Show I Dorothy Dix Talks FOR HAP HAP- HAPPINESS HAPPINESS MORE CHANCES THE LAW COMMON WIFE HAS NO THAN THE LEGAL WIFE V BUT SHE HAS A THOUSAND THOUSAND MORE CHANCES lANCES FOR FOR MISERY MISERY FORIT IT ISN'T MARRIAGE THAT SLAYS RO ROMANCE MANCE MANCE ITS IT'S DAILY LIFE A GROUP ot of young youn girls have hav written me inc II a letter In which they heY A M tei me that they are arc very liberal 11 11 1 and modern In their views and that they have cast into discard all fo to the conventions by which their mothers mother were ere ere bound But Dut they say aY that they arc are still on the h fence In regard to law V 17 marriages They Ther cannot decide ir A whether to jump down on the orthodox or heterodox side And they want to know what I about It H 1 w Well girl gris I think that the com cem k A mon law marriage hai hal everyone every one on of the disadvantages of the th legal mu mar without having any of at Its corn com corn kr and emoluments emolument I can can- cannot net can not see ice that the law common wife wit hn has one tingle single more chance of happiness than the legal wife has hu but lea I can S see a more mor chances chance of mla ml- mla e for her 1 COURSE the main argument In favor favoro Op DOROTHY DIX o of law common marriages Is that It leaves fea a man and a woman absolutely free tree to break the bond between beleen them whenever they thy grow erow weary of ot It It They can quit without giving notice wh whenever the spirit moves them to do so 80 This liberty fosters foster restlessness promote promotes unfaithfulness nod and Is the Inevitable producer of jealousy because the tho knowledge that they ran can swap wap partners whenever they please keeps keep men and women on the eternal lookout for tor some one more attractive than the one the have I i I law Always Alway the common law wife must mut be the th chief ehi f victim In Inthis Inthis this state tate of affairs because she has haa no hold upon up n her har man except her ability to vamp him and this Is II I bound to wane with age Her present is tortured by suspicIons suspicion and fears Her future It is I black with despair and terror for she dares not even hope that the man she th loves love and to whom she the hill has given her hr youth and beauty will still be faithful to her when age hill ha dulled the lustre of f her hair robbed her eyes y 0 of their brightness her h r cheeks che k of their roses and laid Its Ita heavy hand band on her figure Then the husband who is i bound by no restraint of law lawor lawor lawor or public opinion will flit away to some flapper wh who has haa ha the charms charm that the poor forlorn law common wife used to have hava and has hai lost loit INDISPUTABLY I INDISPUTABLE not all legal leeal husbands husband are faithful But Dut there ther Is something steadying to a man In lit the very Cry knowledge that he Ir II h bound to his wife He tillS has made a contract and tho the same samo sense tense of honor that makes hIm him live livo up to the provisions of a II business contract generally makes him respect his hie matrimonial one and settle setti down to tomake snake make the best hest of his bargain There arc are exceptions to this thia rule but the great majority of ot men feel that marrIage Is that final final that marriage puts sin an end to 10 the love e chase for them and they never see se another petticoat except their Mailas after atter they are married But if the husband does doe turn out to be b a philanderer the legal wife has haa ha some redress The law common wife has none The legal wife ha has some omi share In th the hat her labor and thrift has helped her huband husband to accumulate He cannot go off and leave her bankrupt in purse as well as is heart as ashe ashe he can a l law common law common wife TilE THE theory that a man and woman who live lile together In an un- un un unconventional conventional relationship somehow miraculously preserve the fine flower of romantic love that Is 15 lot bat la in matrimony Is equally fallacious It isn't the marriage ceremony that slays romance and causes husbands husband husbands and wives to get on each elch others other's other nerves Its It's daily life It is se seeing ing each other with the perfume and the powder off ff and the cold cream and the tile stubble of beard beardon beardon on I IT OT T IS the tame same ol old stories 01 over 1 and over again aln Its It's the clash of different temperaments Its It's selfishness meeting selfish selfish- lie Its It's temper aud and temperament And most of all It is the moue mone Question These things happen whether a man and a woman live together with or without the benefit of clergy The common common- law common law Jaw wife no more mora mor escapes escape her hir husbands husband's grouchiness and surliness ness nen than does the legal wife Lothario is just Juit as a often a tightwad as a John Henry and Don Juan can make as mean remarks about a II badly cooked dinner as a can Thomas or Be Ben Ben- Benjam Ber jam in BUT DUT when her John Henry or her lIer Thomas or Benjamin Denjamin proves prove dl dl-a- dl as a II husband and fails tails to measure up as a II hero of her girlish dreams the th legal leeal wife has a II consolation prize in her home bomp and her position society soc Many fany a cantankerous man who Is hard to live lI with Is I a II good provider pro and no woman is wholly miserable cc 1 long lone as she has her establishment and hosts of ot friends and is II a welcome guest everywhere e On the th other hand the law common wife is declue The kind of or women women he he would like lik to 0 know look at her with cold unseeing eyes eye The doors door she would like lik to enter are an shut hutin in her her face and she ah Is I left desolate If her man does not give her a perfect love and companionship Indeed one may well wonder if it anything a man can give a it woman pays pay her for having other women draw their skirts away away from her F deliberately there are the children No 1 woman has a right deliberate deliberate- ly Iy to bring brine a little nameless child Into the world and brand it it with the stigma of illegitimacy A girl may think that she has the right to lead her own life but no sophistication of reasoning car can cai Justify her In itt blasting her childs child's child welfare before it is born OF 0 r F F COURSE you ou may say s y girls that hat au all of these things gre are re n I witha matter of o convention and custom and that a woman who lives hives with witha II a man without being married to him may be just ut as virtuous and good as one ono who has had a II show wedding with a II dozen bridesmaids and d white satin and and bell and clergy clerry and all the rest of ot It Perhaps But Dut we ha base haie e to take tak the world as It Is Js and add society as It Is i con COD diLuted con and customs custom as they exist And so long as ns we live hive he In a world that Is ruled by Mrs Grund Grundy we do well to bow before her bet Marriage may not be a p Institution but it is i the tho best arrangement for the association of the th sexes exes and for the protection 0 of t women and children that human ingenuity and exp experience has bun been able to devise And that being so o will do will well w ll to stick to t I It DOROTHY DIX Copyright by Public Ledger |