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Show j Dorothy Dix Talks j By DOKOTIIY DIX, the World's Highest Paid Woman Writer j KEEPING A WIFE AJ J A man writes me a letter in which he asks mo how to keep his wife at homo. Ho says she Is a gadabout who is forever bargain hunting, or going to matinees, or picture shows, or women's wom-en's dubs, or tea-s, instead of staying I put by her own gas ranee. Furthermore, he avows that his ideal wife la the woman In the home, not a woman who is running around tho streets. So It is with most men. brother. Tho old harem idea dies hard in tho masculine mas-culine breast. Half tho men we know would keep their wives under lock and key if they dared. Not because, they arc- afraid of what the ladies are liable to do. but because they havo an inherited in-herited notion that women should apend their time behind closed doors, und they like to know where they can put t heir lingers on their spouses at every minute of the day. There isn't one man in a, thousand who does not feel aggrieved if his wife isn't at home, ready to Jump to tho telephone whenever be happens to re-m-mb'-r to call b r up. nor Is there one man In a million who doesn't feel thut he is n persecuted martyr if his who lsn t at home to greet him with a glad, sweet smile when he returns at night. This superstition that tho closer a woman sticks to her own fireside the better wife she Ls, and the more she her duty, is responsible for a lot of domestic discontent. To begin with, it makes a woman hate her job to be always on it. You cannot do anything any-thing In the world, every day, and all day long, throe hundre d unci sixty-five j days a year, without coming to loatho It, and the reason that so many women wom-en are sucji poor bousokcopcrs, and miserable cooks, is because they arc-so arc-so fed up on eternal home making that th. y look upon their homes as nothing but jails in which they are doomed to serve a life sentence at hard labor. For onother thing, the woman who slays at home all the time gets as nar- row as the four walls behind which !she spends her life She reduces tho Whole world down to her little family circle, ind. having nothing else lo 'think about, she concentrates her very idea and actlvlt) upon her husband .and children until she becomes the I most grinding of petty tyrants. There i- no other nagger eiiual to the woman who Is what is called a home-body. Worse than all. tho woman who al-ways al-ways stays at home becomes unbearably unbear-ably dull and stupid. Her conversational conversa-tional range Is limited by the kitchen and the nursery and she bores you to death telling you minute details of her troubles with the children, and I her servants, for homo keeping wivi3 have ever homely wits. Ilaviir; a pas-vie intere st in life, she makes mountains out of molehills, and e. ni t ally loses her perspective on things. This is Inevitable, uh the only wa to get a philosophical slant on our own troubles is to be nble to see how much worse other people's are, and this the woman cannot do who slays shut up In her own two-by-four flti or bungalow. It Is well to remember that the men who have been strongest for the keeping-women - in - the - homo idea have always had to havo a largo as-sortment as-sortment of wives to get enough variety var-iety to keep them interested. No one home-staying wife could do It, that explains why In this country, where polygamy ls unfashionable the more tho wife stays at home, the less apt , the husband is to stay with her. j You remember in one of Shaw's witty plays how horrified the bishop's wife Is because when Mrs. George, who is of a roving nature returns from her periodic adventures into the great world, Mr. (Jeorge always takes her back, and the George family explains their attitude towards her by saying, ' Well, you know, when she gets back she is always so entertaining to listen to." There ls wisdom In thot. Much is 'to be forgiven those with whom we live In dally companionship if only they have something new to tell us, something interesting to talk about, for It ls the dullness, the sameness, tho eternal harping on one string that makes tho average home life such an appalling thing, and marriage an endurance en-durance test. Better ls a dinner out of paper bags. 'and tin cans, with a woman who has heard a new lecture and Is brimming over with fresh Ideas, or who has soon a new play that has thrilled her to the marrow of her bones, and who has picked up half a dozen funny little stories of things she sjiw on the street, than n banquet with f wlfo who stows over her kitchen stove day after day, and who flavors the meal with querulous queru-lous complaints, and reminds her husband hus-band for lh" millionth time of some mistake he has made In the past, and who monologues along about the price of butcher's meat, ana repeats tho .dreary gossip of the neighborhood that ls an everlasting rehash of the jsame petty scandal. If men realized how mucfri more ! agreeable women are to live with i when they havo plenty of change, they would urge their wives not to miss a bargain sale, or to fail lo take In a picture show. Instead of berating them , for doing so Of course, there ls danger dan-ger of women overdoing It, nnd gadding gad-ding too much, but better that than aing at home too much. Uke Mrs ' orge .those w ho CO have oi lething interesting to talk about w hen they get back. oo . |