Evening star., 1935-05-21


/ Is pretty, intelligent, amiable,
~ affectionate, all that a man
could want in q wife, except
that she Is the worlds worst house
keeper. I bought q pretty home when
we married. 1t Is never clean or
orderly. There Is never q place
where you can sit down in comfort.
Even the laundry isn't sent out. I
provide ample money to keep a good
table, but there Is never anything fit
to eat. Raw potatoes and overdone
meat. Soggy bread. Food that would
kill an ostrich. My wife frankly tells
me that she loathes domestic work.
That cooking bores her to tears, and,
besides, she hasn't any turn for it and
could never learn how to do it.
The situation Is particularly hard
on me because I am domestic man
and had looked forward to having a
home that was like the one in which
I was brought up, which was place
Of comfort and good cheer, for my
mother was marvellous housekeeper
and enjoyed making home for her
husband and children.
My wife and I have got almost to
the breaking point We quarrel con-
tinually, because when I come home
tired and hungry from my work of an
evening I am infuriated over the
mean dinner which she puts before
me, and she considers me gross and
material because I put stress on such
creature comforts as a clean room,
fresh towels in the bath room and de-
cent food. What do you think Of
our problem? ARTHUR.
A NSWER-It is pity that when
you were courting your wife you
were so busy asking her, do you love
me?" you neglected to inquire if she
knew how to cook and generally TO
ascertain her views on a woman's
place in the home. II you had, you
might have saved yourself much grief,
because she might have told you in
time that she did not have even a
speaking acquaintance with a stove
and that she had a well-developed
phobia against mops and cleaners.
1t Is a queer thing that men prac-
tically never try to get a line on a
girls domestic qualifications before
they lead her to the altar. for on
them more than on almost anything
else depends the happiness of their
marriage. For no marriage can be
success unless the wife knows how to
keep house any more than it can be a
success II the husband cannot make
the money to support it. 1t is just as
necessary that the wife should be
able to fry the bacon as it is for the
husband TO bring it home.
NO MAN can prosper if his wife is
wasteful and extravagant. No
man can be healthy and competent TO
do his best work unless he is properly
fed. 1t doesn't avail a man anything
even for his wife to love him unless
she expresses her affection in making
him comfortable
Yet men will marry girls who have
had no domestic experience whatever,
who have never cooked a dinner in
their lives, who do not even know how
to order meal in a restaurant, and
expect them to be good housekeepers.
Apparently they think that a knowl-
edge of cookery comes by nature TO
women and does not have to be
learned and that every female is born
with a hankering for pots and pans
and wishes to spend her life in the
kitchen.
THIS is q great mistake Every
woman is no more a born cook
than every. man is a born car
penter, and just as certain lines Of
work are antipathetic to men, so is
domestic labor to many women. More
over, just as there are men who could
never learn to sing because they have
no musical talent. or to repair an
automobile because they are not me-
chanical. SO there are women who can
not ever be good housewives because
they are not domestically minded.
Evidently your wife belongs to this
latter class and the way for you to
settle your problem is either to hire
competent hOuSekeeper and put the
entire management of your home in
her hands or else break up your home
dllu kO dllO AlNC Ill o AlOLCl "AAClC sOu
can get good food and good service.
Perhaps your wife's other charms and
graees offset her lack of .domesticity.
DOROTHY DIX.
X
DEAR DOROTHY DIX am an
old maid, IS years old. Not good
looking. Short and dumpy. know
girl of % who is tall and slim and
beautiful. Every man who looks at
her is crazy about her. She can have
her pick of them. What can do to
be like her? Why must be so dumb
and homely? HELEN.
Answer-No one can answer that
question, Helen. 1t is one Of the mys-
teries of Nature that no one has ever
fathomed. All that we know is that