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Show ! Dorothy Dix Talks WHICH HAS THE GREATER INFLUENCE? Bv DOROTHY DIX, the World's Highest Paid Wotnan Writer ' According to rcporte from Russia, women wom-en there are held responsible for tho acts of their men, and wives are being thrown Into prison and even executed because of their huhUnnds' political fnlth. This Is playing up the old theory of the woman behind the door of every man's life, with a rengtmnee but it probably prob-ably has as little- foundation u- the k- n eral tradition thui mon Is a puppet who moves this way or that, as ;-omo feminine femi-nine hand pulls the Btrlng And that has alwuys been a polite fiction. Of course. Adam start, d it with his The woman Thou gavest me. she did persuade mo " stuff and It proved such a good alibi for whatever man wants to do and leave undone, that he has pushed It for all It was worth ever since. The man who succeeds and the one who tails, th -one who runs straight und He- on-- who goes crooked, the strong men nnd the weak one. each ("belters himself behind a pcttlront. and says "the woman did It" But it Isn't true. All that . woman can do for a man, cither of good or evil, is to be an accelerator. She can hurry Ids speed up or down grade, but she can't . u him going. For man Is a self starter. . , As a matter of fact, mnn s Influence over woman if a million times cren.-r thou woman's Influence Over mnn. and If men would take the trouble to study women as women study thorn, and to USB I this expert knowledge In working thi m, as women use theirs In working them, they rould truly mould tho fpnlnlne sex individually as well us COilet UVi Ij 10 theil heat t s desire. it is curious to not.-, in thU i onnei tion over man, and how ennobling It Is, mairil Influ. -in c ov. i woman Is not onl greater, but far more elevating than hers over him. For woman has never been able to raise man to any high moral level, but that While We prate of Wom.,li' I lit luetic lie has set her feet in the straight .1 ml narrow way. und kep them there Probably there ure Just BS many women with a taste tor llguur and a pr.-dib tion for dallying? atom; the primrose path as there uro men. but man's Influence over woman has been great enough to keep women as u se.. sober and virtuous. Broadly speaking, every woman's life is spent In trying to please men.- She-dresses She-dresses to try to catch the masculine eye. Becauae men are supposed to admire curly locks, millions of women sleep with their h.ilr don., up In steel knobs that ronder rest Impossible. Because no man loves a fat woman, thousands upon thou sands of women starve themselves, and put themselves thtough torturing exercises. exer-cises. Because lie Ii 'lie pre. nine. I to fancy little feet, the whole feminine sex hobbles mound in agony In shoes two siz.-s too small for them, and on Ja bird heels that make every step discount th.-sufferings th.-sufferings of the early Christian martyrs. No woman's Infldenco over man is great enough to make him risk pneumonia pneu-monia by the way he dresser, or even j deny himself a single thing that he likes to I it. In order that he may present a pulchrltudinous appearance to her, and find favor with ner. Such Influence na the individual worn an may have over the individual man. sh. attains by long and patient study of his character By means of that, a few women find out the combination that works their husbands, but you seldom find a husband who thinks it worth while to take the trouble lo study his wif-and wif-and ascertain how to Influence her to. do things he wishes her to do. . When you do find luch u man. you ob-terve ob-terve that his dominance is complete His wife is as wax In his hands, and she lives, and breathes, and has her being through him. and would consider It al moft sncrillgious to have a tbought oi opinion of her own. Men have mad- women what the wanted want-ed them lo be. Womc n have even been chameleon enough to change to meet the need of the passing1 hour with men. as We all witnessed In tile great war. when, at a moment's notice, -iris who appeared I to be nothing but silly, useless, painted butterflies became stern heroines, as fit to fight with men as they hnd been to la ore with men But women have no such power over linen. When a woman influences u man. It Is along the lines he was alreudy going. She seldom changes his course by a hair's brcudth. An evil woman ran drag s weak man down, be.-ause he Just naturally follows the line of least resistance. She can turn him into a thief and a greiter. She can kill his ambition and makehlrn a loafer and a tramp, but the boat woman in the world cannot change a crook into nn hon-. hon-. si man. nor can she supply a spineless man with a backbone The most cruel He In the world Is the fiction about the power of Woman's Influence In-fluence over man. It has wrecked the happiness of untold numbers of generous hearted women, who had been taught to believe that they could take any sort of - I i of a man and make him over Into flue porcelain that would bo a fit vessel to hold the Incense of their love. It has made ambitious girls marry n r do-wells under the Illusion that they Infuse ihelr own energy Into them. It has made pious Women marry drunkards, iiul roues and gamblers, under the falu ous faith that all they needed was a if. 's sacred Influence to make them lead the higher Ufa And they found that a woman's Influence Influ-ence only helps the man to do the thing he was going to do anyway. It he Is ambitious it speeds him up, hut it doesn't Inspire the lazy man with the desire to yvork. If he Is sober and uprlg-ht It keep him that way, but it doesn't prevent pre-vent the drunkard from thirsting for a highball, nor the philanderer from chasing chas-ing a petticoat, nor take away the lure of chance from the gambler. For the thing a man yvlll not do for the sake oi his monhood. he never does for a woman.' 1 ndenlably the two sexes have great influence ov.-i- each other, but man's In fluence Is far greater over woman than yvoman's over man. |
