OCR Text |
Show j Dorothy Dix Talks I THE NEW GIRL I Hv DOROTHY DIX. the World's Highlit Paid Woman Writer A very rich man, Who. beginning ssiih the proverbial shoestring, has converted It Into a cable that reaches around the world, said to me tin other day. "I: used to be the prodigal sons who turned their parents hair gras with ssor-ry. ssor-ry. In these limes It's the strenuous daughters Who keep us awakfl al nlghl. wondering hoi. sm an going -lo Kei-p them at home. "Take mj case, '"i exauipla I have Jiisi ons chick in the world, and all these years that l have been tolling, and inoll-lnsi inoll-lnsi and laying up money, the chief thing thai i thought about was that ( was going to in able to pad her life ss-itn iu.t- urs , an. i tnal sne would never nave to svork am her mother, and I hail to lo when sve were soung. well, ise given that I girl mones. and motors, and fine houses and fine cioiiies; everything she wants, except the thing she wants most of all.) "And that's work She hates society. 'Ing to parties arid dancing bores her' stiff. She even Idbks on marriage as j a man does an accident that Is liable to happen to sou If you urea l lareful and j don'l Watch your step, bill that sou needn't be foolhardy enough to ruslt liito. I "No What Beits clamors for Is ssork. She demands that I take her Into my office, or set her up in business just as I H'.uld do If she bad been a boy instead of a girl, and I don't know what to do abOut ti H break her mother and me 1 all up. cspcclalls her mother, ssho had looketl forward to having u pretty daughter daugh-ter to dress up and shOW off. somebodv I svho would 'ake a real heart interest In hopping sslth her. and have romantic I confidences to whisper to her. and who would be embroidering doodads for her hope-chest. "And here's a -soung person who says frankly that if she thought she bait to spent! the bulance of her life trotting around to teas ami conversing with the I feeble-minded w ho frequent such places; , she ssoiild commit suicide at once, because be-cause she prefers a ssvlft. short agony i to the sfoss torture of being bored lo : death Here's a girl who prefers read- ing that Stock market lo Robert Cham-1 ' beirs, and who envies the girl who lias i , got. u Job more than the one who Is go-lag go-lag to marry a millionaire who has gives I her a hundred thousand dollar pearl neck-j neck-j lace. , "It's ridiculous for a girl, situated like . ins 'laughter is. to go to work. Vet svhat ram 1 going to do about It?' I I "J, do not believe any girl should work QUteids. of her home unless It is absolute-j absolute-j fy necessary." -aid another man. "A i svomun's place Is ln the home." "Just svhat I think." said the first man. "Why can't girls be satisfied to go' around and base a good time, and dress' themselves up. and look forward to getting get-ting married, as their mothers did1 What . ' Is the trouble with girls anvwav"'" "Weil," i replied, "the chief trouble! with our girl is that she is her father's) I daughter, and thai she has Inherited your keen brain, sour energv and drising i j power, sour sision. and executive ability1 ami thai all the qualities that have made i you a success, and thst you have had BUCh ly 'n wdag. are clamoring for ex-. I press! on In her. You wouldn't bitch aj seventy-five horse power. motor to a five flea job. and that's ssbut Letts thinks she is doing ss hen ou ask her to use I that great intelligence of hers on piffling little thlrgs like picking ou chlffcjns. and talking to Jells bean .souths. "Suppose you hgd nothing in the world to do or to think about t t.-pt dressing yourself up, and buying clothes, ami going go-ing from one party to another, where sou met the same set of aimless. Inane 1 people, who repeated over antl over and 1 over again the Maine bromldlc remarks. J ss-oiir1n'l sou go crazy With 'lie dullness and monotony of It all? Wouldn't you jbiiilt it a pn.tts poor way to spend your flHJ "Never to have stood alone, never to HH have tested your strength, never 10 have bad aus thing that wasn't given to you. Bfla never to have done anllilng thar wasn't flflj really worth svhlle. or to have had any ! Interest thai wasn't a mnnufactured In- flfll never to have pitted your wit and flfll Shrewdness against other people's and ..---flj won out If you had missed all of that. svouldn'l sou have mlrcd most of the Hjfl fun In I ' BBBBsfll ' "f course I would, but I am a man said Hetty's father ' gaflfll "When a woman has a man s brains. ' , I she feels Just as a man feels," I respond- Hfll I cil. ' and she got the same cosmic urge HHbbI to use her power as be has. The troubb flflj Is svlth nature thai makes girls Inherit HHJ from tin-n fathers and bos from their mother. That's why so many bit HHJ strong men. the men svho do things. ha - , flfl i etv . I. lighters nnd dull sons." ' flflj "Girls Woven I alsvass restless like the- flflj are now. They used to be satisfied to r flHJ stay at home, if you would give them i HHJ enough finery." said tbeset-ond man. ' HHJ There must always have been a BHJ tain number of women, strong of mint) HH and body, svho longed for a wider and flHJ a freer life, anil bigger opportunities than flHJ they 'Mild find in the small circles In .HHJ which they lived, but tbey had to remain flHJ In them because there were no doors to ! LH their ages." I said "The .s oung girl ! flHJ of today Isn't confined to any cage. The HflJ wide world Is hers, and she can go as H i far In if. as her strength will take her fl "We've got to realize that we've sc HH a new girl and she Is the problem of our flf timet 81 S's no more like her mother than SS if they belonged to a dlfferen' LflH 1 species She doesn't think as mother flflj thought at her age. .nor have mother's flflj hopes antl aspirations. She's far more BHJ 'like lather than she is. like mother, and flHJ so she becomes father's problem more flflj 'nan mother's.' H Well, ssbat are sve going to do about H , it?" the man asked. 1 rHsBBsl "Give her her head." I answered, "but IflHJ I keep a steady rein over her." |