The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-03-30
Dorothy Dix Talks
Genteel Poyertx-2.
By DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.


It's the having to flatter, and ca
jole, and fawn on those with money
and establishments. the having to ac-
cept snubs from the ill-bred and ar
rogant rich, that makes any but the
most craven spirited lick-spittle
writhe.
Yet that is the lot of the poor girl
of good family who tries to play the
society game on a shoe-string. She
has to wheedle and flatter cranky old
her a teu spot. She is invited to coun-
try houses, where she is expected to
pay her way by entertaining the bores,
and keeping an eye on the children.
She is asked to fill in at the last mo-
ment at parties where she was never
among the original guests She is al
ways spoken of half-pityingly and
half -contemptuously as Poor Jane
or 'Foor Mary" and the traditional
shirt of 'nettles would not ,chafe her
of other women that she wears.
Can there be any comparison in
peace, in happiness, in dignity be-
tween the girl who is a hanger-on of
a rich family, and the girl who stands
on her own feet and earns her own
living? The one is dependent The
other is an Independent. free human
being. The one is beggar, a syco-
plant, a boot-licker. The other can
look the world in the eye ana tell it to
go where 1t pleaSes.
1t is very true that the near-society
girl has to give up fer real society
friends when she goes to work. but
she will find that she has achieved
the peace that passeth, understanding
when she drops into 1.-THE class for
which she has the price. For the
poor can no more run the race COM
fortably with the richs than the tor
toise can with the hare.
To live upon the bounty of others,
to eat their food, and ride in their
motors when you can make no return;
weakens the moral fibre. and turns
the recipient into either a parasite or
an anarchist.
The girl who clings to her social
position in the hopes that she will
thereby make big marriage, is turn
ing matrimony from the noblest ca
reer a woman can follow, to the most
despicable profession. She is offering
herself for sale as much as If She were
slave in the bazaars, and she seldom
makes q good bargain. For men are
leery OF the pretty, poor girl whose
are still on the hunt for somebody to
take her off their hands.
There is no other girl who has so
good a chance to marry well as the
business girl. She is at the very
source of supplies for matrimony, for
gregate. The working girl meets a.
hundred men, where the society girl
meets one. She had the chance to
know them intimately that the society
girl never has, and in this close. daily
contact, il she has any graces of per-
son. or heart, or mind. men notice it.
Moreover, the very fact that the girl
is working shows that she is not on
the husband hunt, and that she has
enough character and intelligence, to
support herself until the right man
comes along. and so a man is not
afraid that he is being grabbed up as
a meal ticket when he marries a bust
ness girl.
So I say to the business girl with
blue blood and an empty textbook,
go to work if you want to be happy.
A few society friends are too high
price to pay for parasitism. After all.
the only person whose approval is,
absolutely necessary to US, is our own.