The Washington herald., 1921-02-04
DorothY.DixsA ADJ

y
about by husbands and wives having
common object, for the great
trouble with married couples is that
they have no mutual interest, no
topic of conversation over which
they can tabber for hours at time,
as men do with other men, and
women with other women.
But in a household in which the
husband is an expert cook and dress
maker there will be no dull even
ings with long dreary silences. Hus-
bands and wives with two souls with
but a single thought about the
amount of paprika that should go
into goulash, or who can plan out
together perfectly ravishing frocks
and hats, will never get on each
others nerves or have to go away
from their own hreside for COM
panionship.
There will be no more wandering
wives when husbands learn how to
cook and can make the same kino
OF bread as we'll as the same kind
of dough that father made. Nor will
any temperamental lady need to go
afar to seek her affinity, when she
finds in her own husband one who
has the true feeling about French
millinery.
The broadening effect of the higher
education OF man will also do much
to make the common, or garden'
variety of husbands have some SYM
pathy with woman's work. UP 70
now. the opinion has universally
prevailed with men that the DO
mestic woman who merely cooked
nd ,1a o..
and baby-tended for a family had
sinecure, and that she lived life
of glorious ease.
| 1t is officially so declared, for the
census rates the housewife as nav
ing no occupation, although II taxes
her about fourteen hours a day 10
get away with her Job of doing
nothing. Men concur with this opin-
ion. and speak Of supporting their
wives" who do nothing but WORK
and are not even supposed to earn
their board and keep thereby.
The reason that husbands say to
their wives, "Bosh, 1 wish had
nothing to do but just stay at home
and look after the house and chill
dren," is because they have never
tried it, When they have found out
from actual experience that you
take as many steps in cleaning a
house as you would in doing the hrst
lap of a champion pedestrian tour
around the world, and that II takes
three million different licks to get
dinner, and four million more 10
clean up after it. they will give the
little house mother the credit that
is due her as the worlds hardest la
borer And also they will pick up
after themselves and save her a lot
of unnecessary toll.
However, there is always fly in
| the ointment, a black back to your
silver lining. and the domestic SCI
ence expert husband is not going to
be the unadulterated boon to wo-
mankind that she may think he is
First Of all he is going to be an al
most unattainable luxury. 1t is
mans ignorance of cooking and
sewing that drives him into matri-
mony. Far more men than women
marry for a home. The gay young
blade with the stomach of an ostrich
who does not care what he eats. or
whether he is held together with
safety pins or not, and the foxy old
bachelor who has found a club chef
! to his liking and subsidies the lit
! tie tailor round the cornor, are not
apt to marry.
1t is the man in between them.
the man who has grown sick and
tired Of boarding houses and cheap
restaurants. the man who has
punched holes through the ends Of
his fingers trying to sew on but
tons, who flies to matrimony as to A
haven of refuge. But he will be
sufficient unto himself IL you teach
him to be an adept with pots and
pans and needles and thimbles, and
will also eschew matrimony.
There is also this to be consider
cd. Even the smallest amount OF
! domestic knowledge goes to mans
head and makes him unendurably
conceited. No husbands are so un-
! bearable as those who always tell
about what wonderful coffee they
make when they go camping, and
who think they have a divine gift
1 for mixing salad dressing. How,
| then, would a woman be able to
stand a man around the house who
was a graduate cook. and who ate
everything as IL he were making a
| chemical analysis and told her what
she left out, and what she put in,
/ that she shouldn't have done?
So perhaps things are better left
as they are, with each sex dependent
on the other for its comfort and
well being. There is truth in the
motto which bids the shoemaker
stick to his last