Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-03-26
DOROTHY, DIX TALKS
DREAMS
BY DOROTHY DIX
Copyright. 1920, by the Wheeler Synd
cate, Inc.
BY DOROTHY DIX
A YOUNG woman asks me if I BELLE
N in dreams

She says that she has had ha
life. That she comes from q home of str
and discord, from which the children we
thrust to make their own way, like birds fro
a nest That she is poor and han to earn h
own living, and that she doesn't make mt
money, for she isn't clever at her work,
she is content, for half the time she harE
knows what she is doing because she is drea
ing that some rich old couple will happS
along and ADOPT her and carry her Off to-
home of splendor where they will pet and
dulge her. Or else that a handsome
dashing young millionaire will fall in IL
with her at first sight and marry her, and 81
will flaunt around in limousines forey
after
Certainly believe in dreams. But not
pipe dreams of the kind in which this you
woman is indulging herself. There 4
dreams that end in achievement, and drea
that end in death.
Almost every great thing that has be
lone in the world is the realization of drea
Columbus dreamed that the world was rou1
Fulton dreamed of a boat moved by
power of steam. Morse dreamed of send
a message across the continent by wire. E
son dreamed of reproducing the human vo
so that the world may still listen to a gre
| singer hundred years after his body is
| and ashes. The great railroad builders W
have linked the world together with ir
| bands, the great tinanciers who have built
| huge industries, all have been dreamers.
But these people did not sit down and I'd
| their hands and spend their time in tram
| imagining that the thing they wanted wo !
come to them on wings. They rolled up tn \
| sleeves and went to work to make thV
| dreams come true. The realization of tn
! wisdom was the result of n miracle. It ca
| through untiring labor, and sweat, and SO
| denial and grit.
| Those are the kinds of dreams l believe
not the sleeping sickness kind of dreams tt
| never get you beyond lying on your back
the sun, and thinking how nice it would be
| a luscious peach would drop in your mouth T
And the chief trouble with women is t..
| they have never learned how to dream dreaI
They are afflicted with the dope-dream hatE
and they spend so much of their energy
building Castles in Spain that they have NJ
| to use in erecting a real house of life.
One of the reasons that men succeed
much oftener in life than women do, is
cause they realize that they have got to
| their own little soothsayers and interpH
their own dreams in terms of effort, wherS
women still look for the supernatural to hi
pen to them, and the thing they want to a
into their laps just because they want it.
is women who are the chief followers of thu
| cults that teach that we can get the things
desire most by simply willing them to GOMEZ
us instead of working for them.
1t is because women are foolish and II
dreamers that they so seldom think it vol
while to prepare themselves for even the wd
they undertake to do. They are not Wilt
| to go through the apprenticeship to any cd
ing, or to thoroughly master the details
any business or profession, because they 4
incoming over some halycon dream Of a u
| in which there will be no labor nor care
responsibility. How they are to achieve Il
state of earthly beatitude they have no i'd
| 1t is as vague and nebulous as the day-drea
| of my young friend who thinks how nice'
I would be to be adopted by an elderly ri
couple with a mania for a grown-up daughtI
OF course, the almost universal dream oil
working girl centers around the fairy prlJ
who will come riding up in high-poweA
| imported roadster, and snatch her up fri
! her desk, her typewriter, and bear her off
a matrimonial joy-ride that will have no Ell
She is so busy dreaming this dream that 4
never takes time to learn how to do her wd
properly, or to acquire the skill that wot
enable her to climb to a higher level. Al
she is so obsessed by her vision, worse luI
that she is not wide enough awake to
| clearly the men she meets, and only too of
she gets a rotter for a husband instead
the princeling she thought she was marryii
The pitiful part about all of this dream1
| is that it brings disapL ointment, and fafllI
and misery to so many girls who might I'D
success and happiness if only they would q
tivate the right sort of dreams instead OF
| wrong sort. If the cash girl would drej
of the day when she would become cash1
or the sales girl dream of the time when 4
would go to Paris as buyer, or the stenog'
pher dream of being an highly-paid secret4
with the strings of a whole big business
her hands, and they would work towards
realization of their visions, they would
them come true. Likewise they would have
much better chance OF meeting up With
fairy prince, for fairy princes in these do
motor along the paved highways instead
hunting out the Doggy rural lanes.
| Women, who are old enough to know 81
ter waste as much time on fruitless dreams
girls do Watch the face of mother as s
bends over the babe on her breast. Her e1
are full Of dreams that leap down the veal
| She is seeing her son great and good mi
| honored by the people, successful in every
! dertaking, a great lawyer, or merchant,
statesman, perhaps even President OF
United States. But does she set some 81
for the child and train him to reach it? n
at all. She lets him grow up idle, shlftle|
without discipline or control. She takes
her dreaming in wishing great career
him, instead of trying to secure it for hlmt
Yet nine times out of ten, woman q
| make her children what she wants them
be if she has the vision and the courageI
do it.
Women have stultifed themselves wi
dope-dreams too long. It is time they walk
up and found out that the only dreams tn
come true are those that we put pep. and q
ergy, and good hard work into ourselves.
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