The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-10-16
Dorothy Dir'S Letter Bor

Did you ever think how different would be the questionnaire that man and woman would propound to each other after marriage from the one that they submitted to each other before marriage?
 The lovers catechism concerns it. self entirely with the state of the af factions of the party of the other part. Each asks the other:
 Are you sure that you love me eternally and unalterably? Will you swear that you never loved before? Will you love me as well when l am old and fat as you do now when I am young and slim and beautiful? Are you perfectly certain I am your ideal and your realization of loves young dream? Is it really, truly true that you could not live without me and that you would perish of d broken heart if anything should hap pen to me? Will you swear never to marry again if I die?"
 All of this is mass of gooey flub- dub and lies. Every man and woman, with an intelligence above that of low grade moron knows that no human being can prophecy as to the vagaries of his or her heart, or fore tell how long any love Is going to last. Nor can any one promise with any certainty of being able to keep the promise that he or she will con tinue in love with the same indi- vidual perpetually.
 That depends on circumstances, and whether the party of the other | part continues to exercise the same l fascination, and keeps himself or her | self lovable. We have all seen too many couples who were mad about each other one year, mad at each other the next year. to have over much confidence in the lasting qual- | ity of love.
 Therefore, in spite of their lovers | vows, most people marry with their l fingers crossed, trusting to luck that their affection for each other l will hold out.
 Looking back from the pinnacle of | wisdom which a woman reaches after a few months of matrimony, she | wishes that she had concerned her self more about the state of the stomach of the man she was going to marry instead of inquiring so much into the state of his heart. If ] she had it to do over again she
 whether he really, truly loved her as she would about what sort of 8 l digestion he had.
 For she has found out that 1t is no comfort to woman for her hus-
 bands heart to be true to her If his liver is only hitting on one cylinder, | and that the knowledge that a man
 worships you in his secret soul mat
 ters little if he Is grump and grouchy dyspeptic who has always a dark brown taste in his mouth, and sees life through bilious glasses. 1 Nor would a woman, if she had it to do over again, waste her time | asking a man if he had ever loved before and if he was certain he
 would never love again. She would get his views on the money ques- ton, and find out whether he con
 sidered a wife a partner, entitled to receive a fair and just compensation for her labor as wife and mother, and i housekeeper, and social secretary and purchasing and disbursing agent ! or whether he held that wife should work for 10 hours a day for her board and clothes, and come like a beggar to him for every penny re- qured for the household expenses. | Lots of wives would be nightly glad 1 to cash in their husbands alleged devotion to them for a couple of dol lars that they could spend as they