Evening star., 1935-10-08
Dorothy Dix Says
Long Courtship Is as Expensive as
Maintaining a Home.

marriage, it's after marriage that they
become go-getters for the women they
love.
A LSo, courtskip is very expensive
business and 1t Is money in q
mans pocket when he can cut the high
cost Of loving and not have to put
up for theaters and movies, and
flowers and present and the other in
cidentals to taking the girl friend out
and giving her a good time.
OF course in the old days when
girls were helpless little darlings who
knew nothing about money except
how to spend it, man did well TO
consider long and carefully about
the advisability of marrying unless
he was sure that he would always be
able to support his wife in the style
in which she had been accustomed
to live, but in these modern times
practically every girl has some trade
or profession by which she can earn
her own bread and butter If nee
essary. The dread of what will be-
come of Mary if he should lose his
money or If he should die has been
lifted from the husbands mind. He
knows that Mary would go back to
her old job or would find something
else to do and be quite comfortable
and happy. thank you.
OF course, having to live with your
| husbands mother is your real problem
and nobody can tell you how to solve
that. Having to live with a mother
in-law, and especially one who is
boSSy and who is already installed as
the mistress Of her sons house, is
going to call for the patience of JOB,
the humility of Griselda and the
finesse of a diplomat and alas. few
young women are possessed of these
| qualities.
ONE or the other of two courses
are open to you. The easiest is
not to try to dislodge the autocrat
| from her throne. Let her go on running
| the house The advantage Of this pro-
| cedure is that it will save friction
because no old woman who is an eX-
pert cook and who has managed
house for thirty years is going TO
give way peaceably to any chit Of an
| inexperienced girl, no matter If she
is her sons wife. She'll fight you
tooth and nail and criticize everything
you do, and complain of you to your
husband and tell him that you are
running his digestion with your cook
| ing and bringing him to the poor
/ house by the thickness Of your po-
tato-paringS.
But if you will let her sit at the head
| of the table and take the lead in every
thing, she'll think you are perfectly
grand and love you and coddle you
and save you from all the hard work.
And. furthermore, your husband will
feel toward you that inestimable graft
tude that every man feels for wife
who gets along with his mother.
RUT don't delude yourself into be-
lieving that any two women can
keep house together and not be in
edcn OIneT 5 IdH all TIE IlIIle. II
one of the things that simply can't be
done. It's against nature.
| The disadvantage TO this line Of
! conduct is that every woman yearns
for her own home and wants to keep
| it in her own way, and she cuts her
self off from realizing the dream that
she has had since childhood when
she played keeping house with her
dolls, when she steps down and out
for mother-in-law.
The other line of conduct that she
can espouse is just to fight it out
with mother-in-law and let the best
woman win And the disadvantage of
this is that it makes everybody miser
able and generally lands the wife in
| the divorce court.
DOROTHY DIX.
Copyright, 1881