Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-04-14
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
Wives Who Make or Mar
BY DOROTHY DIX
Copyright, 1920, by the Wheeler Syndi-
cate, Inc.
BY DOROTHY DI.
A MONG my acquaintance is a brillian
a young lawyer who has already got

was a strong, husky chap, without nerv4
in his body Now he is thin, worn-looking
and jumpy as a cat.
"John looks so badly What's the matted
with him?" asked someone the other day. Il
starvation and over-work, and lack Of
Sleep" replied woman who knows the Sc
cretS of Johns home life. "He is married
to wife who feeds him out of tin cups and
paper bags, and who makes him run her err
randS, and sleep with teething baby at night
She says that the home is just as much hi
home as it is hers mad the baby just az
much his baby as it is hers, and that afte s
she takes care of it all day, it's up to him ID
wreStle with it at night.
81 don't suppose that he's had single UNI
broken nights sleep since the child was born
and he has to get up early to make the coffee
in the morning, and wipe the dishes, and hell
raighten up the dining room after dinner
night And it's all killing him. No man ha
got the physical strength to be professional
man, and a cook, and a nurSe-mad tool" ..
"When my husband had alb ig case on
said the wife of famous criminal lawyer, "
cancelled every engagement so that may Stan(H
guard at home and see that nothing annoy
or interrupts him, or takes his mind off hi
work. | answer the telephone myself so tina
he will know that someone with judgment
is taking care of every call. | keep the chill
dren in another part of the house so tina
their noise may not reach him. | do not ever
speak to him unless he addresses me first
and unless the house was on fire l would no
enter hi study, where he is giving the bes
that is in him to working out his problems. 4
~ also see personally to the preparation
of every mouthful that he eats, so that h q
may have the most nouriShing and easily .di &
geSted food. AS for dragging him around IL
parties at such a time or burdening him vii
my own worries, or complaining because
have to stay at home and he can't take m
out to receptions and theaters, l couldn't b.
such fool For want him to win his case#
am ambitious for him. ! want him to sue
ceed and that's my way of helping him on
"And it's the only way" commented gray#
haired woman who was listening to the con
versation. 81 am an old woman, and in m
long experience l can hardly recall a single
man who has succeeded who wasn't either
bachelor, or who didn't have wife Wild
made him physically comfortable, and who
didn't look after her own end of the mata d
monial partnership. And have never kaowi
a solitary man who got anywhere, who had q
walk the baby with the collie half the night
or do the houSework after he pot home from
his own days labor. @
81 often think that, if women realized Jus S
how much mans ability to do thinvs de s
ponds on his having a peaceful, quiet, comfort
able home, the whole SiSterhood of wive$
GRISELDAS, and blue-ribbon cooks. For We
wives want the price of success. We want on
men to bring home the bacon and we haven't
enough sense to see that we are like the train
erS who prepare the champion for the fight
"Take the woman, for instance who chooses
her breakfast table as the spot on which I'd
fight over with her husband every Subjec&
on which they disagree, and to impart to hin
every unpleasant piece of information in thu
domestic he in r.
usual drawn battle, and the man goes to hi
work with his mind Surging with bitter AND
angry thoughts, that he has o use all hi%
power of concentration to put aside, before
he can give his attention to other affairs
"Half of his brain is worrying over hi
troubles at home, and he cannot bring the s
same cearneSS of vision or SoundnesS
judgment to his problems, that the man does
whose sub-conScious thought of home is jus
something soothing and pleasant that makes
him feel that God is in His Heaven, and al
is right with the world.
"Nor will any man work as hard, or fighw
to the death for diScordant home and I
quarrelSome wife, as he will for the wife and
home that mean peace, and rest, and hope, and
courage to him.
"Johns wife makes him take care of thu
baby at night because he is as much father al
she is mother. True. But she doesn't StoI#
10 consider lHdt the Uldn she SeHuS lOitH W
work, dull and stupid for lack of sleep, nerve
racked and worn is no rival for the with
whom he is to match wits and who is fresh
and rested from an untroubled Sleep
"The woman may say that she feels just,
much like a wet diShrag, after having nurSed#
the baby all night, as her husband does, but
she has many hours through the day When
she can make up lost sleep, while the man
has none. And anyway, the fortunes of thd
family do not depend upon her being at heiH
best, her Intellectual peak, as they do upon
the man.
"a mans nerves cut far more figure IN
his success than women realize, and these de-
pend very much upon the way he is fed
Many man turns down the good thing that
would have made him a fortune, simply bel
cause he is filled with dark brown, peSSimistle
thoughts from having partaken of soggy#
breakfast Many man insults his boss and
gets fired, or offendS his best clients or GUS
toners and loses them, because he Is irritable
and grouchy through lack of proper nouriShT
ment at home. You never hear of man
having prostration whose wife is the guardian
angel of his stomach
sit isn't romantic way to help our hus4
bands by holding up our end of the job, and
relieving them of all possible domestic cares
and worries, but it is the help that helps
most; and the woman who doesn't do it, and
who makes her husband do her work and
his too is not only a selfish beast; she is 1
fool For she kills the goose that lays the
golden eggs The man who has to push the
perambulator never pushes his fortunes very
far"
TNT/ A II ~