Evening star., 1942-10-09
.Wife's Incessant
7 ak Irritates
Her Husband
But She Is Better
Than the Grim,
Silent Type
By Dorothy Dix

Dear Miss Dix: My problem may
seem silly, but to me 1t is very
serious. Although am very much
in love with my wife there are a
few things she does that make me
irritable and I do not know how to
correct them without hurting her
feelings. The chief trouble is that
she has habit of talking babyish
and making foolish speeches-in
fact, she babbles. I am a man
who keeps his remarks to the sub
ject at hand. I make sense when
I talk and people enjoy listening
to the words I very carefully say
I acquired this interesting method
of talking from my training as
recruiting sergeant in the service.
My wife, on the other hand,
talks in a very uninteresting man
ner and never knows when to stop.
This gets on my nerves and keeps
me worried so that I feel as though
I want to stay away from her when
she starts to talk to my friends.
Other people have noticed this habit
of hers and have called my atten-
ton to it. What is the solution
to my problem?
SEMPER FIDELIS.
AnsWer-As I see from your let
terhead that you belong to the
marines. perhaps the solution of
your problem is to be ordered to
Australia or some other place be-
yond the sound of your wife's voice.
Otherwise, fear there is no hope
for you. No human ingenuity has
devised method that would shut
up a woman who wanted to talk.
We can dam Niagara and shut
off the flow of water at Bonneville
Dam, but no one can halt the tor
rents of words that pour from a
woman's lips and flow on and on
forever.
1t is unfortunate that when your
wife has so much to say. and says
it so endlessly. she isn't SPELL
binder. But alas, that seems to be
always the case with men and
women who are loquacious. No
monologist is ever by chance inter-
esting or has anything to say that
the listener wants to hear. They are
invariably such bores that only by
the exercise of great will power and
the possession of strong Christian
principles are we able to refrain
from choking them.
But how come you didn't discover
before marriage that your wife had
perpetual tongue and that its out
put was dull and uninteresting? Was
1t because you didn't mind her
babble when she kept repeating over
and over how wonderful and strong
and brave and handsome you we're?
Or was it because you were so busy
telling her how much you loved her
that you didn't notice?
So many husbands and wives find
each other such bores after marriage
that it seems strange they didn't get
a line on each others conversational
range In time to call the deal off
and save themselves. But bad as too
talkatlve vile Is, a dumb one would
be worse. You can't imagine a happy
home presided over by a grim, silent
woman who spoke only when spoken
to; who never told her husband any
news or the scandal about their
friends, or what the baby said, or
what the neighbors are having for
dinner. Better, by far, one who
chirped as meaninglessly as canary
than one who kept all her thoughts
bottled up inside her.
And you have one great consola-
ton in your predicament. Being
such marvellous conversationalist
yourself, you can learn to talk to
yourself; then you will always have
the pleasure Of conversing with an
intelligent man and listening to an
intelligent man converse.