Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-08-18
DOROTHY DIX DISCUSSES LIFE
TALKS ON HEART AND HOME

amuse women. but in America it
is women who have to do the di-
Verting. Go where you will, it's
women who are making the con-
versation, and who are working
like coal-heaVers trying to keep the
talk going with men who are sit
ting back permitting themselves to
be monologped to.
This goes double in the home. 1t
is the wife who has to be the little
ray OF sunshine. 1t is the wife
who has to be bright and viyacious,
and beguile the tired business ma
with her little budget of gossip. 1T
is the wife who has to read up
on the subjects in which husband
is interested so that she can talk
to him about stocks, or the grocery
trade, or golf or baseball. Any
American husband would think him
self exceedingly ill-used if he didn't
have g wife who would make a
vaudeville entertainment of herself
for his entertainment of an eve
ming. That's just part of her job,
as he sees it.
An American man expects his
wife to make Ills social position for
ulAu. mt 6ApbClS H6I ~ NC Il 7OoN
and nimble climber who will keep
her visiting list ready to check up
with his handbook.
He expects her to have sufficient
shreWdness and ambition TO keep
pace with him, and to help him by
getting to know the right people,
and by belonging to the right clubs,
and having the right sort of a
house on the right street, and Civ
ing the right sort of entertainments.
Half the time the American hus-
band doesn't know by sight his
wife's friends, and he has to be
introduced to the guests at his own
dinner table. His name would new
er be IN the society column of the
newspapers if his wife didn't get
it there. He hasn't time to bother
with the social end of the game.
He depends on his wife to keep that
UP.
The American husband shoves the
whole burden of raising the family
onto his wife's shoulders. He is
too busy to bother with forming
his children's characters and deyel-
oping their minds. He considers he
has done his full duty when. he
pays for their support.
So he leaves to the mother the
question of their discipline. He
lets her spoil or neglect them. He
let's her pick out the SCHOOLS they
attend. He let's them grow up, 10
all intents and purposes, fatherless
and if then turn out all right, he
takes the credit for it, and if they
| L. IL,
it. In other countries the father
feels that he is responsible for his
children's upbringing, but in Ameri-
ca he passes the buck to his wife.
The American man demands that
his wife shall always retain her
good looks. Probably no other
women in the world work so f1ar6
to make themselves attractive tc
their husbands as American women
! do.
! Abroad, it is only ladies of means
and leisure who pay much attention
to their personal appearance who
diet and exercise to keep their fig
ures, and who spend time an6
money on being manicuRed and per-
| manent-Waved and having the lines
rubbed out of~their faces. The ordi-
| mary IilOOlS-CldSS IOIGISn WOMEN
| take on flesh and grow gray and
| get callouses on their hands as
nature and circumstances ordain
But the American woman knows
! that when sic loses her charm she
| loses her husband. so she does her
housework in rubber gloves in or
der to keep her hands in nice
squeezable condition. She halt
staryes to keep thin, and she works
herself nearly 10 death making
clothes that look as if they came
from a first class dreSsmaker. It's
work and worry. but it's the price
she pays for keeping her man
vamped.
Oh, the American husband is
without doubt a jewel of d hus.
band. But the American woman
pays the score. She knows that he
] comes high.
Copyright, 1929