Show I Dorothy Dixs Dix's Letter Box Bo ir EAR MISS Our DIX DIX Our forum Is to discuss the question DEAR D What hat are the qualifications of o a good husband r Will ou please tell us what you OU think MRS F P S J I I Answer Well Mrs Mr F S 8 J i I think that the th fIrst 11 fri qualification of a good flood husband It is I the abil ability ity Icy to make a good living Jo Perhaps this sounds rather sordid but all allour V our OU happiness and well ell being In life depends upon our being properly fed and housed and clothed s Our physical physical physical needs Deeds come como before our spiritual ones and I have hae observed that the women omen who w were hungry and cold and ragged and shabby and whose children were crying for or bread and who lived In terror o of tho rent collector didn't seem to take much Interest In whether hethe their husbands were werl their real soul mates or not nor L I being what li is called a good So put 11 lUX provider at the tho top of the ll list lilt t to desirable qualities In the husband It doe doesn't nt take riehe rIches to make maks a home You dont don't have ave to live In a palace A man happy doesn't need to give hi his family Imported cars and Pari ParIs P rl finery but he mUst mutt be able ablo to give them a settled roof over their heads enough food and freedom from anxiety Is good husband and no man who w No man ha doesn't do this a 1 I V does Is a a as a II live to live with Next ext I put a good disposition Being pleasant A man may have each and every everyone one of the the virtues He ia may be honest and honorable moral sober ober In In- In and arid yet be the tho sort sort of a husband that makes make hi hIs wife wish that she had died on her wedding day There are good men with with tempers so BO vile vUe that their wives live In something something- that will provoke an explosion dread of saying or doing There lire ire admirable admirable citizens who grouch gad and gloom around around- home dark pessimistic pessimistic-bh pessimistic blue until they make malte atmosphere such adark a that every everyone one who Is forced to breathe It becomes V a I victim o of m mel mel- melancholia There are men who take every bit of th the heart and spirit out 01 and finding fault And of their wives by their ceaseless nagging Bagging there are other men who are jolly and good natured ana and optimistIc and smiling and veritable rays of in their homes It Is II I a mans man's disposition deposition that that hIs hi wife has hu to live with and that makes or or- mars her happiness and therefore It ltd Is II Of the utmost Importance to her to pick out but a husband with a good one Next I should put liberality No tightwad husband wh who be- be begrudges begrudges doles out nIckels nickels and pen pen- grudges the cost of a family no man who to his wife and wants want to know what she did with Ith that quarter quarte he lie gave her week before last is a good husband The Tho man who who- wont won't go fifty fifty-fifty with hIs hi wife on en the money mony proposition and who Isn't willing to give her as- as as her right as liberal an allowance as he can for her personal ue use hasn't any right to get married and ruin some somo wOmans woman's life with his parsimony u a Furthermore this a Wile wite cne right to her own opinions and views Instead of ot trying to make a rubber rubberstamp stamp or of o her Next I I put chum chumminess minus V A woman marries to get a fireside companion not to be left to hod the fort tort alone while her husband fares forth to his own amuse amuse- amusements amusements amus ments Neither is she lured lured- Into matrimony by the ide Idea of sitting up and watching a man read a D newspaper or listening to the radio radic Nothing come comes nearer to making matrimony a grand sweet song Gong to a woman than a husband who really likes to talk to her and who who- takes her along with him because he wants to Instead of because he ho hu has ha to Then I put sympathy and understanding and last but not least I put being Interested among the desirable qualifications of a good goo husband I The Tho woman who Is ii married to a man who can dIstinguish between temper and nerves and who has haa a line of conversa conversation tion that doesn't bore boro her stiff Is I blessed among her sex lex ex 5 e C S e C EAR r EAR MISS DIX I DIX I DIX I am married anc and have two children aged 5 and andI andI y an-y I DEAR D I 1 and I am physically worn born out with taking care of o them and doing my housework My husband earns a fair salary but not DOt enough to keep a servant so I have bave to take care of the children and ond do the cooking and cleaning and washing and day by day I 1 feel my strength streng and vitality being sapped Before Defore I was married I Iwas was a n priced high-priced stenographer I can caret get my old Job back hack and I fee feel t that I I would d be a new woman ma If I 1 were back at Ins tead of a i 1 that my strength would come back and that I would not be such sucha a bundle of nerves as I am now My husband husband- Is not averse to the plan and with my salary I Ican can call get al a competent woman and still have enough left to have somethIng besides the bare necessities of o life Shall I continue to ruin my health by hy doing housework for which I have no aptitude and which Is killing me rue or shall shaIl I do th the work I like get well wel In a congenial atmosphere and leave leno my chil- chil children dren to a servant 7 TIRED Answer Unquestionably your first duty is to your children and your problem hangs upon the kind of a woman you can get getto getto getto to take care caro of them If you find one who I Is trustworthy the children will probably be better off orr with her than they thy are aro with you In the overwrought and nervous state Into which you have gotten A cross Irritable mother doesn't make the atmosphere In a home homo in which children thrive We Ve make a mistake when we assume that all women are by nature domestic and that they will III be perfectly happy and tented con con con- conI contented I tented In their own homes amid their pots and pans Not every I woman oman can content herself doing housework any more than all men menI I could content themselves being carpenters or bakers or doing any other o of the fundamental work necessary to making a home I And I think these theo women who will always alway and who will wilt loathe brooms and gas gal ranges wear out doing work that they find distasteful and that bores boru bore them and gets on their nerves are aro wise to stick to the tho occupations they like liko and for which they have a talent and hire some lome other woman to do their housework As for or the cl children very often the money that the mother earns earna giveS them advantages In the way Wa of o living conditions that more than makes maltes up for her not personally cooking their oatmeal and washing their pinafores DOROTHY DIX e DEAR D BAR T EAR MISS blISS DIX I DIX I have haye been going with a boy who Is very verT nice nice nice- but he be Is very tickle fickle He goes with a girl until hs ho gets gels tired or of her and then he just stops I think he Is getting tired o ot of me What do you think I should do SALLY Answer Anser There Ther Is nothing you cn can do Sally to hold a man after hs he is tired because you cant can't argue with tiredness It Ju Juet Is Nobody knows what It Is II In a girl that attracts a boy to toI I her and nobody knows knowl why this charm should hould cease to con Con- ConJure conjure jure Juro The Tho only thing you can do Is to save savo your face by get getting ting tired of the tho young man first Drop him before he can candro dro drop you But Dut I am always warning you OU gIrls against the folly lolly of ol letting lettinga a 1 boy havo have this advantage of you Why let him monopolize you and keep all other boys away when he can an walk out and leave you flat It is hard bard enough to a woman to have to do that after she ehe is mar mar- married married ried ned It Is folly for her ier er to do It before she he Is married I DOROTHY DIX Copyright by Public Ledger r |