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Show II Dorothy Dix Talks ABSENT TREATMENT liv DOROTHY Dl a. the World Highest Paid Woman Writer j 111" Our Christian Science friends to heal disease by what they call ab-6ent ab-6ent treatment B Pcrsona)l. I belong to the old, H school of medicine. When ' am 111 I want a doctor to feel my puis.' while he keeps hlB eve on a large, th.ck gol . watch with a massive chain, and I H want to be given large bitter pills, and H have hot sticky poultices put on me.( but the absent treatment idea Is a Kroat and effective remedy when ap- piled spiritually anl to the sick places H In our sbuli I knOW, for 1 have tried &l It. and it works. mi The difficulty with us Is that we are H too close to our trouble. W'e don't H get the right perpcctlve on thorn, we see every little thing exaggerated, dls- H torted made unbearablv hideous, ln- H Stead of the trivial affair It really Is H It's like the close-up In the movies. You know how that Is. For four or five H reels we have been following the ro- H mantle adventures of two young erea- lures who have looked like young god-lings. god-lings. The man has been an Apollo, with ambruAl curls and soulful eyes, and gleaming teeth, and the race of l fawn a youth who had but to whistle and any woman from sixteen to sixty would get up and follow him, and , small blame to her, ho was that easy k on the eyes The heroine was the realization of every man's dreams. Ltthejund slend- or as a roccl in the wind, with eyes like shadowed pools of light, a complexion com-plexion of roses und lillies. the very incarnation of youth and beauty, and you sighed a sigh of mingled env v and satisfaction as the two melted Into each other's arms Then camo the- close-up and In the huge, grotesque faces thai were flashed flash-ed on the camera, you saw that your hero had pimples and a mushy mouth, and ears that any psychologist would tell you denoted a criminal l ndenoy. and that your heroine had a pug nose and coarse skin, and snowed no more Intelligence than a block of wood. And ou went away a bit disgruntled. disgrunt-led. our Illusions shaitrn-d b your being loo near the objects of you admiration. ad-miration. That's what makes the absent treat -in- nt the great cure-all tor moBt of the things that ail us. It s the sovereign sover-eign remedy for divorce, for the reason rea-son that most husbands and wives Quarrel Is not because the' have "i ed to love each other, but because they are fed up on each other They , have losl the perspective on their romance ro-mance and onl get the close-up. If every time a wife betran to feel ri peeved with everything h r husband did. and to wonder what sin ever could 1Ml have seen In him to make her marry nrrr him, sho would try the absent euro on I,,, him for only a couple of weeks, she would find that It would sae the situ-;'tlon situ-;'tlon and keep the gilt on the gingerbread ginger-bread of matrimony. In reality, every woman knows thin Iirom nor own experience, one hiio: that when sho starts forth on her summer sum-mer vacation, the man she leaves olandlng on the platform looks like o pretty poor fish to her- She observe? his every defect that he slouches a he walks, that he s getting bald-headed and bay-windowed and Bhe remember, that ho 1s fussy about what he eatf and given to telling the same itor over again. After fhc has been awas a week or two her mental picture ol him begins to brighten She recall! how hard he works for her and the children, how generous and kind he is what a classical noso he has. and sh I sins to brag abput him to the othei women, and by the time .she gets lacli in the fall the man who ly waltlnK foi her at the station could take the beau ty prize in anv show If sh.3 was handing hand-ing out tho I'll;., ribbon. And lh man has exactly the iami t i & iion towards his wife and children ii. loo. had been wondering which on of the fifty-seven different varletlei Of fools ho had been when he let himself him-self Into a life of domestic slavery, um the absent treatment has cured hl cane of spleen, and as he takes hlB wife and children Into his arms. h: fettl . are ne longer iron but cold. i1 Why, it's absent treatment that en ablcs us to speak only good of tin dead Why, you even lovo your Inlaws In-laws after they are tucked away In the ctmeteiy A woman who has fretted her very life out of herself because her mother-in-law was always snooping around spying Into the garbaee can, and asking what everything cost, and interfering with the wav Hhe raised the children, will sit up and tell you what a good, kind, no.de old womr.n her mother-in-law was and how devoted she was to the baby, and how helpful around the house, once the old lad is dead. Why not get this slant on the people who get on our nerves while they are Still living'' It b easy enough to do. We've only to get away from tlv ni f or ( a while and let absent treatme nt get j in Its great and perfect work on the nerves that have' fretted. It's only I when we arc too close to people that I Ve sec all of their little imperfections and peculiarities. When we are away we got the broad view that takes in their prood qualities also. And oh. my sisters. I urge ou to try the absent treatment on your work, whether it be housework or some trade or profession There comes a time In our life when we loathe the thing we have to do. and feel that we will die If we have to make one more round j of the treadmill. W( can see nothing but the maddening monotony of ouri Job. There Is nothlnc of Interest or savor left In it. and we could cheerfulh take a sledge hammer and smash our' gas stove or desk and choke our children chil-dren or employer to be rid of them. There Is Just one thlrc that will save us in this crisis. Take the absent treatment. Go away, and Stay away, lintil your home looks to vou like a paradise on earth, and your desk calls to you with a siren voice you cannot resist. Try the absent treatment on all your i vvorrles. It's the one sovereign cure that never falls. |