Show I Dorothy Do Dixs Dix's s 's Letter Box I INO INO NO CURE FOR THE PERFECT HOUSEKEEPER WHO IS CROSS AND IRRITABLE THE YOUNG GIRL WHO IS TAGGED EVERY EVERY- EVERYWHERE WHERE BY HER YOUNG BROTHER AND SISTER CAN A STENOGRAPHER GO ON A BUSI NESS TRIP WITH HER BOSS DEAn D EAR MISS DIX DIX I I am much distressed because my m wife whom I Ilove Ilove love dearly Is killing herself with her h r housework There Is 18 no nomore nomore nOmore more than the usual amount to do do as wo we have only one child but bu everything must be so scrubbed and rubbed and ana an un Im- Immaculate Im Immaculate maculate that she keeps herself In a state of o utter r ex b that makes her nervous and Irritable I 1 do er e thing I 1 possibly can to help her anc and have talked and pleaded with her to take care of oC her her- herself self but she Ignores me mo What would you ou ou advise WORRIED HUSBAND u Alas Alas poor Worried Husband there Is A nothing that you can do to save cave your wife iw or make conditions more endurable for your self If a woman has hu the a or the eat could the off complex she suffers S from a hopeless affliction from which there Is z no cure The very sight of a cake of soap or ora a broom sends her Into an orgy of scrubbing and sweeping and nothing will wean her from DOROTHY DI DI her gods If cleanliness Is I. next to godliness over over- cleanliness Is certainly a form of insanity the poor victims of which are beyond the reach of all reason or of realizing what alienists call the nature and quality of their acts acts It Is no use to tell teU them that the they are killing themselves doing un unnecessary unnecessary necessary ary work They go right along polishing I up the handles of ot the attic door and rubbing up the cellar steps It Is no use to tell them that by bj their excessive order they make their homes places of torture In which every everyone one is made to feel teel that It Is a crime to move mote a chair from its predestined place or to step on a rug They will drive their husbands and children away from tram home on to the streets and Into saloons and other women's homes rather than have a doll dolly mussed lp p or a book changed from Its proper alignment on its shelf shelt Certainly It Is La every wife's duty to be a good housekeeper to to keep her home neat and Ind clean and tidy and to set a good table table but but if she runs the good flood housekeeping Idea to excess she makes It a vice Instead of a virtue An house houle In which everything Is sacrificed to cleanliness Is really worse than a sloppy slovenly house In which one can take ones one's ease eue There should be- be moderation in everything and a sane woman takes the middle path She keeps the house clean but not too clean She preserves a certain order but she doesn't t make a fetish of it She gives her family good wholesome food but sho doesn't make a burnt offering of ot herself on the kitchen stove cooking elaborate dishes for them More than all a wise woman budgets her health and strength just as much as she does doe her money She does only so much work as she can do without wearing herself out for forshe forshe she knows that her husband and children will never know whether she has scrubbed out the garbage can or not but they will know If she Is cross croll and nervous and Irritable Also she knows that there Isn't a man In the world who wouldn't prefer a wife who Is jolly and cheerful and natured good even If she Isn't a perfect housekeeper to a nerve frazzled lady who boasts that there Isn't a pinch of dust duet nor a pin out of place In her whole house DOROTHY DIX EAR DOROTHY DIX DIX I I have one of ot the saddest hearts today that DEAR D ever beat in this world I have the unhappiest life ever lived The causo cause oC of my sorrow is this I am a young joung girl just beginning to go with bos boys and ever c where I go my mother sends along alon my little brother and sister with me me and I hate to be tagged by children I wouldn't mind being chaperoned by a grown person but I dont don't want those kids to run around after me I want to live lite a clean and upright life but my parents are driving me mo to a bad life for if It I cant can't go with girls and boys without those kids tagging me I will go where DO no one will go with me Please advise me GLADYS Answer I suppose I might begin by saying to you Gladys that if fate has nothing worse In store for you than th ln the welcome so so- society clety of your little brother and sister you will be b a mighty lucky girl But I wont won't because I know that your trouble Is I. a very real trouble to you now and that you Id I'd a 5 hurt and mortified and think that you are made ridiculous by y your Infantile bodyguard I And you shed just as many tears over this problem as you will over some real wrenching heart grief later on You ou are at the age when we take life the hardest when every every- everything everything thing seems final t when we grow desperate over trifles and when small things loom big out ot 0 all BIl proportion to their importance It is a time when we break our hearts over nothing i when we shed barrels of ot tears over fancied wrongs when wo we arc are abnormally sensitive to ridicule and when we are arc so self self conscious conscious that we Imagine that the eyes eves of at the whole community are Bre fastened upon us watching our every step It Is a time limo when we foci feel that life holds haMs nothing else for tor us and that we had as well turn our fact facca to the wall and die if it it rains so 80 that wo we cannot go to a picnic or we fall fail to be b invited to a part party It ItIs Itis Is a time timo when we are humiliated to death If we haven't the same kind of ot put patty frock or klassy kut that all the other girls and boys are wearing It is a time lime when we W could die of oC shame ahome If It we ore arc put Into an absurd position It Is because the sufferings of youth are so acute because youth Is so 10 morbidly sensitive that th t It seems to me a pity that parents do not recognize this and sympathize s with It and do doall doall doall all In their power to prevent this needless needle misery and save live these foolish tears It takes taku only a little thought a little care a little sense of humor and a little recalling of their own youth on the part of the parents but It means so 10 much to the young youngsters stere Ask your jour mother to read rca rea what I have haw written here bere Gladys and per per- perhaps perhaps haps lisps she will viii remember how she hated to be tagged by her little broth broth- ers era and sisters and sho she will call yours off orr DOROTHY DIX t EAR MISS DIX DIX DIX- I am ar a a. stenographer s and an the man I work for Cor has hasto hasto hasto DEAR DEAn D to make a business trip out west and wants me to go with him as 88 ashe ashe he will have a lot of at work to do there He lie will be gone about ten days U WIll ill It bo be proper for tor me to go with him If Ii not why not notT I I Ii i Answer If you are past 40 and are homely and no snappy dresser you may go along If you are young and looking good and flap flap- perish you cannot go without your good name The reason renon why Is II that a girl must mut not only be good but look good and act good and even though she the Is II as pure ai II Ice and as al chaste as at snow enow no young girl can travel around the country with a strange man and escape calumny DOROTHY DIX Copyright by Public Ledger Company |