The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-04-06
Dorothy Dir Talks
BY DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman writer.
The Lovers Catechisrn.-


THE other night" said a middle
agsd woman, 81 was waiting in a hotel
lobby for a friend, when inadvertent-
billing ond cooling Of a pair of young
lovers.
THE first thing that I heard was
the youth asking the girl If she was
sure she had never loved before. Then
she inquired OF him il he was really,
truly true, certain he had never cared
for another woman in the wide, wide
world. Then he asked her If she was
sure that she would never love again,
and she questioned him as to the
deathlessness of his affection. Then
he inquired of her if he should die
was she certain that she would never
love or marry again, and she asked
him il God should take her was he
sure that no other woman would ever
fill her place in his heart and life.
And then they started it all over
again, and I got up and strolled away,
and smiled to think that the lovers
catechisnn never changes from genera
ton to generation, for those were just
the self-safe questions that I recalled
that my husband and I had asked
each other when we were counting
some thirty odd years ago.
And 1 wondered if we had it all
to do over again, how many middle
aged people, with the experience of
matrimony behind them, would waste
much time on asking each other hypo-
thetical questions about love, and
what they might, would, or should
do under some suppositious circum-
stances.
For as We grow older we find out
that love isn't the whole of existence.
1t is merely the meringue on the lemon
pie of life, and there are great
many things that make more for our
peace and comfort than the state of
the affections of even our husbands
and wives. and a lot of things are
more important to US while we are
alive than whether they would marry
or not after we are dead.
III were going to be married
again, for instance, I should not ask
the man if I was his first love be-
cause, in the first place, I should
know that was forcing him to lie to
me like a gentleman. And, in the
second place, I wouldn't care how
often he had loved before, provided
was his last love. 1t doesn't really
matter to q woman what other pre-
vious tenants have had temporary
leases of her husbands heart, pro-
vided, in the end, he bestows upon
her the title deed to it, properly signed
and sealed.
Nor would I ask a man whether he
would ever love again, or not, for I
would know that was a question that
no human being can answer honestly.
Moreover, as long as live I feel that
the job of keeping him reasonably
enamored of myself is one that I can
attend to, and after am dead if he
can find consolation in another love
would not keep him from it il I
could.
II cannot think that it would add
to my joys in my heaven to know that
the man I loved. and whose happiness
and comfort had been the chief thing
I had striven for in life, was lonely.
and old, and neglected, with no one
to see that he had the food that
agreed with him, or that he changed
his shoes when he came home with
damp feet. The idea of an angel
playing on her harp with one hand,
and holding on with a death grip to
her mortgage on her ex-husband, has
never been one that appealed to me-"
(Copyright. 191D, BY The wheeler Syndicate
Incl