The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-12-24
DOROTHY DIX'S TALK
THE SHORT CUT TO A WOMAN'S HEART.
BY DOROTHY DIX,
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.

ism, and idealism and whatever other
fool thing it is in woman's soul that
makes her believe that she has got
some mission to reform the world, So
she marrieS her man to find out, gen
orally, that he isn't as bad as he had
represented himself to be- and that he
merely took that way to win her be-
cause he knew that sinners were more
interesting to women than saints, or
else she ascertains through bitter eX-
perience that the wealSling who can
not save himself no woman can save.
In all the length and breadth of hu.
man peculiarities there is nothing so
strange as the fa,thfulness with which
women stick to evil men who will treat
them, and disgrace them In every
police court you will see poor. dragged
ill-used wives, covering their bruises
with their shawls and swearing that
they got their black eyes by falling
who have beaten them half to death.
At every penitentiary gate there waits
some forlorn woman to welcome back
to her arms the convict who has fin
ished serving his term, and to pour
over him the love that shame has not
killed nor absence diminished
What Is the appeal that these men,
sodden, loutish, bruitish, with no charm
of manner or person, make to women
that they are rewarded by a devotion
| that the good man, the gentleman, the
kindly and chivarous husband seldom
receives? It is the story OF the moth
er and the afflicted child over again?
These men appeal to the higher nature
| of their women kind, they call out all
| the pity and the protecting instinct that
Is In them These men need them ana
woman's heart has TO be dust and
ashes in her breast before she becomes
| deaf to cry for help.
| Let n man make a woman feel that
| he needs her and she is his This is q
| tip for husbands as well as lovers. AS
long as wife is working, tooth and
nail, helping her huband make his for
| tune, or succeed in his career, she Is
happy and contented. 1t ia only after
he has arrived at the place where he
no longer needs her that she grows
peevish, and dissatisfied. and jealous.
| or starts out on still hunt for some
other. man who needs her--or tells her
| that he does.
That the appeal to a woman's higher
nature invariably rings the bell is pro-
ven in many ways Every woman
knows, for example, that nothing fiat
tiers her so much as being taken Sc
riously by man, and having him ask
her advice, and listen with respect to
her views on matters of real moment
Few men are astute enough to have
found this out. The great majority OF
men when they want to compliment a
woman tell her that she looks as beau
tiful as dream, or that her eyes are
like stars, The woman smiles at this
because she knows It Is the small
change of conversation that passes cur
rent between the sexes, and that il
means no more than when one muir
murs, I've had such a pleasant eve
ming. It's been such wonderful re-
ception," TO ones hostess at a tea
fight
But when a man asks woman who
she thinks will be the next president,
and what she thinks of the govern
ment's foreign policy, he paws her a
compliment that goes to her head like
wine, because he has appealed to her
brains instead Of her vanity and rec
ognized her as a thinking human be
ing instead Of dressed-up doll,
People often wonder why women are
so crazy over preachers. II is because
clergyman is practically the only
man who ever talks to a woman about
Ter soul, or considers It Of any impor-
lance what she really thinks deep down
In her And women love TO vivisect
their actions, and take out their hopes
and fears, and faiths, and aspirations
and look at them under the magnify
ing glass, and they are eternally in
terested in the man who will do this
with them.
The man who wishes to win a WON
ms heart may well follow the sig
beard erected by the blgamist, For
the appeal to a woman's higher ma
ture, 10 her gentleness, her self sacri-
flee. her sympathy. her sense Of the
reed of her, is never made in vain
There Is always the angel in her wait.
ing TO answer the call when n mar
pushes that hutton on the door.
Copyright, 1919, by the Wheeler Syn.
dicate, Inc)