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Show 1 Dorothy Dix Talks j J Bv DOROTHY DIX, the World's Highest Paid Woman Writer j j PLAY FAIR 1 Are you sporting? Do you play tbe gamo of life fairly and squarely with those about you, or do you cheat, and take advantage of every foul means to win out? Perhaps you have never thought what a despicable thing it Is to play Upon the love, tho tenderness. tho sympathy of your familj in order to carry your point, and get your way. Consider 11 now. for it is about as yellow an act as an human being can , bo gullt or committing. Compared with it, knocking down a blind baby; and robbing it Of its candy is a brave; and heroic deed. I It Is the everlasting shame of women wom-en and old people that they are so often guilty of the unspeakable meanness mean-ness of gaining their ends by any 1 crooked means within their power, and that they take advantage of the very' nobleness of thoso with whom they deal lo enslave them, i With women, the chief of these cowards' weapons Is tearj. Whon a woman can't got what she wants any-other any-other way, sho weeps for it because experience has taught her that nol one man in a hundred has backbone stirt enough to stand up under tho brine of a woman's tears. Tho bal-anco bal-anco molt down into a mush of ac-j Quiescence. .Men have dried women's eyes on their honor, on their fortunes, on their self-respect, on their personal liberty And women have cried for the moon, and fool men have risked their nocks trying to got It for them since time began, and the good old graft game still goes on, and suckers are born every minute, as of yore. Mrs. A has social aspirations. She1 wants to give up their old home and , go to live lu a tashlonabb- part of th-town, th-town, and In a style far In excess of their means. She also desires to sot up an automobile. Her husband refuses. re-fuses. He explains to his wife many, many times that they cannot afford It; that ho is .iust getting a good start in business .and needs every cent of his capital Mrs. A can refute none of his arguments, so she takes refuge in tears, and weeps, and weepn, until poor A gives In to her and they start on their career of folly. Tho man knows that it Is bound to end in ruin, but he can't say "no" to the woman he loves when she Is dissolved In woe, and ho has It In his power to make, her happy, even temporarily. All of which Mrs. A knows perfect-1 ly, and basely trades upon Many women use their 111 health i as a bludgeon wdh which to enforce; their tyranny over their families. To' peopb who aro well and strong, nothing noth-ing wrenches at the heart more than the t nought of physical suffering. Therefore, it is the Inclination of the husky to be very tender and pitiful to the sick, and to make all possible allowances and conceeslons to them. The frail and delicate perceive this, and play it up for all it is worth In-j In-j valldism becomes a holdup gamo In wbjch they ruthlessly rob everyone 'about them Of everything they pos-1 pos-1 scss I have known women who kept their husbands terrorized with their nerves ao that the poor men entered their own doors on tiptoes, and never dared vary an lota from tho program Of their wives and laid down for their daily conduct, because If they did assert as-sert the slightest Independence friend wife went into spells of hysteria. I have known women who denied their own children every advantage of education, and dross, and association because they spent every cent of the family income thnt could be spared from the actual living, on hospitals and sanitariums, and every new -laugh d, fake cure. ' I know one woman who kept her family In abject slavery to her for 20 years because of her poor heart. She couldn't do any work. She could nol be agitated, she couldn't be excited because of her poor heart, and then it was found out she didn't have any-trouble any-trouble with her heart after all. The pity that the strong feel for the weak makes them defenseless against tho selfishness of the feeble. They cannot strike ono who is down. They are too brave to fight back, and that Is what makes Invalidism such a paying, if nefarious, profession to follow. It Is to be noted that nearly J all lady invalids get well Immediately Immediate-ly if their husbands die, and their children go off and leave them. Old people openly trade on the reverence rev-erence and respect, the pity that their children and their grandchildren have for age, to enforce their tyrannies on their families, and.get their own v av They hold the threat of their deaths like a hangman's whip over all abo'it them to keop tho poor wretches In order. "Think of all I have done for you. how 1 nourished you In infancy, and cared for you in childhood. It Is your duty now to tuko care of mc In my ld age." "1 shall not live long. When I am gone you will b0 thankful that you made my last days happy." "I am tort old to move. I would be miserable miser-able away from tho old home. I do not like strangers about mo, and I could not bear to bo waited on 1 y hlred hands, so you must stay and take care of mc." How many old people have cruelly, heartlessly wrecked tho lives of thlr; children with these cowardly selfish pleas for their own comfort! Hon many talented boys have had their I parents shut tho door of opportunity In their facs! How many girls have been kept from following love, or fame, by sonic old mother or father ivho liked tho kind of biscuits they made, and was willing to doom them to a barren life in order to get them. Parhapi nono of us are very easy to live with, hut it especially behooves be-hooves those of us who have misfortunes misfor-tunes that uppeal to the sympathy of others, not to take advantage of them to gain our own ends As we arc weak, let us be merciful. |