The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-04-30
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
BY DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer



AS a second test of how men penal
ice wonien's virtues and reward their
faults take the matter OF unseiIish-
ness. Every woman who really loves
the man she marrieS has an instinctlNe
desire to sacrifice herself to him. she
wants to make of her shoulders lad
der on which he may climb 70 sue
cess. She wants to stay in the BACK
ground and keep the spotlight turned
on him.
Thousands of women do this. In
order to help their husbands get a
start in business they work their
| fingers to the bone, and become misers
who grind the last cent out OF every
nickel. That their husbands may pre-
| sent a good appearance in 'ublic they
/ go shabby. That their husbands rest
/ may not be broken at night they walk
| the baby with the collie.
/ How do the husbands repay this
selfless devotion? Generally by neglect.
\ You will rarely see a case in which n
woman has made door mat of her
self for man where the man failed to
| walk upon her, and kick her out of the
way when she got old and shabby and
worn.
The wives who are kept in cotton
wool, who are considered, who are
waited upon and adored are not the
i unselfish wives They are the women
who are adamantine punches of ego
tism, who have demanded every conn
|
and forced the husbands to get them.
AS third proof of how men prefer
weak women to strong women, take
! the question of a woman helping IL
| man. Every woman who loves her
| husband longs above everything else
to help him, but it is practically inn
possible for her to do this without
| making him hate her. Perhaps the
flavor of favors received is never
sweet in any mans mouth under any
circumstances, but when tn stimulant
has been administered by woman $
hand it is gall and wormwood on his
lips.
That is why a marriage between a
poor man and a rich woman nearly al
ways spells misery to both. The man
wants the woman's money but he can
not endure the knowledge that she has
given it to him.
Nor is the woman Who seeks to help
her husband by earning money. and
relieving him of the family burden in
any better case. Neither does the wo-
man who slaves at home to try to help
her husband meet with any better re-
ward Neither are the women whose
intuitions and sympathy and brains
forge the weapon with which man
fights his way to victory called on to
share his laurel wreaths.
| 1t is said there is a woman behind
the door of every mans success. Per-
haps that is true. but if it is. when he
passes on to glory he still leaves her
there behind the door and takes on
with him some woman who had no
hand in the manufacture of his sue
cess and who believes that he made il
all himself, alone and unaided.
| Alas, for human consistency, men
want the help of women. but they
never forgive them for giving 1t. They
need the strong wives who can put
their shoulders to the wheel and push
the family wagon out of the rut, but
the wives they love are the ones who
can do nothing but Toll in the corner
of a silk upholstered limousine.
Men admire women for their viz
tues. but they love them for their
faults, and that's why being a wife is
the most hazardous profession any
body ever followed.