The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-11-01
Dorothy DiI'S Letter Boz

DOTOtHy DtI
 Dear Dorothy Dix: I am a widow of 65, and trust you will not think me foolish, for 1 want your best ad- vice. year ago this month at- tended club dance, and was intro duced to a gentleman of 67 years. We danced together Cften and found pleasure in each others company. 1 After that, we attended church every Sunday together. He was all devotion, and soon declared his love, and l never had any doubt of his intentions. But one evening about a month ago he met another woman, to whom he has been devoted ever since, and when 1 reproached hlm with this he excused himself with the cowardly reply: "Why we are not engaged I am free man." Now, Miss Dix, I want you to tell me, has time changed the form of pro posal? Is a woman entitled to think | she is engaged to man who tells her that he loves her and plans their future home together, or does he have to say the old-fashioned words: will you be my wife"
 A DoUBTING WIDOW. Answer: Good gracious, sister, l should think that a woman of 65- and a widow-would be wise enough to the ways of men to know that all love talk is just hot air that signi- fies nothing unless 1t Is backed up with an honest goodness pro- posal.
 Men make love because they want to please and 'flatter a woman, or because they think themselves TO- mantle and poetical, and fancy themselves in the Romeo role, but l r1a.t af marrying until they definitely ask the particular woman they desire to marry them, and set the wedding day.
 It is an amazing thing how women bamboozle themselves on this subject. l get hundreds of heart broken letters from women who write me that some man who has been coming to see them for years, | and monopolizing their society. and who has told them innumerable times that he loved them, has sud- denly gone off and married some other woman, or has quit coming to see them. He never mentioned matrimony," wall these women, but 1 always thought he meant to marry me. I thought we were engageu."
 Just take it from me, sister. that every man who intends to marry woman mentions matrimony every | time he sees her. More than that, he | grows eloquent and persuasive on the subject, and urges it on her immedl- ate attention, and If he doesn't dis course on the subject you may be very sure that he doesn't mean busi- | ness. When a man wants thing ne asks for 1t. Lovemaking is just a game. It means nothing until man clinches it with a Will you be miner" DOROTHY DIX. | My Dear Dorothy Dix-Will you tell me why widows are more at tractive than single women? It seems to me that the widows get all | the attention paid to them, while merely sit and look on Why is it while a single woman of her own age, and who is just as good looking, has no chance to get husband?
 SINISTER. l Answer: The fascination of the widow is one of the mysteries of fe- minine psychology that no one has ] ever been able to solve. No one knows why a widow of 40 is spoken of as young" widow, and an unmarried woman of 40 is called an "old" maid. No one knows why woman who has reached 45 without marrying is cer- | tain almost never to marry, while woman who is left widow at 45 IS | very likely. to marry again. It just is. | The fact that woman has had one husband seems to put her with men in the eligible class for another hus- band.
 | As near as we can explain it, the secret of the widows might is that she knows men as the single woman does not, and thus in the husband chase has the advantage of the pro- | fessional over the amateur. The widow knows how to play upon the weakness of men as upon harp of thousand strings. She knows how to flatter and cajole them | if they are self -conceited; how to appeal to their sympathies as lone, | lorn creature, if they are chtvalrous; how to feed them, and make them comfortable and allure them into matrimony with the bait of home.
 Tn marrying a widow a man feels | that he Is playing safe because she | is broken to double marriage. She will expect to pull her shore of the load without talking, or kicking, or running away.
 | Sne naS pTOUaply hlllcu ntI III St husband learning how to cook, and | bankrupted him acquiring the art of | spending money wisely, so her num- l Der two husband is saved the danger ous and expensive education of novice.
 Also, by the time a woman has been over the Jumps of one marriage. she has learned how to control her temper and her tongue, and how little to expect of mere man, and she has ac- quired philosophy of life that makes her easy to live with. l Undoubtedly, all of these factors help to make the widow fascinating to men. But over and above all these, l she possesses some sort of occult power which she conjures the op- polite sex. Maybe she carries rabbits foot.
 | Dear Miss Dix-I am young man. ] 29 years of age. Seven years ago was stricken with pneumonia, and the result was that I lost all of teeth. Now have to wear false ones I have not told the girl anything about 1t. | Should I tell her. and risk the pos sibly of losing her? Or should I marry her, and keep quiet? I am very sensi- |