The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-01-24
Dorothy Dix TALKS
A Double order of Wiyes-e
BY DOROTHY DIX
WssiA's Kighese Paid weman y


Of course, the modern woman ix
strong for the domestic monopoly.
Like the jealous Turk, she can bear
no rival near the throne. She cannot
pdure to think of any other woman
sharing in her husbands affection. or
taking up any of his thoughts and in
terests, or dipping into his pocket
book, and when she finds that there
is such a one, she hales him into the
divorce court and trades him off for
the right to pose for a wronged wife
and a little precarious aIimony. All
or none is her motto. Better no hus-
band at all, than half or three-ouar-
tiers interest in one
Yet there probably isn't a married
woman alive who hasn't had times and
seasons when she didn't feel that being
wife was a syndicate lob instead of
a. career for one poor lone female
creature. For it would take a beyv
of women, endowed with every known
charm and virtue, to fill any average
mans ideal of the kind of wife to
which he is entitled.
For instance, every man thinks that
1t is no more than his due that he
should have wife who is perpetualIv
easy on the eyes, and who is always
young, and beautiful, and charmingly
dressed. Inasmuch as nobody has vet
discovered the fountain of perpetual
youth, and the years take their devas-
tating toll of every wofnan's looks, it
is an impossibility for anyone to keep
herself a living picture, no matter how
much time ana work she bestows on
touching up her handmade complex
ion. and trying to maintain her girlish
figure.
Every man thinks that he should
have a wife who is a good cook, and
housekeeper, and a wizard who can
work miracles with pennies, and make
them do the work of dollars He ex-
w a of NJ
to find an orderly house, a good din
ner, and children who have been
washed and dress, and disciplined
into the likelihood of little angels.
Kitchen, who is frowsy and untidy, and
who is tired and cross, and nervous
and irritable.
Every man wants a wife who is his
chum. who reads the things he reads.
and keeps abreast of the times, and
is vivacious, and bright and enter
tanning company. SO that an evening at
home is stimulating experience in
stead of being q Sure-cure for insom-
mia. He wants wife who is ready to
drop things and go off to the golf
links with him, or automobiling, or on
any little Jaunt that strikes his fancy.
He is bored to death by the women
whose conversational repertoire only
reaches from the kitchen to the nurs-
cry and back again, and who is more
cake than she is in Hardfng's policies.
and who interrupts the most thrilling
passage il a play to ask him in a
hoarse whisper il he supposes the
baby has got its feet uncovered.
It's the impossibility of combining
all of the different kinds of wives that
q man wants in her own propria per-
Soma that discourages the average
wife. and makes her slack on her Job.
She could be any of his ideals, but
she can't be them all, and in her
moments of despair she would be al
most willing to sublet the contract to
various and sundry of her sisters. in
stead of trying to fill the whole bill Of
being parlor ornament, a cook stove,
Century dictionary, and a COM
pendulum of sports.
And it IS because no man is really
satisfied with either the cook, or the
beauty or the blue stocking, but wants
them all punched in one, that men find
marriage q failure. Perhaps after all.
as Mr.. Howell said long ago. even
after centuries of civilization man is
still imperfectly homogeneous, and the
only time he is ever truly thankful
that he is only the husband of one
wife. is when the bills come in around
the first of the month.