Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-03-13
DOROTHY DIX'S TALKS
Which Is Worth More, a Wife'S or a
Husbands Love?
BY DOROTHY DIX
The Highest Paid Woman Writer in the World

she is young and pretty. 1t is a
lovely thing, but it lacks wearing
qualities for the most part. AS a
general thing, a husbands love for
his wife depends on her age, her
looks, her high spirits. If he is de-
voted cher. and faithful to her
still after she gets old, and fat, and
grizzled-headed or becomes a peev-
ish invalid, every one marvels at his
constancy, and it is the consensus
of public opinion that he should be
given the croix de guerre of mat
rimony.
In view of the eVaneScent quality
of masculine affection it is easy to
see why the wives who sue sirens
for vamping their husbands never
get big damages. Jurys do not hold
that they are entitled to them, or
consider that they have lost anything
very valuable that may have been
useful in holding things together,
but is no priceless jewel.
On the other hand, a wife's affec-
ton is the most understandable OBJ.
iect on earth. Hers is the love that
is all wool and a yard wide, and
that is guaranteed not to run, nor
shrink nor fade in the wash, and to
stand the wear and tear of life.
She can love the unlovable. She
can be faithful to the faithless. She
can fish a man out OF the gutter,
wash him clean with her tears, and
set him up on a pedestal and make
A little tin God of him. SO he who
possesses a woman's heart has not
only a source of daily comfort, and
strength and sustaining, but he mas
also a piece of bric-a-brac that is a
constant curiosity and wonder to all
who observe it, and that is valuable
beyond all reckoning.
More than that, a mans wife is
his caterer, his laundress, his valet,
his conscience, his saving bank, his
safety valve, his salve spreader, his
sparring partner, his standing eX-
cuae for everything he does and
omits to do, and for him to be rob-
BED Of al Of that aggregation Of con-
veniences is to leave him poor and
desolate indeed.
In estimating how much man
loses when he has his wife's affec-
ions purloined from him, we must
,,Iso take into account the fact that
it diminishes his earning capacity
and reduces his chances of success.
because it removes his strongest in
centive to effort.
In the old romantic days a man in
love proved his devotion by putting
on his armor, mounting his battle
90 n 6np6S
of valor for his lady love. In these
times the man in love proves his de-
votion by hustling out and making
money or getting somewhere, to
prove his affection for the woman
he loves.
Comparative few men ever achieve
success, or save money, or hold down
4 big job until after they get mar
lied. 1t is when a man has a wife
whom he loves and for whom he
wants limousineS and diamonds and
fine houses that he rolls up his
sleeve and does the work that counts.
There is a direct ratio between a
mans earning ability and what he
thinks Of his wife, for men cash in
their affections in dollars and cents.
Ana, CuIIOuSly SuOuSH1 just as q
mans love for his wife leads him on
to prosperity, an unlawful love near
~ always spells disaster to him, and
many a mans bankruptcy and ruin
has begun in his f1irtations.
1t is because domestic affections
mean peace, and happiness, and a
calm mind, and ambition, and pros
perity that wife's love is so val
liable, and the man who is robbed of
it has lost this chief worldly pos
session, and is entitled to such COM
pensation as the courts can give him.
But, as a matter of cold fact, not
many men Or women are really rob-
bed of their wives or husbands af-
lection. They lose them through
their own carelessness, and if they
had been attending to business.
watching and guarding the precious
thing entrusted to their care, it
would have been safe from the de-
predations of sneak thieves.
Copyright, 1920, by the Wheeler
Syndicate, Inc.)