Evening star., 1937-03-30

EAR DOROTHY DIX: I once
had dreams Of proving my
love for my wife by giving
~ her fur coats and jewels and
fine cars Instead, have brought her
hard work and sacrifice and anxiety.
/ My job, home, insurance, all went with
,, the depression. Debts piled up until
nothing was left except the priceless
wealth Of loyal wife and four lovely
children. Through 1t all, with blow
after blow falling upon us, there was
never a word of complaint or criti-
cism OF encouragement from her, but
always the undaunted faith that some
how, eventually working together, we
would win through. If have not been
able to lay the world at my wife's feet,
at least I have laid my heart If I
have not been able to give her mink
| coats, have clothed her with romance,
for I have never ceased being her
lover and telling her that she is the
only woman in the world to me and
dearer and more beautiful to me than
when I wooed and won her. AND this
| has kept up her morale and brought
| her happiness as it has to me. mar
vel that husbands so seldom express
| to their wives the affection they feel
for them. 1t is so little a thing to do
| for a wife and it means 30 much to
her A MERE MAN
Answer:
I hope that every man who reads
this beautiful letter will take to heart
the profound truth it conveys and go
home and do some high-pressure
counting that will make his wife turn
sweet-and-tWenty again and bring to
her lips such smile as they have not
worn since her honeymoon set. For,
as famous French novelist once said.
all that many woman needs to make
her beautiful again Is to be kissed and
get love letter.
| have said in this column time and
again that the strangest thing in all
the strange mystery Of masculine ply
| chology was when men who knew that
they could make their wives happy and
change marriage from dust and ashes
to a glorious adventure by saying a
few kind words to them, refused to
say them.
YOU can understand why a man
who is a tightwad will keep a
Yale lock on his pocketbook and re-
1use to hand out even a penny of its
contents to his wife, but no one can
explain why man will shut tight his
lips and withhold from her the express
slons Of affection for which she is
hungering and thirsting and which
| would feed cry soul. It is GER
talnly the acme OF stinginess not to be
willing to give that which costs you
nothing and which would make an
other rich.
| AS matter Of fact, husbands.could
practice no greater economy than to
keep up their love-making, for it is
much cheaper to feed wives on senti-
ment than it is on filet mignon, and
to tell them that their eyes are like
sapphlres instead of having to produce
the real gems. Many and many a
wife revenges herself for her hus-
bands Indifference by extravaganza.
She reasons that If she gets nothing
out Of marriage but a living she may
as we'll have a good one and wonders
If perhaps lonely heart won't ache
a little less under a Paris model than
1t would under basement bargain.
My correspondent is absolutely right
when he says that love and appre-
citation are more to all women, except
those who belong to the gold digger
tribe, than anything else in the world,
and as long as they have these they
can be happy in hovel and consider
1t privilege to work their fingers to
the bones for their husbands.
1t is the thinking that their hus-
bands don't care when they have to
do without things: that their hus-
bands don't notice how hard they work