Evening star., 1935-06-20
Washington Playing the Game of Domesc
Dorothy Dix Says
What Characteristics Married Couple
Should Have in Common.

- EAR MISS DIX: Our home /
economics class recently |
studied the question Of mar
- riage. viii you tell us the |
five most important charac-
teristics a boy and girl should have in |
common in order to make marriage a |
success? STUDENT.
Answer-Well, think that the first |
and most important thing in mar
riage is love, not passing fancy. nor
temporary infatuation that will last |
only so long as youth and beauty and
a surface attraction do, but the kind
of love that is all wool and q yard
wide and that will stand the wear
and tear Of life and not shrink in the
wash Of time and sickness and hard
work and privations. 1t Is all-im-
portant that there should be this mu-
tual love between a man and a wom-
an, for 1t is the only thing that turns
marriage from purgatory into a
heaven on earth. Every marriage is
bound to be full of disillusion and Of
sacrifices and of labor, and it is only
love that keeps the glamour about it
and makes it seem worth while.
TT is only love that makes a man
see his wife's old face as still
young and beautiful. 1t is only love
that makes a woman glory in going !
down to the gates of death TO bring
back his child to her husband. 1t is
only love that makes man and wom-
an work and struggle and go shabby
and endure hard times and still find
it a glorious adventure because they
are together.
Second Congeniality. To be happy
together husband and wife must have
the same tastes and the same inter
eStS. They must think alike. They
must enjoy the same things. or else
they get upon each others nerves and
bore each other. 1t doesn't make a
bit of difference what sort Of husband
or wife you pick out, provided he or
| she suits you. Two highbrows can
have a grand time together studying
the Enstein theory. Two lowbrows
can be perfectly happy listening to
| drivel over the radio. Two athletes
can be a soul with a single thought
when it comes to golf and holding
post-mortems over every play. Two
| tightwads can get thrill out of
pinching nickels and watching the
bank account grow.
IT IS only when the intellectual man
marries the Dumb Dora and the
| cultivated woman marries the man
with the low comedy complex and one
partner wants to step out and go
places and do things and the other
one wants to sit at home that homes
are broken up.
Third. Both parties must go into
marriage with the will to succeed,
with the determination to make their
marriage a success. Marriage is a
tWo-handed game that no one can
play alone. No man can make sue
cess of marriage if his wife is a silly,
frivolous woman, or an idle, lazy, ex-
( travagant one who will not do her
part toward making home.
/ MO WOMAN can make a happy
~ home, though she cooks like
chef and smiles like the Cheshire cat,
if her husband is grouchy and sullen
and like q wet blanket over the house.
Probably there never was q mar
riaQe in the world that would not
have turned out in story-book fash
ion land they lived happily ever
afterward" if both the husband and
the wife had made the same effort to
make q 60 of it that they did of their
business or their social climbing.
FOURTH. Both the husband and
the wife must have sportsman
ship. They must be willing to play
fairly with each other and give each
other a square deal They must take
matrimony on the chin, so to speak,
and not turn winners and cutters
when it settles down to hard work and
self-denial.
The woman must have enough grit
W 1cCl lLldb dlAAdSC 40 hCA JOO bAAoS
she undertook of her own free will
and that it is up to her to carry on
instead of throwing up her hands and
| quitting because it isn't the picnic she
thought 1t was going 10 be. She must
| be willing to stand by her husband
through thick and thin and help him
fight his battles instead Of whining
and complaining because she can't
wear diamonds and ride in hmousines.
THE husband must be man enough
to realize that when he took a
woman's life in his hands he assumed
the obligation of making her happy,
and that he has no right to visit all
of his disappointments in life upon
| her defenseless head. No married
couple win out who 90 not play hon
estly with each other. The two-tim-