black silk petticoats to enforce
it. Having right, and the ability to
use it. are two different 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 well. Here I am
in full possession of the hearthstone.
Gust me if you cant"
OF course, theoretically and legally,
! 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 it is
a 1918 palace or a two-by-four flat,
! is her castle, and she runs it to please
/ herself. and no matter how big and
| important a man her husband may be
somewhere else, he is mere nobody
| at home. Probably if the truth were
known Mr.. Wilson, General Wood and
| Mr.. Carnegie wipe their feet on the
doormat before 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 let's the star get all
the limelights and the profit. She
never even considers his tastes and
nrafRranca in uhnr
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 lives, and transports
him to 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 Mis-
sion stuff. according as she tries to be
artistic or picturesque in her furnish
ings.
The sight of large. fat man wan
der1ng forlornly around his own house
trying to find a chair that will bear
his weight when he sits down is a pa
thetIc spectacle with which we are all
too familiar. No man would ever be
guilty of buying fragile gilt chairs that
break if you look at them, or hand
| PeAAiieCA sui CuSIllOnS lndL a WOmdn
never forgiveS anyt ody 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: nc 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
single closet for his own individual
pehoo1 ant benefit only achieves that
perquisite after years and years of
struggle and his wife always secretly
feeis that he is mean, selfish, grasp
ing ole thing who is trying to get
more than is coming to him. And
that he's peculiar. And fussy. Very.
What use can man have for a
whole closet for himself? Especially
when he knows that every other
closet in the house is just Overlooking
with her things, but men never have
any consideration for their poor
wives.
OF course every now and then there
is man with daring spirit, and OF
an optimistic temperament, who fits
up for himself a room in his house
that he 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 han
die, because they are stored in the
basement OF the attic
This is my own particular part of
the house." he announces with lord
ly air but did you ever see a mar
prominent article of furniture wasn't
a sewing machine. and that didn't
have in it more boxes of chocolate
cream5 than cigars. and where the
women of the family didn't habitually
camp with all of their Jim cracks?
wi he
rent. or settles with the tax collector
is lucky If he has even one chair in
his own home to which he has an
undjsputed right. As for authority
car of Russia under the Bolsheviki
regime.
He doesn't dare to ask company to
his own house. And this is so well
known that nobody but fool would
accept married mans invitation
can invite whomsoever she pleases
without consulting him, but hubby
soon finds that he does not enjoy a
similar privilege.
The spare bedroom in ninety nine
homes out of a hundred is reserved
exclusively for wife's family and
frierds. Hubby's never got a look
in nj it.
Perhaps matrimony contains nc
more unexpected jolt for a man than
"hen II Iinaily daWns upon him that
ne is not at liberty to entertain his
friends in his own home. 1t is one of
the pleasures that he has looked for
wald to az one of the keenest delights
in having n. home of his own
There are Bill, Tom and Jim who
have been friends who have stuck
closer to him than a brother in days
when he needed the help of real
friends. There is some wise. kindly
married woman whose home has been
his home and who has been a guiding
star to him. There's the little board
[ Ing hnIlgalcaaraar. hca III