The Washington herald., 1919-05-02
Home and Happiness
Bv DOROTHY DIX
THE WORLDS HIGHEST PAID WOMAN WRITER

The love OF money is the root of all
evil. says the Good Book.
Money isn't everything, but it Will
buy the balance, says the cynic.
The lack Of money Is the cause of
most Of the worries. anxieties and
troubles in the world. say We all.
It's money that looms largest on our
horizon. It's the rich we envy. It's
the time when we have made our
fortune that we set as the crownins
hour of life. the psychological moment
in which we are going to be happy.
Nor is all this as sordid and ava
ricious as it seems. A certain amount
of money il an absolute necessity.
Without it We are crushed under cares
and fears with which no philosophy
can cope. The poverty-stricken mar
and woman can know freedom of
neither soul nor body. They are bond
slaves to the hand that supplies their
wants.
Even the finer joys of life have a
price tag on them. The call or the
stomach is louder than the cry of the
heart. When people are hungry they
do not yearn for love. They demand
food. No one can picture a happy
home with a bill collector forever
pounding on the door.
Only the foolish fail to recognize the
part that money plays in our lives.
and that our house of life must ne
built upon good sound financial planks
IL we are TO have any rest and peace
and happiness in It. And only the lazy
and the shiftless refuse to work ana
supply, this necessary foundation.
The mistake we make. however, IL
in thinking that we need great
deal of money and that 1t must be
obtained in some easy. romantic
and poetic manner-in thinking that
we must have a palace instead OF a
bungalow. and that it must be To-
Gated on Fifth Avenue instead of In
the suburbs of bonneville.
1t is true that money can BUY
happiness up to certain point
After that it loses its purchasing
power, and what We get with what
we spend is more likely to be misery
than pleasure. After you have mao
a full meal you can eat no more
though you had unlimited money 10
buv the richest food in the worlo'
when you have a good root over
vour head. a fire to keep you warm
a comfortable chair to sit in, soit
bed to sleep in, a bright light TO read
bv YOU have all the comforts OF
ba abitation that money will purchase.
Won can wear but one suit OF CLONES
at a time. A jitney will carry you any
where that a limousine will, and SO
when YOU have provided yourself with
what we call the ordinary comforts OIL
life. and have enough laid by 10 keep
the thought of old age and Sickness
from being a haunting terror 10 you,
YOU have about reached the limit Oh
the real happiness that money buys.
After we have passed the mile stone
where we have left hunger and coio
and the fear of the world behind U.S.
the reason that being poor makes us
unhappy is because we will not accept
poyerty frankly and unashamedly ana
enjoy the liberties It gives US.
we are not willing to live in the
Kind of house we can afford, or
wear the kind of clothes we can
nav for, or indulge In the amuse-
ments within our means. We must
initiate those who are better on
We have champagne taste on a
beer income, and therein lies our
doom.
There is no torture equal to that
of genteel poverty that tries to
keep up appearances? that starves
to give a pink tea occasionally
that huddles the whole family into
a couple of rooms to have a good
address, and that shivers under
sleazy silk instead of being warm
and comfortable in honest home
spun.
But there is Joy and comfort in
the poverty that accepts poverty
frankly that wears the kind of
clothes ii can afford, without ap-
ing the fashions of the rich;
that sets before its guests the kind
of meal that does not run IL into
debt and that has no heart burn
ings over what people better off
have. because 1T does not compete