Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-02-10
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
BY DOROTHY DIX
The Four SIS
Copyright, 1920, by the Wheeler Syndi-
cate, Inc.

~
~ possesses the four SIS, and when find
her, I'm going to camp on her doorstep until
she marries me or mas me arrested for OBJ
structing traffic in her vicinity.
What are the four SIS? They the
four cardinal virtues in woman, They are;
Strength.
Squareness.
Sincerity.
Sweetness.
81 want wife who is strong in mind and
body. 1t is to laugh, isn't it, to recall that
in our mothers time it was aspersion
on a woman's character to call her strong
Minded and men fought shy of her unless
she could prove an alibi by acting like min
ny, and that in grandmother's time it
was thought coarse and vulgar for a giri
to be strong and healthy and have a good
appetite, and perfect lady was always ready
to pull off a faint at the slightest provoca-
ton?
well, I don't want any swooning, ailing
woman about me, whose nerves 1 will always
have to be considering, and who will regale
me with list of her symptoms when leone
home tired at night.
"If i'll health comes to the woman marry
hope that shall be enough of a man and
gentleman to show my wife every tender
ness, and courtesy, and consideration, but I'm
not going to deliberately espOuse weak, neu-
rotic creature, and let myself in for life.
time of doctors bills. My ideal woman Is one
who is husky enough to work shoulder to
shoulder with man and play with him like
another man.
'And the wife want must be strong-mind-
ed. None of your baby dolls, with never an
idea in their sawdust head for me. I want
wife who will be real companion. One who
reads and studies and thinks and has opin.
ions OF her own. I want wife with whom
| l can talk over my business, and who will
bring to my aid the keen feminine intuition
that often amounts to genius. I want wife
with judgment and initiative, who will be
| able to take care of herself in pinch, and
who won't make the thought of death ter
TOT 10 me because she would be so HELPLESS
| alone.
| Then my ideal woman must be square
She must be honest, and honorable, and above
board [ know men who think it cunning
| FEMININE trick for their wives to go through
their pockets at night, and get extra money
by having 1t camouflaged as canned goods
| on the grocery bill, and who take everything
their wives tell them with grain of salt.
| II should hate wife who was thief and
a liar. I could never look at her without
such contempt for her that I couldn't en-
dure her society single day. Oh, I know
that many a woman who is guilty of petty
larceny Is driven to it by her husbands stn-
! g1ness. But they "need the money is the ex-
cuse that everybody who steals makes, and
In these days when any woman can make her
own living, it seems to me that a really
square woman would get out and earn money
before she would sneak it in underhanded
ways from her husband
ana must know that my wife Is so
square that there can be no place for ieal-
ousy in my scheme of life None of the
harem stuff for me. 1 want my wife to go
ABOUT, to be admired, to enjoy the society of
interesting men, and I must know her to be
so straight, so loyal, so true, that it would
be as impossible thing for her to betray me,
Tor to do anything to bring a smirch on the
name | have given her, as it would be for
! IRE to turn. to ice.
"And my ideal girl must be sincere. I
hate pose and pretense the devil hates
holy water. 1 don't want to be jollied and
cajoled and worked.
II like girl who doesn't pretend to have
read books that she has never heard Of or
to have a passion for classical music when
her real taste is for jazz and who makes out
that she Is domestic, when she couldn't boil
water without burning it.
"And I doubly hate the kind of woman
who have long scratchy claws concealed in
their nice little soft paws, and who are al
ways giving you a scratch when you least ex-
pect it. You know what mean the kind of
woman who purr, and gush and gurgle and
tell you how wonderful you are, and then
say something meaner about you than your
worst enemy could have invented That kind
| or girl makes the sort of a wife who sticks
TO man just as long as his money-making
luck holds out, and then suddenly finds some
sort OF an excuse that entities her to a di-
vorce from him.
| WALL d SlTl WHO Is sincere, whose WORD
I can depend on, whose character is all-wool
and a yard wide, and just what it appears
to be, and whose kisses are not for sale, not
| even to her husband.
| "And my ideal woman must have sweet
ness Without that, all the other charms Of
woman the cracking of thorns under
a pot Sound and fury, sgnifying nothing.
"The wife I want must be gentle, with a
low soft voice and quiet movements She
must have a sympathy that never fails. She
no fnY1d Ia Ion
a compassion like the mercy of God She
must be all that we mean when we say of
woman that she is dear and sweet
"Of course, I don't know what any girl
| who possesses the four SIS will want with a
poor laundering thing like me, but women
do lots of foolish things and maybe one Of
them will be silly enough to throw herself
away on me. Anyway, I'll have try at it,"