Show Dorothy Dix ix Talks WOMEN WANT ROMANCE ROMANCE AND AND AMERICAN HUSBANDS DONT DON'T SUPPLY IT THEY GROW FAT AND TALK BUSINESS THEY DROP THEIR WIVES V AND MARRY THEIR STOCK STOCK- TICKERS TICKERS BUT BUT I HAVE A MANNER I TYPIFY ROMANCE SAYS MILLIONAIRE SWIN SWIN- SWINDLER SWINDLER EXPLAINING HIS SUCCESS AN AN IMPOSTER who posed as a nobleman and who married forty rich kt women out of whom he be is believed to have got as much as a mil rail million lion dollars has been explaining how he did it itI I did not cheat them he says 4 I gave them their money moneys worth I Ji gave them something worth all al althe a the dollars dol they had or ever will have 4 I gave them romance TAKE TAKE any woman rich or poor and give her her- herthe heri i 1 I the choice between a life lICe of ot wealthy lone lone- loneliness loneliness 4 liness and of ot romance romance romance-a. a swift overwhelming glorious romance of or the kind most moat American i women never know know and and she will choose ro ro- ro- ro lr mance a 5 Women want romance They must have haveit it They want money but they can get along f without that But they perish without romance American men dont don't know the of romance Most of them DOROTHY DIX go on brief honeymoons and then drop their wives and marry their stock stock- tickers They are too busy making money to have time to make a woman happy I typify romance I dress carefully and a little ahead of the fashion I have manner I kiss the hand I am am unfailingly polite and always anticipate a womans woman's wish vish American hus hus- husbands husbands bands dont don't do these things They grow fat and talk business I am different AND AND A ND so the women listened to the theman man who told them the things they 1 had been hungering to hear bear h ar all their lives and handed banded over their lives and handed over their thE pocketbooks to him It was as easy as all that Nor need one wonder at it When you re e starving you grab at the first morsel of food tood that is offered you You do not stop to investigate Investigate investigate gate if it it is wholesome whole-wheat whole bread or to see whether It has the pure pure-fo U label on it or not This is not the first time nor will It be the last that wo wo- women women women men have fallen and will fall fail for the tongued glib who woos them In lovely soulful old fashioned novel language and who offers them a slice of the angels angel's food of romance for which every mothers mother's daughter of us pines and which very few of us ever taste For even the women who get ge married seldom get more than a scant nibble at It and this Is the grievance that even the wives of good men have against their husbands THEY THEY know that their husbands love them Good heavens Doesn't I John work himself to death to provo prove it and doesn't he say it Jt with his check cheek book Every day he gives a proof of devotion strong enough to borrow money on at the bank But no n no matter how long he is on affection tion he is short on romance There is no glamour no t nills just plain roast beef beet medium and mashed potatoes Even his courtship was a mere mer honorable statement of his Intentions intentions and when he popped the question it was in as like businesslike a way as if he were asking for an option on her hand for Cor thirty years f. f o. o 0 b. b at the altar Most women burst Into tears when men propose to them and the men think that It Is because they are overcome with joy at getting such good things as they are but p reality the women are crying out loud with chagrin ansi and an i ent at atthe atthe atthe the prosaic commonplace way In which they have done It It THE THE big moment of their lives to which they bad tad been lookin forward 1 I ever since they were little girls In pigtails has been ruined Their last chance at romance is gone They are never going going- to hear bear the em em- speech that they pine and long long- longto to hear and which they have dreamed of treasuring in their memories and repeating to their grand grand- grandchildren grandchildren grandchildren children when they are withered old women The American husband 13 Is the best husband In the world and the worst lover He gives his wife everything In the wor word d she wants except the thing she wants most and that is sentiment And If before marriage he is a dumb Rome Romee who iho finds court court- courtship courtship courtship ship arduous and embarrassing and after alter marriage he Is both dumb and blind and he cuts out the soft talk entirely THERE THERE are thousands upon thousands of women whose husbands 1 I stopped all lovemaking on their honeymoon with a suddenness that jarred the brides bride's back teeth loose Plenty of women womer are thereafter bound to take it for granted that their ns still till feel an affection for them since they have not divorced them But their husbands never show them any tenderness they never pay them a compliment they never notice what they have on or whether thy are sick or well or happy or miserable And as far as the wives can see sea se they are regarded with no more personal feeling than their husbands have hae for forthe the kitchen range or the electric light or any other household convenience And the tragedy of all this Is that the women cannot satis satis- satisfy satisfy satisfy fy themselves with the knowledge that their husbands probably probably probably ably still care for them It Is not enough for them that their husbands provide them with food and clothes and cars and trips to Europe They want love They want sentiment They want romance They want to be flattered They want something to put pep Into their days IT IT IS this that makes women the easy prey of any adventurer who whoA A comes along who makes burning passionate love to them and who makes them feel feel even even for an hour that hour that they are the heroines in the great adventure of which they have dreamed so long It is this soul sout hunger that makes otherwise sensible women Women run off orr after longhaired long poets pools of strange cults It is because women cannot get at home the food for which they starve that makes respectable wives and mothers get into compromising affairs with lounge lizards and aId dancing partners in tearooms and write fool mash notes to movie sheiks Half of the Idiotic things women do is the result of their search for romance Half of the unhappiness from which they suffer Is the lack of romance In their lives And this being so It is a pitiful thing to think that husbands will not take the trouble to show chow their wives the few little attentions and say the few kind words by which they set such undo store and which would make them happy and contented DOROTHY DIX DIX- Copyright by Public Ledger |