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Show Dorothy Dix Talks I j By DOROTHY DIX, the World's Highest Paid Woman Writer !j USE YOUR THINKER J I Isn t it queer how many people as-, sume that Just to say "I didn't think Is a blanket excuse that covers every possible sin of omission and commis-, slon7 "I didn't think. I didn't think." Is the futile excuse they make for breaking break-ing your heart, and wrecking your, pocket, and tunilug life Into cinders, ashes and dusl for you I never hear anyone whine out this confession of Imbecility without being reminded of an old colored friend of mine who. when her children would try to excuse themselves by saying that they didn'' think would wruthfully exclaim: 'You didn't think, you dldn'l ihink If you've got a thinker WUk It-" j So say we all. If you've got a thinker. vv.;rk it If you have a mind Use i' Nobody but a congenital idiot can Justify himself or herself by saying. say-ing. "I didn't think" Not to think U a ooUfeasJoD of sloth and selfishness. selfish-ness. If you don I think about what you do anil say will affect those about vou. It is because you are too lazy to take the trouble to study their llitle peoularittea, and remember their family histories, and you are too self-centered self-centered to really consider anybody else but yourself For my part. 1 would rather be a subtle villain pursuing a nefarious plan in tnjurylng my fellow creatures .1 ..r Va . .: l.lomli rini: llltfll UUC Ul Ul .-iu.u dolls who wound people to the quick Without intending it because he lack! the energy to use a few brain cells "I didn't think" "I didn't think" "1 didn't think " Listen to the chorus ol a feeble-minced and you will hear the wall of the woe of the universe In it. "1 didn't think it us loaded." say.; the murderer who has pointed what he thought was an empty gun at his best friend and slain him. Does that bring the dead back to life again? Does It console his weeping mother, or give back a husband and father to those ho has left desolate' What right ha6 anyone who has Intelligence! I enough to go about without a keeper I not to know what he is dola?: "I didn't think." says the blunderer i I who Insists on telling a -Bcreamlnsh funny story about a deiorrhed man to j a hunchback or a cripple, or who dls- courses about defaulter lo a woman : ,. v.,c ami hut nhrti onded with a trust 1 fund, or who rallies old maids about j not beins married, and elderly women about their birthdays. You know the 6ori of people who. as an Irishman might say. never open their mouths without putting their feet in It, and who In any mixed com pany can always be relied upon to rattle all ihe skeletons in every closet They never meet you that tbey tlon'l hurt and humiliate vou, and leave you feeling whnt a rotten old place the world is. Yet 'heir crime against you is not j of Intention. They are noi dellbately insulting vou They are Just too lazv to work their thinkers. Moat of the trouble In domestic life is caused by want of thought and not by want of heart When the average young couple get married they intend to make each other happy and their tnarrlHge a BOCCOM The trouble with them I that when thej settle down into tho jog rtoi ot every da family life they cease to think about making things pleasant tor etirh other They forget to extendi to each other the little courtesies to show each other the little attentions. io manifest the appreciation that turns marriage from a dreary grind to a picnic man really loves his wife He It filled with gTatitude. and admiration as h- realises thn depth of her loyalt and devotion to him, abd watches how bravely and wisely she meets every vicissitude of life He thinks she Is the wonder of tho world and ho blessee heaven for having bestowed bsi UpOD him but he lets her slsrve to death for lack of n word of lovo a,ud appreclatlou just because he doesn't think to say It. A woman adores her husband She would bo cut into mincemeat to help him. but she ruins him with her extravagance ex-travagance or she uags him Into the Rfave just because she doesn't think what efieii her senseless spending or fternal whining and lorrplslning ha upon hlra The people who do not think mak-nine-tenths of the work of a house hold Somebody is forever getting extra meals for those who do not come in time for dinner; somebody Is picking up papers, and hanging up clothes and sweeping up cigarette stubs and putting books back in then places for those who do not think. Half the tombstones that are erected over the graves of mothers might hav engraved on them "Murdered by her i hlldren who did not think." Biost of us have better hearts than we have heads. We do not mean tc be unkind We are just stupid, attd full of apprehension We don't think when we should think, but oh, what an appalling record our lack ol thought rolls up against us. The helping hand we might bav held out to save some sfruggler from M B drowning in the sea of misfortune; the letter of condolence thst woull have brought comfort, that we might have written; the need of pral6e we might have given; the word of tea- ,H derness and love that would hav. H made 8 sad heart sing for Joy. H And "iir onl excuse for not ha 'II H lug made the world a bettor and a H brighter place is "I didn't think" the H im'um' "i an imbecile and a fool of- (ill fered by an intelligent human being. H Funnv isn't It? And pitiful . |
