The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-03-04
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
By DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.
Don't Call Attention to Your Faults

Don't Call Attention to Your Faults
Here's a tip to wives:
Never tell your husbands about the
mistakes you make. Never let your
own hand be the hand that turns the
spotlight on your faults and weak
nesses.
OF course, most women will say that
this is superfluous advice; that it is not
necessary for them to point out theip
shortcomings to their husbands. and
that the gentleman to whom they are
married have already discovered that
they possess more flaws in their char
acters tharsit seems possible that any
woman, however imperfect. could sup
port. Also that the ma jority of hus-
bands are born charter members of the
Knockers union and the Amalga-
mated Order of Hammer Wielders.
Thissis a mistake on the wives part.
When a man gets married he is strong
| in the belief that his superior judg-
ment and acumen has enabled him to
select the head liner of her sex for a
wife The mere fact that he did pick
that particular woman out from the
bunch convinces him that she is
superior to all the balance of woman
kind. Therefore, every bride begins
her married life on a pedestal, and it
| is her own fault if she climbs down
off of 1T. Her husband would never
dream of knocking her off of it if she
! would sit fast where he had placed
| her.
| 1t is one of the peeuliarities of
human nature that we all, more or
| less, take people at their own valua-
ton. And especially do men taken
women at their own valuation since
men have really no standards by
which to = measure feminine worth.
Any man will believe that any woman
| is superior creature if she tells him
she is superior creature, and exacts
/ the homage due superior creature
| And especially do wives write their
| own price tags for their husbands.
! Practically every man in the world
| takes his wife ct her own appraisal of
| her value and believes himself to have
been lucky or gold bricked in matri-
mony, according as she boosts or bears
her own stock.
If she tells him of what a good
| manager she5is, if she sings the aga
| of her economies. if she beats upon
| the cymbals and calls his attention to
! what a devoted wife and mother she
/ is. and how she spends her life min
istering to her family, husband swells
| out his chest until his shirt buttons
won't hold, and brags that he knows
how to pick 'em, when it comes to
| wives {
| But if a woman gratuitously in
| forms her husband that she never can
| learn how to cook or keep house. and
tells him OF the foolish purchases she
( has made, and opines that she is tenn
, peramentally untitled for matrimony,
| husband comes to regard himself as
a domestic goat, and pities himself
for being offered up as a sacrifice on
the altar of an unfortunate maria ge.
Yet the chances are that the man
would never have found out about his
wife's shortcomings if she hadn't
| called his attention to them herself
j Men do not enter matri.nony with the
| irrational expectation of it being a
| state Of perfect bliss that women do.
They are used to the profit and loss,
| the give and take of business, and they
are prepared to find the same ups and
1 down in conjuga1 life, and to think
that they have gotten a pretty good
| bargain in any woman who is a rea-
sonably good housekeeper, and not in
1 OrdinatelV ext "a va pa