The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-01-10
Dorothy Dix TALKS
Do Women Want To Be Petted?-2.
By DOROTHY DIX
worlds Highest Paia womaa Wrissx.

The average married woman has to
work far harder than any business
woman does. She has no money of her
own. but must ask her husband. who
Is often niggardly and grudging, for
every penny. If she has children,
there is no hour of the day or night
when she is off duty. She must 60
thru suffering, and endure sacrifices
of which she had never dreamed.
r The only thing in the world that
can repay her is the tenderness of her
husband. His kisses, warm with love,
and not a chill peck of duty on the
cheek. his murmured words of endear-
ment. are the magic coin that settles
the long score that a woman charges
up against matrimony, and that makes,
her rich in happiness
The woman who has looked from
the lovely gown and soft furs in a
show window to her own shabby frock
and known that she could afford MOTH
ing better because the children had to
have shoes anu the coal was nearly
out; the woma who has wrestled
with pots and pans, and the washtu b
all day, while the baby howied and the
other. children fought, until her nerves
were raw-will she be soothed by her
husbands treating her as his equal
when he comes home at night, AMI con-
yersing with her about the federal re-
1 trow not But if he puts his arms
about her, and pats her on the shout
der and says, There. there, now" and
tells her that she is the dearest
bravest, most wonderful little woman
In the world, and he just wishes he
had the money to doll her up and show
people that his little wifekins has got
any of those living pictures backed off
the screen, why. somehow, the tired
ness goes out of her back, and the
envy OUT of her soul, and the sun s
come again in her heaven, and she Is
ready-to go down ON her knees and
thank GOD for giving her such a hus-
band, even if he isn't any great shakes
as money maker.
And women aren't the only ones who
want to be petted, and cooed over, and
chucked Under the chin, and talked
baDy-talk to, either. Men like it Just
as well as women do, and the bigger
and the more intellectual, and the
sterner-looking the men are, the easier
they fall for it,
Out in the world among other men.
a man has to keep his mask on and
pretend that he is far above all human
weaknesses, that his strength is suf-
ficient unto himself and that he does
MT want to- be gurgled over. It's all
camouflage. In his secret soul he is
yearning for tenderness, for the love
that is just for himself, independent of
what he has done, for somebody that
understands how big and brave is the
fight he has made and will tell him so.
And most Nof all, he wants some wo-
man who will just pet him as if he
were a little boy again.
Women have an idea that they have
the monopoly on being 'heart-hungry
They are mistaken. 1t is a universal
human complaint. There are just as
many husbands starving for a little
real love, n LITTLE real appreciation, a
little tenderness, as there are wives.
The only difference is, that men are
ashamed to admit it, while women
howl aloud their wants.
1t takes many things to make mar
riage a success, but most of all it
takes tenderness. 1t is only when hus-
bands and wives make pets OF each
other that they become so thoroly do
INVESTIGATED that they stick to their
"a 9.tI