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Show Dorothy Dix 1 aiks j WHAT HAb LIFE TAUGHT YOU? 5 By DOROTin UlX, the Worlds Hignest Paid unian Writer ji IThero is an old saying to tho effect that experience Is a havd school, but fools learn in no other. Alas and alack, most of U3 are such dolls, that we do not even profit by experience. In vain does life try to teach us wisdom. We refuso to learn our lesson oven tho it is beaten Into us with blows and cudgeling and tear3. In. all the vagaries of human na- ture thore Is nothing stranger than, this, that we so seldom let the past' bo a light of warning to our feet. Wo' go on stumbling into the same old pitfalls, and. making tho same blunders, blun-ders, and repeating the same mis-' takes year atter year tho for every, one we nave ila! psj . i Isuirering, and unavailing regrets. "I have made many mistakes In my life," said a successful man to 1.. once, "-but they have been fresh mistakes mis-takes every time. I have never made the same mistake the second time." i Which Is, perhaps, tho difference Ho learned, irom experience. Most people don't. And It isn't because wo have forgotten for-gotten the agony wo have gone thru, or that we fall to see the red flag of danger that experience flaunts before be-fore our eyes. It's because we are the victims of a aort of tatal optimism optim-ism that persuades us that this time some sort of a miracle will be wrought, in our behalf that will preserve us from the logical outcome of our folly, On forty occasions before we mav 1 have had painful proof of what our I outraged stomachs thought of a com-l Bj blnation of cucumbers, and ice cream, antl watermelon, but that doesn't f keep us from blithely feasng on the' P" deadly mixture, and bol, surprised. when we have to call ii the doctor, later on. jH A man will break himself down by! overwork but instead of letting his experience teach hlrn to conserve his strength and his health, the minute be gets out of the sanitarium, ho t plunges right back Into tho vortex of1 business and wrecks himself again. j v -A- woman will buy something at a bargain sale that she doesn't want and ! fur which alio has no earthly use i j because it has been marked down I from 5 !-50 to $1.47, and then aho will' I wuiiun nj one uiu u aim oemoan her wasted money. But a hundred such experiences never teache3 her to wallc by a special sale of flummery without' oven turning to look back. She alwavs does the Lot's wife act, no matter how many times before she has been salt-1 cd. I And why are most households a dark and bloody domestic battle field with husband and wife In a-never ending scrimmage, except that pooplo simply refuse to learn anything from experience. ex-perience. During the first couple of years after af-ter a young couple get married there is some excuse for there being little conflicts between them, and for tho , domestic machinery creak and groan from lime to time. You can not take any two people, especially a male and a femalo person who come of different blood, who-havc had a different training and envlro-menJL envlro-menJL and look at every subject, from politics to pic, from a different angle, and expect them to mergo into a har-monlQU3 har-monlQU3 whole at once. They have got to get acquainted with each other and find out what each one thinks; ihv'vn HL' tt t0 Sot tho real- life measure, not H tll courting measure, of each oth"- ,, y nav sot t0 flnd out each other's little peculiarities and weaknesses ;nd prejudices and bigness and Httlenes3. It takes, a llttlo time to make these! , personal explorations into the charuc- tr of your life partner, but once hav-ing hav-ing diagrammed each other's person -allty, any husband and wife can get l along together and any domestic plant - H! ca" be run on oiled ball bearings If 1'; ,nlv tno Party of the first oart and 1: ' tne party of the second par: have l intelligence enough to learn a little j from experience. Hi ,, Jt doesn't take a woman long to i fId, out that her husband has a naive vanity about posing as the Hand of the House; and that he hates to bo aked where he Is going, and that certain . subjects have the same effect upon Hfr hllTn tnat a red flag haa on a ?nad bull. How more than stupid of her, then not to ask his opinion on every sub-ject sub-ject whether she takes It or not; not to refrain from nagging and not to clamp the lid down, good and tight. H, , on tho. topics that are anathema: (o But instead of learning life's little lesson that would assure them devoted i husbands and peaceful homos, the great majority of wives learn nothing troin tho Cxpcrlenco of a l undred fights that have left their hearts wounded and scarrca and they go along prec.pating the' rows that win end in a banged door shut behind an angry husband and a pillow wet with unnecessary un-necessary tears. 1 Xor Is there any man of ordinary Intelligence who hasn't found out within with-in six months alter marriage exactly how to work his Maria. He's ascertained ascertain-ed that It isn't safe to admit to oer having particularly noticed another woman even if she's homelv ax sir. land 100 years old: that It's diplomatic to call one's wile's temper, nerves, and that she will forgive ner husband anything so long as he tells her fat Is becoming, and she grows more beau-I beau-I tlful wltn age. But how fow cash In their dearly bought knowledge of femininity and get therefore wives who eat out of tliulr hands and celebrate their virtues in the market place? No. They go on ignoring their experience of "how lo manage a woman, and expect her to be rea3onablo and sensible, and mourn because she Is not. Perhaps tho, the most inexplicable , failure to learn from experience Is furnished by those people who have made the trip from wealth to poverty, and back again, and who gallv hit the toboggan slides for the second'descent. There is nb blinking the terrors or poverty, and to none are they so horrible hor-rible as to those who have been used to affluence. To have been nurtured In the lap of plenty; to have known tho freedom and Independence that a full pocketbook gives; to have never worn anything but gooa clothes and had I good food, beautiful and cultivated surroundings; sur-roundings; to have always had everything every-thing tnac goes with evening dress," as Kipling puts it. Then to wako to find one's self penniless, pen-niless, that all of one's money has slipped through one's fingers; to bo tortured with anxiety as to where tho next meal la to come from; to have to wear shabby clothes whose very touch Irritates one; to be doom- u io ine ncn ot airty sordid surroundings, surround-ings, what suffering can be greater : what fate more cruel ? You would think that tho mon and women who had once had money and lost It would bo perfect tnlseis, afraid to spend a cent. If luck again, smiled upon thorn, but In the great majority of casc3 no such thing happens. x -- n ii - atanco the first time, turn spondora again and throw It away the second time as carelessly as If there was no black memory of want in ihy back uf their heads to warn them that money has wings. Those who have gamblbd away their fortunes on halr-bralned schemes, or tryintr to break Wall street, take another turn at tho wheel of chance- They have learned nothing from experience. ex-perience. Experience is a hard school, but fools will learn in no other. Wo mav well take this to heart. What hag lif& taught you 7 Are you one ot tha fools who Tiever learn or the via man who never makes a mistake th st-n-ond. time? |