The Washington herald., 1920-12-03
Dorothy Dix,s Excellent Adpice
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stories center around some peculi-
arity In their wivesls An Of us have
sat at dinner tables ana listened
to. some coarss-hbsreds uiple-chin-
ned husband. with hide like I.
rhinoceros. relate some alleged cpl
sods about his wifs which showed
her up In an idietc light. While his
poor victim iooiced st him with the
eyes Of . hurt rabbit. and tried to
smile to hide the trembiinr Of her
lips. and we havp wished that we
could get up and take the carving
knife to him.. instesd Of having to
politely applaud the torture. scene.
Men accuse women Of having no
sense OF humor. Perhaps the rea-
son Of Il is that women are 90 often
called upon 20 furnish the point Of
mems Jokes. There are not many
Of us who have such an sbnormsIIy
developed funnybene that We are
tickied TO death when the merry hs-
ha is on ourselves ...ss.
OF course women are funny; %
are men The ssr1onio Jest Of Gre
alton 10 human nature There "a not
one Of us whose eceentricities would
not make . screaming cartoon, e.
pecislly with q lfttie touching up
here and there.
That is why anyone who is cruel
enough to pick ouf the mental or
physical defects Of pther people and
hold them up to ridicule can always
get the reputation Of being anus
ing and raise a laugh. But IL is
the cheapest form Of wit, and the
most cowardly.
Perhaps IL men realized how deep
~ they stabbed into their wives
hearts with their domestic Jokes
! they would forbear 70 use the dead
ly weapon. even IL II did make a
Roman holiday for their friends
Apparently Il does not occur 20 the
average husband that IL does not
amuse his wife to hear him say
that she Is burden. and a killjoy
TO him, and that he regards himself
as nothing less than a red lantern
TO warn other men against mstri-
mony.
Nor does q man seem 70 think
that his wife will do anything but
chortle with mirth over the side
splitting account he gives Of her
trade with the rag man. or her
run-in with the janitor, though he
would never forgive her IL she
barbed her wit with his weaknesses
I or set a company in q roar with
the veracious account Of the time
he bought q gold brick and fought
a cabby.
Humor always depends upon
whose OF is gored. and the merit
Of joke depends upon whom it
is on.
II a woman has the ill-luck 70 be
married to q man who thinks he
is funny, and who yearns to Be I.
laugh-getter. she has only two So
laces: one is. that when man
jokes his wife. Il Is really a sign
that he Is fond OF her and approves
of her. little as IL would appear to
indicate. The man who is really
irritsted by his wife's SHORTCOMINGS
never laughs over them in public. He
svears at them in private. and no
one who is actually henpecked ever
mentions the fact, The man who
pretends to be afraid Of his wife.
and to be bossed by her. is the one
who is perfectly sure that he is the
unQuestioned head Of his own
house.
The other consolation for the wife
OF the domestic Joker is to cultivate
her sense of humor. and while she
can probably never see how funny
she is herself. she can get a most
amusing vision of how ridiculous
her husband Is. trying TO be a clnup.
But. as a matter OF fact. a Joke
in the family circle is as dangerous
as a bomb. When IL explodes. it
skaters the peace. and somebody
always gets hurt.