Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-11-06
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
Marrying for a Living
BY DOROTHY DIX
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.
YOUNG girl who has good job says
BY DOROTHY DIX

- CndC a WlQOW0r VINO is more LndA
- twice her age, and who has familv
Of children and grandchildraH. waHes TO
marry her, and she a5hs II she shall do it
or continue to make her own living.
I All dstonished that ANY modern young
woman should ask such question, or con-
slider selling the birthright of freedom that
is the heritage Of the girl of today for such
a mess of pottage What, give up her free
dom for the sake of shelter when she can
earn one for herself! What give up her
youth to be the companion OF crabid age,
for the sake of food when she has the means
of making her own bread and butter with
her own hands and brains! What put all
love and romance out of her life for the
sake of few clothes when she can get them
for herself by her own exertion
What a poor bargain she would make,
even if the man could give her palace to
live in, and nightingales' tongues to feast
on, and clothe her in silks and satins and
hang her with diamonds! For, when all is
said, one can be as safe from the storm
under Iowly roof as lordly one; one can
get about SO much, and one can be as COM
fortably clothed in a hand-me-1own frock
as a Paris creation. But one has ones
youth, and love time, and the glory of living
but once, and if you barter that away fool
ishly your chances for happiness are gone
forever
Why, the one thing that every girl who
is self-supportng should thank God for on
her knees when she says her prayers at
her sandwich at lunch and make it taste
like ambrosia, is that she does not have to
make the sacrifice Of trading off her youth
for meal ticket. She does not have to
marry for home. She does not have to be
martyrized the balance of her life by being
married to some man who is repulsive to her
because she had to get bill payer.
No, she is free to follow the dictates of
her heart. She does not have to sell herself
to any man for support, for she is perfectly
we'll able to take care of herself, and she
can wait until the right man comes along.
And this is the first generation of women
that has ever enjoyed that privilege. Up
to now, when girl reached certain age,
if she had no fortune she had to take any
thing in the matrimonial line that was Of
fered, because the only sort of work that
was deemed respectable for women was work.
ing men. What tragedies of mismatement
there were, what blooming youth tied to
senile age, what spiritual grace condemned
to live forever with clods, what tenderness
crushed and broken by brutality, what re-
volt and blind, futile hatred filled the hearts
of the women doomed to endure this earthly
pur@atory, we can only imagine.
Those days of martyrdom are over for
women now, and it seems almost incredible
that any girl should think Of opening the
door back into the torture chamber, and VOL
UNFAIRLY taking her place on the rack. For
that is what a loveless marriage means to
any woman, and especially marriage between
young girl and an old man.
For let no girl deceive herself by believ-
ing that there is any truth in the old adage
about its being better to be an old mans
darling than young mans slave. There
are, in truth no other such grinding typants
on earth as the old, for age brings with it a
curious conceit that makes even fool, if he
has lived number of years. believe that he
is very Solomon for wisdom The old al
most universally believe that their judgment
is infallible, their outlook the only point Of
view, their way the only correct method OF
doing things, and so the old husband forces
his wife to obey him with a rigid discipline
that no young man would think of imposing
on a woman.
And the old are selfish, graspng with
greedy hands at the life that is slipping from
them, and the young wife finds that she is
nothing but nurse, who must spend her
days and nights ministering to an old mans
whims and crotchets and coddling his rheu-
matism.
Every young girl who 1narries an old man
thinks she is going to be able to wrap him
around her finger, and that he will be so
pleased and flattered at having a pretty wife
to show off that he will trot around with
her to places Of amusement, and deck her
out like a Fifth avenue show window, and
that he'll be satisfied to stay put in the back
ground while she flirts around, and dances
with chaps of her own age.
Alas for the foolish dream. What she
wakes up to is that grandpa, after having
trOu measure BeCLlHB q young WIG, TetlreS
to the radiator, and nurses his equity feet
of an evening, where he expects young wife
to bear him company, and listen to the thrill
ing "reminiscences of what he did forty years
ago. Also grandpa, knowing in his soul that
he was married for his money, hangs on to
every cent with a death grip, and, realizing
that youth calls to youth, he does watch
dog act that keeps every young man beyond
telephoning distance.
Perhaps there comes times when the work.
ing girl gets tired of earning her own living,
when she wearies Of her job, and her pay
envelope looks pretty thin. but, believe me,
girls, there is no work earth so hard, no
job of which you can get so weary no pay
so small, as that of the woman who has mar
ried for living For marriage is the no.
blest career on earth, the worst pFofes-
sion.
And remember this that the girl who mar
ries without love, who marries for money,
has no right to pull her skirts away from
her sister of the streets.