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Show """ i Tnv WMVLVj.ni.n.nnn-.-.w. juu'ill'. ... I j Dorothy Dix Talks By DOROTHY DIX. the World's Highest Paid Woman Writer I THE GOOD OLD SUMMERJTTME I wonder whnt it Is in hot weather-that weather-that melts dou our morals, and makes ua do things ln July and Au-I gUBt that we would be horrified at doing In December and January. It is not alone that when we take our vacations we parade amund in costumes that the police would arrest us for wearing in public at other times of the year, we also we-ar our manners and our morals nepllgee. Wo appear 10 discard our sense of duty and pro Priety along with our straight front, and stiff collars, and the other conen-"ional conen-"ional things that hold and bind us Not without reason Is the summer called th silly season, for In it many of us do the fool things that we spend 'he remainder of the year repenting There's the summer widower, for instance. In reality, he is a good citizen. citi-zen. Ho is honebt and upright, and kindly, and generous, and a hustler in business, aIKi ),e js strong for doing his duty in life. Moreover, ho is a thoroughly 'well trained, house-broken husband, who punches the home time clock with praiseworthy regularity nin' months of the year, and who thinks he has got the finest wife, and the most remarkable children, in the world He'd sue yon for libel if yon would so much as hint that he would ever fall for any vamp stuff, or 6TOT gt in volved in an sordid affair with a woman. Noae of this Lothario business busi-ness for him. Not much. But summer comes The wife Is away for three or four months with the children, and it is pretty dreary sticking arouDd home by himself, and he Jumps p.t the invitation when somebody some-body asks him to a gay little party. The women are not the tort to whom he would introduce his wife, bu he has a rattling good time. And one jolly pari- leads on to another. There Is a hectic month or two in which then- is lots of booze and poker and Joyrldes and road houses and toddling .md Bhtmmj lug And there ls one particular girl. Wonderful eyes. And, so cute. She knows he Is married and has a family. fam-ily. There is no harm he thinks In a little summer flirtation, end it certainly cer-tainly does make a man eel young again, to find out he can still make a hit with the women, and hasn't got- i t.n mtav (,n hia line of love talk No harm at all. And it will all end when j ihe wife conies home. Just a summer flirtation A man watches his step in the winter, but In the summer he feels that he has the, right to let his feet stray a little. But the trouble is that when sum-1 mer ends us consequences don't end, and many a man has to reap in No-I vember ; bine oats he sowed ln -une. Sometimes. It Isn't one of the predatory pred-atory women with whom a man chums up when his wite is away. It Is a good ! girl. Perhaps one of his employes j Perhaps a waitress at some little res- durant when- ho get his lunch She j is pretty and fresh, aud she hasn't had much pleasure jn her hard life, and I she enjoys things ilke a child, and he gets iu the way of taking her about With him. And ho seems like a prince to her, and when ihe time comes to say goodbye to the summer girl he finds out to his consternation that she has fallen ln love with him. And the man didn't mean to get hurt himself, or to hurt anybody elte. and he is staggered by the bill with fate that he has been fool enough to run up just because it was summer time Women are not wiser, or more prudent pru-dent Every summer resort buzzes with scandal because the wonieu who are models of propriety at homo in winter, kick over the traces when they are abroad ln the dog days. Mothers let their children run wild wlnle they spoon with some callow youth. ;voung enough lo be their sou although they well know that by so doing they are throwing their repu- . tation to the hotel veranda cats to' tear to piece, for at a summer resort DO woman with a daughter ever for gives a man.' J woman lor grabbing! off a man In the summer, women play bridge for stakes th: I would make their hair i Stand on end with horror in the winter, win-ter, and run up glambllng debts that they have to pawn their Jewelry to pay, and lio to their husbands about when they get home And In particular, ln summer, women wo-men babble with drunken lrre?ponl-I lrre?ponl-I billty. snd tell the things they should have their tongues cut out for re I peatlng Thes don't know why themselves, them-selves, but Just because It is twilight ' or bedtime, and a woman finds herself her-self sitting by some sympathetic wo-i wo-i man who Is a good listener. Bh will i tell to a perfect stranger, family i I crets that disgrace those nearest and I dearest to her. and confides the story I of her own life, and things about her 'husband that he would rather die than I have known Many a woman lies awake winter nights remembering the things she i told iu the summer, and praying the . gods that the woman she confided in I has a short memory', or doesn't know I anyone in her home town. if grown men and women with - knowledge of the world and ezper ice ' ot life, pack away, their discretion .n moth balls with their winter overcoat.s ! and furs, who shall blame the young I for the follle.s they commit ln summer' sum-mer' Who shall wonder at dl B j girls picking up chance acquaintances, i or having love affairs with men o; j whom they know nothing, and who turn out to be unreformed Jail birds" Who shall marvel that nice girls are I silly enough to let themselves be snapshotted snap-shotted In sentimental attitudes that meant nothing on a lark, hut look compromising when viewed in the old i light of a winter's day? Or that they 'write love notes that papa pas lo buy back at a high price? Perhaps the great refrain of the ' song of summer Is "Why Did 1 Do It, Why Did 1 Do It?" Nobodj know j the answer but the warning is uumls-: uumls-: takable. Oon't do a thing in summer that j you will be ashamed to remember in winter. oo |