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Show 11 Dorothy Dix Talks A MASCULINE BUGABOO. I ( By DOROTTTT DlX. The World's Highest Paid Woman Writer f A worldly wise woman was speaking of iter the other (fay d "i i i j i j b aid i onfldentl . 1 Ma brl w ill be surf to be a great belle and will probably make a line marriage. She's jusl the type that men iidniir--most very pretty and not very clever, brains mostly in her heels and hands, vou know, i-o that she can dance and play tennis, and goll with Ihem and do things to make them comlortable, and make Ihem feel like Solomons because be-cause the know so much more than "Lucky girl." exclaimed n pretty young woman who was listening to this description of Ihe masculine ideal, "there's nothing that the average man has such a horror of as intelligence in a woman. He's as frightened of it as children are of a bugaboo. Now I'm still in my sweet and-twenties I'm not ! bad looking. When it comes to danc-. danc-. ing, athletics, and even to flirting I I can tread a measure with even the I bilii.-i debutante. "Consequently when i meel a young man we qot along famously together until by some chance he discovers thai , 1 am a college professor, whereupon i he withdraws himself from my presence pres-ence as expeditiously as decency per- mits, and T see him no more. The' knowledge that I was a leper would no j more quarantine me from the society of the majority of men than does the knowledge that I have several college degrees, and teach higher mathematics for a living. "I wonder why. It isn't because I'm B pedantic boro Who backs a man up acainst the wall and asks h1ni what he thinks. Browning thought he thought, or who insists on confining her conversation con-versation to highbrowed subjects. Far from it. I'm willing to chime in on any talky-talk key a man wants to 0 strike if he will only permit me. But he won't. He liens from me in a panic because he suspicions me of being clever, and that's woman's capital sin in his eyes " "Of course there are exceptions to this rule. There are some bold and adventurous men who have the hardihood hardi-hood to go over the lop and marry college bred women, and even school ma'ams, but they art' the iron cross heroes of their sex. Tin- average man still takes to his heels in fright when he sees a woman who has the reputation reputa-tion of being a blue stocking approaching." approach-ing." This is I rue. and It is one of the mysteries of masculine psychology at which won. "ii perpetually marvel, and which thej can never explain. Whj are men so afraid of cleverness In women? Why has it always been a re proflcb to say of a woman that she Is "strong minded" thereby inferring that feeble mindedness is a feminine virtue? Why do men prefer Feminine brains in half portions and scrambled at that? There is no use in saying that IIipv don't, because all common observation proves the contrary. It Is the baby-doll baby-doll girls who have the most attention from men, and who never lack for dancinc partners, or automobile rides, or hunger for chocolate creams, not the intelligent, cultivated college graduate. grad-uate. Am little puny fool of a baby-lalk baby-lalk ladv "can marry all around a scn- I sible woman. Tin flrsl question a man I ever asks about a woman Is whether I she is good looking or not. It upparent- I 1 never interests him to know wheth- I or or not she has any intelligence. He I is concerned solely with the outside of I her head. Not what is within it I It men themselves were idiots and I uneducated one could understand bow ihev would prefer female idiots as I companions and wives, but men are I not idiots and so the wonder grows i WL v.),, n v.. - 'h "i prclening dull j jHT wumt-u to bright onea. I " Of course one reason that raa be assigned for men liking silly women bettor than they do clever ones is masculine vanity. Men have had the whole display privilege for brains so long that they dislike to share it with women. A man is afraid if he marries mar-ries a brilliant woman th:.t she may occupy the spotlight in their home instead in-stead of his monopolizing its beneficent benefic-ent rays. Also a man is well aware that if he marries a woman who is as Intelligent, as well educated, ant4 as Well informed as lie is that he cannnt pose as an oracle tb her. or expect her to accept all of her opinions ready from him. Undoubtedly these considerations cause many a man to pass over the clever woman for herstupid sister, but when he does so he pays a terrific price for the gratification of hfs egotism. ego-tism. For in its last analysis the one absolutely essential Ingredient to L happy marriage is for the wife to drop into it a full weight brain, and no woman without intelligence can be a satisfactory life partner. A woman's beauty is a matter of a l verv few years at the longest. When it Is gone what c harm has she to conjure con-jure with if she has not intelligence, ' reading, wit9 It she cannot entertain and amuse a man she has no longer the good looks to charm his cyes Living pictures deteriorate year by year, but brains are like wine, they grow in flavor and richness with ag And this also is to be said, that no women in the world grow so homely with age as stupid women, who have no intelligence to licht their faces when the glamor of youth is dead When you travel iu the Orient, and I observe ihe hideous, dull blankness of the old women's faces you realize that it's worth while to educate women just for the sake of their looks. Matrimony is the long long trail. It's queer that men who are intelligent intelli-gent themselves deliberately pick out as fellow travelers on this journey that is goins to last perhaps for forty or fifty years companions who will bore them stiff aTter the first brief lap of the honeymoon. You will think that a man who Is clever himself would hunt up the cleverest woman he could find for a fellow voyager, that he would eel one who could discuss the books he liked with him. who would understand his! I litttle half word references to this and I that in literature or history, and who could catch the subtle. ! flavor of all his wit and humor. But he seldom jdoes. He's afraid of that sort of woman. wom-an. God only knows why. No woman i ever does, especially tho clever worn-Ian worn-Ian doesn't who sees her pin headed' sister gathering in lor a husband the man she does not understand, and never can understand, while the woman wom-an who could understand him breaks her heart with longing for him. Men are afraid of the clever woman, wom-an, and yet it takes brains to run a home thriftily, to raise children properly, prop-erly, and to meet with philosophy, trials and tribulations ol every -day life. If a woman has Intelligence she can, and will, adapt herself cheerfully to any emergency that may arise. It is only the fool woman who is hopeless, who can never rise in the uiimitir.n nr see anything bigger and finer than her own little miserable selfish prejudices and desires." The only woman fit to marry li the clever woman, yet men are so afraid of her they fight shy of her. That Is why divorce is so common. |