The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-10-30
Comments Upon Judges "Dollar-a-Day' Decision

Has efficiency taken the place of romance in lovemaking?
 Has Cupid substituted the time card for his little bow and arrows?
 It appears so, for the ether day the courts awarded a young woman dollar a day damages for all the time that she had wasted on dila- tory youth who called, and called, but never popped the question.
 The girl was not suing for breach of promise, for there had never been any proposal of marriage. She did not claim that she had been, wounded in her tender affections, and ask for heart balm. She merely demanded rent for the use of her faithful sofa for three or four nights a week dur ing a period of years; for the con- sumption of electricity and heat, and for the wear and tear on her cOnsti- tution, incident to Keeping young man entertained, and flattered, and fascinated.
 How the judge who handed down the momentous opinion that a dollar a day Is a proper price for being a mans steady arrived at his decision Is not stated. Probably he credited the young mans side of the account with few boxes of candy, and trips to the movies, and a dance now and then, and the general perquisites of Keeping company" Also, he was not unmindful of the fact that to a girl to have a real live beau that she can Haunt in the faces of her friends, confers a certain prestige upon her, as a source of deep, inward joy and satisfaction to her, whether he means business or not.
 Thus, taking all of these things hereinb efore mentioned into account, the learned justice struck the ball. ance that seemed to him fair and equitable.
 A dollar day for vamping a man seems cut-rate wages. A cook gets more. A washerwoman triples 1t. A competent saleswoman or stenogra- pher more than quadruples it. Yet what is the labor in cooking a hot meal compared to that of keeping a mans interest at the boiling point? How much easier to sell a bill of goods than to sell yourself, as the commercial phrase goes, to wary man who is hanging on to his bach elorhGod with his teeth and toe nails! How much less exasperating to take the dictation of the boss, who pay 8 your salary, than that of the man who arrogates to himself the right to tell you where you get on and off,
  privilege with 8 wedding ring.
 There are men sc intelligent, and entertaining, so nimple Of wit, so sympathetic and understanding, that their society Is worth the price or grand opera tickets, and no woman would begrudge paying the price of 1t. But there are other men so dull, and stupid, and egotistic, that no money could pay a woman for having to endure their tedious company. Yet under the stupid conventions of society, that do not permit woman frankly to show her preference among men, women have to endure martyrdom from the bores to get a chance at the spellbinders. When a woman is unattractive, with no charms or graces of mind or body, men steer clear of her, and avoid her as they would the plague. They don't have to bother with her They can turn away from her to the nearest siren. But women cannot do this.
 Men hunt in packs, and they never pursue the women that other men are not trying to chase down. Hence in order to have Mr. Right come along, a girl has to put up with lot of MT. Wrongs, for well she knows
  of being hard to please. and pernick- ity, that she will be left alone la menting.
 This is why you see women smiling sweetly undergoing tortures of bore dom that would qualify them for canonization. and why you behold them working like coal heavers to entertain and fascinate men for whom they do not care rap, and whom they would not marry on bet. They are simply marking time. and Keeping up their game, waiting for Himself.
 Certainly a dollar a day is scant pay for this sort of work. but 1t may have a moral value in making girls realize how foolish they are to waste their time on men whose attentions are without intention. For her youth l is a woman's time to make matri- monial hay while the sun of her beauty shines, and if she fritters its golden hours away upon some man who Is merely amusing himself with her, she is certain to rue her lost op- portunities.
 A dollar a day will not pay her l for having let some man who never meant to marry her monopolize her.