Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-01-29
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
BY DOROTHY DIX
You Can't Do 1t, Gentle
men!
Copyright, 1920, by the Wheeler Syndi-
cate, Inc.

- - a highly eduCated man, a man VINO mas
read much and thought much, man who Is
of deep feeling and one who has profound
sense of his responsibilities. Yet he married
little luffy-ruffles girl without two ideas in
her head, and one whose whole code OF life
is to do the thing she wants to do, and leave
undone those things which she doesn't want
to do
"Of course" said the man, 81 realized that
Maud had not the culture that desired my
wife to have, but I planned, as soon as We
were married, to undertake her education
myself I had laid out a course OF study be-
ginning with ancient history, and coming
down to the present time, and looked for
ward with joy to re-reading the classics with
her, and introducing her to all the authors
that | love.
81 find that the mere mention of history
bores her to tears, and that she absolutely
refuses to read anything deeper than the
trashiest magazines. Why, she doesn't even
look at the headlines in the papers, and the
only person of note of whose identity she Is
absolutely sure, is some movie hero.
"I also knew before we were married that
Maud seemed to have no conception of hav.
ing any duty in life, or any purpose except
to amuse herself, but thought that was be-
cause she had a particularly silly MOTHER
and that my influence would correct her
faults, find that nothing that say has any
effect upon her, and that when l try to rea-
son with her she thinks that I am grouchy
and gets angry with me.
"For myself could stand the fate have
brought upon myself, but I go mad with ap-
prehension when think Of my little son be-
| ing reared by such a mother. He 10 the
brightest, cleverest, most promising little
chap that you ever saw, but how can he
grow up into being the sort of man he
should when he has a foolish, weak, 1gnor-
ant, self-indulgent mother to guide him!
How can a woman who has no ideals OF her
Vt tn how
ct try to do the best I can for the little
fellow, but fathers influence is negligible
beside mothers l am with him two hours
day. She is with him all the time. what
is man to do under such circumstances!
Nothing. There is absolutely nothing to
do. A man can't separate child from its
mother, because it is an inhuman thing TO
do, and because any sort of mother is better
than no mother at all.
mans mistake is in not picking out the
sort of mother he wants for his children be-
forehand instead of objecting to the one no
gets He should even go farther back than
that He should give her mother the once
over Select tie kind of grandmother you
would like your children to have, end you
will not need to worry about them or their
upbringing.
A great many excuses are to be made for
the foolish marriages that women make be-
cause woman has to take the kind of a hus-
DdnQ she can get. CuSLOul duu COANOAIAOh NV
not permit her to go out openly and select
her mate and the type of man that she would
like to have for the father of her children,
but a man is free to pick and choose. He
can look over the whole world of women
and take his choice. So his wife represents
absolutely his taste and JUDGMENT.
And it doesn't speak much for either ono
that so many men marry women of whom
they tire BEFORE the honeymoon is over. For
the unfathful husband is the tangible PROOF
of mans bad matrimonial guess. The man
who marries the woman who sat1snes mis-
ideals is siren-proof No one can lure MIN
away from his own freside if he finds there
comfort and companionship, and understand
ing and sympathy, all that soul and body
crave.
No man in his sober senses desires fool
for his wife. No educated man looks for
ward with Joy to lifetime companionship
with a woman who has never read anything
deeper than the six best sellers, and VINO
vawns in his face when he tries to talk 10
her about the subjects in which he Is really
interested. No man who has his own way
to make in the world desires the handicap or
a wife who is wasteful and extravagant, ana
who thinks that a woman's mission In lie
is to spend money, and mans to provide
Her with it to spend
Yet you see otherwise sane and sensible
men b1ithely lead to the altar the very sort
of women they do not want as wives. IN
telligent men marry driveling idiots. College
professors marry butterflies. Poor men
espouse spenders, and then they wall ana
beat upon their breasts, and call upon
Heaven to witness that marriage is a fallures
and to see what misft wives they nave got.
Their excuse is the same my FRIEND b.
Thew married the women who fired their
fancies in the belief that they could cut them
over to suit their ideas, and they found out
too late that the thing couldn't be done.
There is no other piece of human VANITY
enual to that which makes us DeneVe tha'
we are more powerful than he1ed1ty and On.
vironment, and that we can change tnat
which nature has spent twenty or more
veare IN building up Men and women
alike hold this theory. Men are particularly
strong for it. but it never works out In elther
case.
The girl who marries lazy and d1ssolutS
man to reform him, finds that he Is just as
law and absolute after marriage as ne was
before The man who marries silly, pleas
ure-loving. clothes-mad girl, ascertains that
she has more sense after marriage IMAM
she had before, and that she is just as crazy
about gadding around, and having soou
time and Paris finery.
If man should go to a shop and deliber-
ately select a fragile, Dresden china parlor
ornament, and then complain when he got
it home that it was not an iron pot, or If he
should buy a motor truck and expect 1t to
suddenly turn into satin-lined Limousine, we
should send him to the nearest insane
asylum But man asks these miracles OF
matrimony every day, and cannot understand
why they fail to materialize-
The only remedy for the unsuitable mar
riage is prevention Pick out the sort Of
husband or wife you want, instead of tryi@s