The Oklahoma City times. [volume] (Oklahoma City, Okla.) 1908-1984, 1919-05-23
Ust Disastrous MiSta ke
Good Men Make Is InduIg-
1 Ing Wife and Children Be-
I yond Their Means,
BY DOROTHY DIX,
|Ae Worlds Highest Paid Woman
Writer.

when a man permits hi, family to
indulge IN extravagances that he can
!, Spt afford he justifles his weakness
himself by saying that he loves
Is wife and children 81 dearly that
i cannot bear TO deny them anything.
lie thinks he proves his affection by
1orking himself to death so that his
asky wife and daughters may not
ven have TO make up their own beds,
= pd the sons may loaf through college
ID acquire a discriminating taste in
Imported cigarets and clothes. He
even consoles himself as he lies awake
q night worrying about how he's
going 10 get the money 10 pay for
16ressmaker bills, and millinery bills,
and imported lingerie bills and auto
@obile bills, by thinking that mother
ord the girls have had the things they
1anted, anyway.
End Comes After Time.
y In reality it man hated his vile
pd children with a deadly hatred,
Id planned the cruele,t and most
hbtlc revenge upon them, he could
Dke no surer way OF venting his spite
ID enmity upon them than by teach
~ them the tastes and habits that
~ will not have the means TO graft
II. For sooner or later there comes
crash in the affairs OF such a man
Some day the flimSy structures OF his
over strained credit crashes down
bout his ears, or else he dies, and his
Sampered family is thrown out on a
practical world that has scant sym
: pathy for those who have been living
in gilded luxury to which they had
NO right
Poverty Heaven knows is hard
enough for any OF us TO bear. but IT'S
deprivations are a thousand fold more
bitter to those who are unaccuStomel
% them than they are TO those who
ave never known anything else.
Those who have never had anything
but coarse and ugly clothes, and plain
food, and cheap lodging may vaguely
fOng for something better hut such
things are not the nightmare OF horror
- them they are n those who are
accustomed to fine and beautiful raj
ment and exquisite food. and artistic
surtoundugs
Real Torture.
: There is no torture equal to the
tortureS oi uuSatisird desires, ot
Astes that must be Jru,lllcl at every
o,rn. OF habits tha, must he denied
6eery hour OF the day TO have TO
gear shoddy when YOU are accus-
toned to broadcloth, to have to eat
margarine when You have never eaten
anything but gilt edge butter; to have
to walk To save car fare when you've
sidden around in limouSlneS. not to
hs able to have any OF the little lux
uries that long custom has made ne
cessities to you, is to be plunged into
misery as acute S can fall TO any
Dortal.
.,tYet it is this particular brand of
eAisery that the man prepares for his
FAMILY when he permits them TO de-
Xlop champagne taste on a beer in
6me, and it isn't fair to them. 1t
mt playing the game with them. 1t
ebn't giving them a square deal
No man has right to let his vito
Mcguire eNtrayagant habits unless he
has enough money to leave her when
Ae dies TO enable her to live in the
style TO which he has accustomed her
Ii isn't easy for a womaA TO change
her ways alter she is fifty She can't
learn how to manage, and be thrifty,
after that age ii she has been easy
going and wasteiul up to then. Still
less can she learn any way of max
ing a living il she has always been
kep soft and comfortable at home and
has not even had to keep a careful
ere on the money she spent
a. Her Worst Enemy
Every man knows this Every man
has been called ON to help some for
6Orn and bewildcrci woman whose
husband death has suddenly chucked
from the lap OF luxury into the
arms oi want Her husband was
tuch good man y, devoted to his
wife. Couldn't deny her anything But
her worst enemy couldn't have done
her a greater wrong
Nor has any man a righ, 10 raise
s daughter up with imported hat
stes unless he is able TO give her
dowry when she IS married suiii-
Ient to pay her millinery bills. Ger
Danly he has no right TO expect that
girl who has been accustomed 10
Cessing like fashion plate, and
oorning herself in the most artistic
cations of the best drcssmakers and
lnMus, Is going to have her tastes
eiIanged by the marriage ceremony
u - will he happN and contenied