Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-08-14
DOROTHY DIX DISCUSSES LIFE
TALKS ON HEART AND HOME

All goes We'll as long as a man
sees woman only when she has
got on her pretty chiffons, and has
| had a fresh manicure, and a new
marcel, and when she is we'll and
rested. and feeling so mild that but
ter would not melt in her mouth. AL
so he enjoys her society when he
gets it in broken doses, and she is
all set to flatter and please and win
him.
1t is easy to be a 100 per cent
charmer when you've got nothing to
do but charm, but how is a woman
to look beautiful and alluring who,
after having been up half the night
with a sick baby, has to get break
fast. and get the children off to
school, and her husband to work,
and do ten thousand other jobs
around the house? How is any wom-
an to remain a spellbinder to a man
whom she has to ceaselessly dun for
money, and to whom she must go
with all the worrying problems of
domesticity?
If it is true that every man dreams
of a home that can be run on hot
air and without money, and in which
perfect servants perfectly function;
duu IL he expects 70 marry d &OIl-
an who has neither nerves. nor tenn
per, nor temperament, and who al
ways meets him beautifully dressed
and wearing the smile that won't
come off; and if he looks forward
to having children who win always
he rosy, smiling little cherubs in
stead of dirty-faced little brats. then
the sooner he is walked up from his
trance the better.
There is no such home in the
world. There is no such wife. There
are no such children. Every home is
built on a million sacrifices of per-
sonal liberty and individual taste and
inclination. Every wife is full OF
faults that must be overlooked; of
weaknesses that must be forgiven;
of crankiness that must De put up
with. And why every marriage
doesn't go smash on the rocks of
divorce nobody knows. Not even
those who save their own wedding
rings from getting bent or broken.
But do men really want perfect
wives, and are they disgruntled be-
cause they don't get them? L doubt
| it..
The bestowed women are not the
austere saints. They are the little
devils. It's chorus girls that men
trail after, not Sunday school teach
ers.
And what points of congeniality
would a most imperfect man find
with a perfect wife? What a stand
ing reproach her virtues would be
to his sins! How little real touch
there could be between one who led
the higher life and one who zig
Jagged off of the straight and mar
row road!
How could a man admit his mis-
takes to one who was never in error
herself? How ashamed he would be
of his weakness before one who was
all strength! How rebuked he would
be in the presence of one who was
never tempted to do those things
which she should not do, or leave ur
done the things she should do
And how he would flee from the
perfect wife to a nice comfortable
fellow sinner who was subject to the
same weaknesses that he was, and
would know how to make allowances
for them!
| I don't believe that any man wants
100 per cent perfect wife. The con-
| trast to himself would be too vivid
Besides. we do not love people for
their virtues. It's their faults that
endear them to us.
So we will have to have another
! explanation of why men fall out of
love with their wives.
/ Copyright, 1921