Show Dorothy Dix Talks WHAT IS YOUR SLOGAN WHEN YOU ARE MOST DESPERATE ONE WOMAN SAYS I ENDURED YESTERDAY I CAN EN ENDURE DURE TODAY TODAY ANOTHER ANOTHER ASKS WHY SHOULDN'T BEFALL ME ME ANOTHER THERE ARE OTHERS WORSE OFF OFFS once oice said that we live by catchwords catch To a great I S J degree this is true and most of ot us have our little private slogans that we shout as a rallying cry to our souls when they faint in the the- thick of the battle of life me and that somehow cheer us on to victory A woman once ones told ms ma m that In Irs I her most desperate moments she sheI I gathered courage by saying over and andover andover andI I over again to herself I endured F. F yesterday I can endure today She said that the thing that made madeI I cowards coward and quitters of us u. was the fear of the future We had the I e strength to bear our burden however t. t heavy It was at the present mo mo- moment moment se F ment but the thought that we must mustI I go staggering along under It through hf- hf 1 weeks and months and years year was what crushed us It is the vision we have of ourselves forever stumbling 1 along under the black pack upon our DOROTHY DIX shoulders shoulder that turns our bones to water and makes us want to lie down and die In sheer despair HIS woman was the tho victim of ot selfish and tyrannical parents who THIS T all her life had bad enslaved ed her In her youth they had deprived her ot of all the pleasures ot or girlhood and bad had kept her bel from marrying maroin a fine young o man mad with whom she she- was in love by making her believe that It was her duty to stay with them and take care of ot them They had not even had her h r taught any way to make a living Therefore when hen the time came when she had to support theW she bad had to do It Iton Iton iton on the meagre wage of ot unskilled labor So she tolled toiled all day at hard bar and uncongenial work and came back at night exhausted in Ii's mind and body and racked nerve-racked to cook and care caie for two senile old people who overwhelmed o her with querulous lous lout complaints and reproaches and ceaseless demands for the grail GraUe gratification of or their little and whims My first conscious thought on waking In the morning she said Is that I cannot go on that th I cannot stand the deadly dull grind of my Job that I will go mad If I have to listen again to the nag nag nagging of my father and moth mother er and put up with their fretful discontent and fault finding For the moment I am engulfed In the blackness of despair and hopelessness and then t en I say to o myself m sel I I endured end Jr d y ester day Con can C And somehow it gives me the courage to carry carryon on ANOTHER woman to whom fate tate has dealt hard bard blow after hard hardri F OTHER Af-OTHER ri blow said to me upon another occasion I have got comfort com tort out of or sa saying ing to myself Why shouldn't mis misfortunes fortunes befall me Instead of asking Why should they the As you know I had three big tragedies happen to me meIn meIn mein In quick succession that turned me from a happy prosperous woman to a forlorn poor one First I lot my only adored child the very heart of my heart Then death robbed me Ine of the husband I loved and who was the kindest most chivalrous man ian any woman was ever fortunate enough to get for a mate and because I was too dazed and by grief to look after my own Interests my husbands husband's estate vaa u looted by those I trusted and I found myself penniless and homeless as v ll w as ac widowed and childless AT AT A T FIRST FInST I railed against my lot and demanded to know of ot fate fateL L- L a why I should be so afflicted Why should my child be torn from my arms Why should by splendid husband die In his youth Why should I have to suffer poverty And no answer came to my m ques ques' questioning and my heart was filled with bitterness at what I considered the injustice that had been dealt me sac Then one day a great light fell upon me and an I saw my myself self not as a single victim of malign fate but as one of the great suffering mass of humanity I t mothers weep weeping ing above empty cradles cradle I saw other women sitting alone by desolate firesides mourning for the husbands they had lost I saw S V 1 other women shabby underfed living In squalid rooms glad of any odd job that brought them a penny And I quit asking myself why should misfortune bs be b sent upon me Instead I asked Who am I that I should escape the common fate Why should death pass ma me by and knock at another womans woman's door Why should I live softly while another woman starved What had I done dons or been that entitled en en- entitled entitled titled me to be the darling of the gods I A A ND when I had learned to ask Why shouldn't I l' Instead ot of o Why AND L- L should I I my bitterness fell away from me and I was com corn forted And I have ha never again been lonely because b cause I belong to the brotherhood ot of those who have wept and suffered and who are ery very pitiful to each other because we have all been through the mill to to- together gether Still another woman said s ld to me m Do you know what has kept my courage up when things were ere going go in the worst with me It was the phrase There arc are others worse off than you I have whistled that a million times to keep my heart up and to prevent myself from indulging In the vice of self self- ael pity I TUH I would say to myself bupp se you ou do clo have bave to work I about iT fifteen hours a day da to support a family Suppose when you ou do dogo doso dogo go so home you ou are tired enough nough to drop lu in your jour our tracks There are plenty of ot other women who have havo to support s children by bending over overa a washtub Instead of ot sitting silting at a mahogany desk Suppose your our boss bossis is grouchy and unreasonable and hard har to please He lie pays you a fat salary salar doesn't he Suppose you ou do have the burden of or your children on your our back hack They are worth it arent aren't they the Suppose you jou ou do have bave to endure the purgatory of ot a most unhappy marriage You haven't ha the only mean husband In the world There are plenty of ot other wives who have havo been betrayed betra ed who have sat up Pot pt night to open Ol il the door for fOl drunkards who hiss have had bad to endure brutality and insults and they haven't had the consolation you have of ot a good Job of ot being able to absorb themselves in fascinating work stork that made them theta forget torset their troubles at home of ot being financially Independent and ot or having little children to work for tor And Just keeping before my mind always alway that there are other women worse off than I has kept me from being a whiner winner and a complainer and given me a philosophy that sustained me in many a trying hour VES IES we ste live hive by words catch What is yours ours Y YES A DOROTHY DIX Copyright by b Public Ledger |