Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-11-17
DOROTHY DIX DISCUSSES LIFE
TALKS ON HEART AND HOME

in an age in which love is so often
a will-o'-the-wisp, gone before you
can clasp its light, and when mar
riage is oftener a failure than a
success? Could all husbands and
wives secure this ineffable consDla-
ton for their old age? Or is it III
gift sent only to those favored few
who are the darlings of the gods?
1 asked one of these old lovers
this question, and he said:
There is no reason why every
man and woman who love should
not keep their love true and tender
to the end, as we have done ours.
indeed, there is every reason why
love should grow stronger as the
years go by, and why a husband
| and wife should be bound more
| closely together by the experiences
they have shared in common, as sol
diers are by the battles they have
fought shoulder to shoulder, and the
fun they have enjoyed together.
when this doesn't happen it is
because men and women are too
stupid to understand that in your
| youth, when you are beautiful, and
gay, and romantic, and lovable, you
/
when you will be no longer person
ally attractive and able to inspire
| love, just as when you are young
you must lay up money against the
time when you will no longer be
able to work and earn it.
My wife and 1 understand this.
We realized that love is like
flower. Neglected, choked out with
other interests, intended uncared
| for, it withers away and dies. But
cherished and nursed, it sends down
! deep root into life and blooms per
sonally and sends forth a perfume
that sweetens the world.
80 we have consciously kept
| lovers. We have tried not to dis
illusion each other. We have kept
ourselves as personally attractive as
we could, and we have never felt
that matrimony was a license to eat
onions, and wear soiled clothing.
Why, to this day, [ don't know
whether my wife's hair is her own
or not, and she has never seen me
stopping around in my stocking
feet. with my suspenders down, and
a three days stubble of beard on my
face.
We've kept our love alive by not
taking too great liberties with it..
There are people who think that
because they love you it gives them
a right to say things to you that
they would not say to their worst
enemies, and to dispense with all
| the decencies of polite society. we
have never made this mistake. l
have never said anything to my
, wife that [ would not have said to
her while 1 was counting her. Size
has never nagged me.
I'VE have never opened each
others letters, or required each
other to furnish an alibi for every
hour we were apart. Disa greement
Of opinion, of course, we have had,
but we have talked them out heart
tO-heart instead of getting angry,
and saying insulting things to each
other.
I'VE have kept our love alive by
tenderness. We haven't taken it
for granted that each would know
of appearances, and silence. We
have not been niggardly with the
spoken word. We have shown each
other daily affection and apprecia-
ton, and so wes have kept the love
fires burning.
eve are nearly eighty" the old
lover added with a twinkle in bis
eye, land, believe me, if it wasn't
for the rheumatism, Juliet and l
could back all of these young Ro-
meos off the gallery"
Copyright. 1929