The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-08-13
Dorothy Dix Tails
Woman to Woman-1.
BIZ DOROTHY DIX
worlds highest Paid Woman Writer.

Woman to woman.
| The attorney for woman. who was
being tried for the murder OF her hus-.
band, refused to let any woman serve
on the jury on the ground that women
are hard in their judgments of other
women.
| Strange how tenaciously that old
myth about woman's inhumanity Ito
woman persists. Nine out of ten peo-
| ple- believe 1t, yet not one Of the nine,
| If put to the test. could bring forward
a single instance, in their personal
turned a deaf ear to another woman's
/ cry for help, or refused to hold out
a hand to another woman in trouble.
| The very woman who repeats tho
| libel on her sex knows that she her
self is filled with a perfect passion of
| pity for all other women. The very
man who talks cynically about how
| hard women are on each other, ex-
cepts his wife and mother who often
bore him to tears with their women
| pensioners, and their poor Marys,"
and poor Elias whom they are al
ways having to dinner, and dragging
around in the automobile because they
| are SO old. and ugly, and. frumpy, and
unattractive that nobody else will
bother to try to bring little bright
ness into their forlorn lives.
| Certainly the women who are al
| ways clawing at their sister women,
and trying to pull them down are
Mesdames X. None of US know them
personally. and the amazing thing is
that we should go on passing along
this silly and hoard canard. 1t simply
goes to show that the world is ruled,
as Stephenson said, by catch phrases.
| Once people have got a nice little
convenient catch phrase for anything
! they cease to consider whether it is
true or false, applicable or not. They
| 90
the trouble of thinking.
| That is the way with the theory
that women are hard on other women,
| and the amusing side light on 1t is
that it is only women who are con-
demned for not being in a state of per-
petual stopping over with maudlin
sentimentality about their sex.
Nobody expects man to think that
every other man in the world is a
| perfect darling and dear, and to be
ready to introduce him into his clubs
and take him into the bosom of his
| family, no matter who or what he is.
Nobody expects an honest and i1on-
orable man to consort with thieves
and Jail birds. And nobody says how
| hard mon are on other men when he
refuses to meet such socially. or even
| to give them employment in his store
or factory. Nobody thinks of refusing
to let a man serve on a jury because
the average man is not likely to be
overcome with sympathy when he is
called upon to try a man for murder
ing his wife to get her money.
Men feel that they have a right to
criticise their fellow men, and when
they find one who is rotten, or who is
a liar, or who is dishonest or who has
broken the code that prevails among
gentlemen, they have no hesitation
cutting him dead, and refusing to
associate with him. It's all right for
| man TO draw the line among men,
but when a woman draws 1t among
women-oh, la la-la! What dread
full thing, and how cruel women are
to womeni
A woman must be a mush of sym
pathy. She mustn't use any intelli-
gence in judging other women. She
mustn't have any standards of de-
cency. She must think that every
murdress should get off free, simply
because she is woman. She must
hold out the glad hand to every woman
of the street. and welcome her to her
home. She must believe that evury
hard-eyed little gold digger is an angel
child, and be willing for her son to
marry her. And if a woman, like
man has her standard of conduct and
those not of her lodge, why, we have
to listen once more to how hard
women are on other women!
As long as women keep within the
bounds of responsibility, and lead up
right lives, they never have cause to
complain of the attitude of other
women towards them. There isn't an
honest poor woman in the world who
isn't helped daily by other women,
often by women as poor as herself
who divide their little with her, or
work overtime to nurse her when she
is sick. or lend a hand with the chill
dren. There isn't a woman in trouble
who doesn't go instinctively to some
other woman to pour out her sorrows
on a breast that is never turned away
from her.
There isn't a working girl who
hasn't got her eye always out for
place for some other girl needing
job, nor a woman who makes her own
way in the world who doesn't climb
up on the willing shoulders OF other
women. j.. Always women help women
who are trying to live decently and
help themselves.
And as for the women beyond the
pale, the poor weaklings who have
taken what they think is the easiest
way, women really have more SYM
pathy for them than men have, and
judge them less harshly for women
know better than men do, the tempta-
lions that beset a pleasure mad, fool
ish young girl, crazy for the flesh
pots-and with the feast spread ready
to her hand, and to be had for the
taking.
Mems tolerance OF such women goes
only so far as they. themselves are
concerned They draw the line at their
own home doors and the Magdaienel
may not pass it. have known many
women who would still have chung to
a sister, or a friend who had stumbled
off the straight and narrow path, but
their husbands would not permit 1t. A
man doesn't even want his wife seen
out with another woman who is loud
and fast looking, or who is talked
about.
A woman would make a thousand
excuses for such a woman, and say to
her husband that she was just indis-
Greet, or lacked taste, and that her
kindness Of heart. and real goodness
offset a lot of foolishness. but the man
judged only by what he saw, and yet
his thumbs are always down for the
woman who doesn't live up to the