The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1921-12-19
MEN RUSH BLllDLY
INTO MATRIMONY,
SAYSDOROTHY DIX
Never Use Intelligence in
Picking Their Life
Partners.
By DOROTHY DIX.

A young woman wants TO Know
what qualities men look for in
women when they pick out their
wives. and whether they prefer
beauty of mind and soul, or beauty
of body IN . woman.
My dear. when a man gets mar
ried he shuts his eyes tight and
thrusts his arm into the matri-
monial grab rag and pulls out
whatever piece of calico he chances
TO get his hand on. He goes II
blind He doesn't look for any
particular quality in q woman when
ne takes her for wife He has
no definite ideal to which she
must measure up.
He doesn't even stop to md out
whether the women he is tying UP
with for life Is the kind of woman
ne really likes or not until he gets
her home, and then most generally
mas out that she isn't what he
wanted
1t is both funny and pathetic
that when a man comes to take
the most important step in his life.
The step that most profoundly af-
fects his happiness and well-being
he brings no intelligence to bear
upon II. He ceases to be q reason
Ing human being when he chooses
his wife, and becomes, for the mo-
ment. a creature of blind impulse
He marries a woman merely be-
cause she has fred his fancy and
without reference to her suitability
for his requirements in a wife, or
her conformity to his taste.
OF course. every man has formed
some mental picture Of what he
considers the ideal wife. II he is a
man who has his own way to make
In the world his ideal wife is q
thrifty and industrious woman, who
looks well to the ways of her
household. and can spread one dol
lar over the space of hve. II he Ia
a literary man, his, ideal wife is q
olue-stockinged lady. with whom
ne can hold heart-to-heart COM
munions about the vagaries of
SHAW. and who will listen I'M
weartedly to his efforts in vers
libre.
II he loves sports. he pictures q
wife wandering contentedly over
the golf links with him and dis
cussing his putting all the evening.
II he is a business man, he loves
10 think of the good times he will
have telling his wife about all the
details of the grocery trade.
But when a man goes to marry,
he forgets all about the qualities
that he needs in a wife. The poor
man marries a girl who is a waster
and a spender, and against whose
extravaganza he can make no
Roadway. The student marries q
jelly bean who has never read two
books in her life. The man who
loves the out of doors marries q
woman who loathes every form of
exercise, and is welded to her chair
by the Preside. The man whose
soul is absorbed in his occupation
picks out for his wife woman
who thinks trade vulgar and who
yawns in his face when he tries
to tell her about a big deal that
he has just put through, and that
thrills him to the marrow of his
being.
When you see how little discre-
ton men use in selecting their
wives, you cease to wonder that
marriage is so often a failure.
Also. you have the solution to the
eternal riddle of why men who are
so much in love when they marry
so soon fall out Of love, and be-
come tired of their wives.
The answer is that they haven't
got what they really wanted in a
wife. They have been betrayed by
a passing fancy into taking some
thing that caught their eyes for q
moment, but Of which they soon
wearied- They have been tricked
into buying something that doesn't
suit them, that doesn't meet their
needs and that they really don't
desire. and so ii Is not strange
that they are dissatisfied.
In making no other choice in life
does a mans brain cease function
ing as il does in matrimony. II a
man went forth to buy an automo-
bile. and came home with a baby
carriage instead of it; II. when he
needed a new engine and boiler In
his factory. he invested his money
in pink chiffon, he would rush to
the nearest alienist to have his
mind examined. But he does just