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Show Dorothy Dix Talks By DOROTHY DIX, the World's Highest Paid 'A omati Write? j I THEY NEVER TAKE A TIP j A rurious Illustration of the f.iot that women never learn anythl j from tho experion-.e of others has recently been given In l-"arls. An editor ed-itor wished to flna out If women had been taught any lesson concerning the danger of answering matrimonial advertisements ad-vertisements by tho fato of the many women who hod answered on.- inserted insert-ed bv a big artist and had been lure I that wsy to their doom. So the editor InaerUd the very same advertisement, word for word. In the same papers thu the bigamist I id used, ind hundreds of wonten answered answer-ed It, yet every' ono of them must havo read th pitiful tale 't their sister women who were hoaxed into a bogus marriage, robbed, and then murdered. That this should be the case will surprise nobody who has made th siightest study of the feminine temperament tem-perament Woman has always snapped snap-ped her fingers In tho face of experience ex-perience and refuse to lt at the fi eft of wisdom. To erect the red lantern of warning before her eyes is to luro her on, Instead of turning her back from a dangerous pathway. Because other women have mot disaster pursuing pur-suing ,i certain course does not de-tor her from attempting It She always believes that she can achieve the Impossible. Im-possible. Especially Is this true in sentimental sentimen-tal matters Abstractly, every woman wom-an knows that are tho extra haaatil- I ous rifts in matrimony. Any girl child Is perfectly aware that a woman wom-an takes her life In her hands if ihc married a man who is a philanderer, a drunkard, or who is lazy and shiftless, shift-less, or surly and grouchy, and stingy stin-gy She also knows that matrimony is far more- likely to Intensify a man'i faults than It is to euro them, and that It IS only in novels that the love of a pure, good woman changes a brute into a domestii angel. On the contrary, she knows that If a man's v. ii sense of manhood doesn't make him run straight, ho woman can turn the trick. She has seen girls marry roues, and Innu In th- divorce court. She has had friends marry drunkards, and she has seen them dragged down to the gutter She hits seen women cower cow-er like Whipped dogs under the abuse of high tempered men she has known girls 0 marry charming ne'er-do-wells and take in boarders1 to support them. But th experience of these ot aer women have taught her nothing when it copies to herself. She goes bllg - -. -ely on, and marries the rounder, Vie alcoholic, the loafer, the tightwad, because she believes that she possesses pos-sesses some magic charm that will work an I nsts ntaneous change in th -man's character, and make him what She wants him to be instead of what he is. There is no living woman wjio doesn't secretly believe that she has Ome hypnotic power that she can exercise over Ik r husband, that will make him Clay In her hands, and the fnet that millions of other women have also thought the same thing about themselves, and failed, doesn't shake her faith in herself one lota. If women were only capable of' Ii irning anything from the experience exper-ience of others, marriage would be like the fairy talo ending "And they i lived happily ever afterwards," in place of the scrapping match It so often of-ten Is In real life. For the women who have sailed the dangerous sea of wedlock have charted chart-ed It and erected lighthouses, and I beacon towers along it.s most danger-OUS danger-OUS reefs, and oyer its sunken shoals, but they try vainly to pilot the young, bride, making hep first voyage, out j Into the safo channel. She scorns their advice, and wants none of their knowledge. In reality, she does know the dangers dang-ers of which they would warn he She could tell y ou that behind the A -divorce was Mrs. A's extravagance; that Mrs. B simply drove Mr. B into hunting up ah affinity bj hei - i g glnj?; that Mr. C really wand" ! ; away in search of something fH to eat. and a comfortable place in which I to read his paper, for Mrs ' kept I her house like a pig sty, and her i I would have killed a cat. and I i Mr r paed the way for any vamp' tho might come along hy 'alwayt looking so frowsy and untidy. But does the wreckage of all of theso little painted boats that were named "Mary." and "Sally." and "Carrie." and that started forth so avlV. .ind that wash In ttioVi fnt. sam and Jetsam of broken heart i an I blasted hopes, teach her to steer a wary course? Very seldom. These other women may have lost u r husbands through nagging, and petty pet-ty tyranny, through wastefulness, ihd Slothfulness, and extravagance through their lack of personal attraction, attrac-tion, by their tempers and nerves, and lack of self-control, but she fecU suie that no such fate will befa'l her. She Is certain that she possesses a fascination -for her husband that nothing noth-ing she can do will ever break, and that he will go on loving her, and admiring her, no matter whether she is lovable, or admirable or not. As the phrase X' -. die is c- n nn -he- can get away with murder and n .t be caught. Of course, matrimonial history repeats re-peats Itself, and the woman who won i learn from tho experience of ethers, adds one mo' i warning to women about the danger of not turning out a good job as a wife, and not looking look-ing out after i husband If on 1 doesn't want him stolen. But her experiences experi-ences also teaches nothing, so tar ;.s her sisters are concerned. And so It go.-s ill through life Women Wo-men see other ivomen spoiling thel children, rearing up undisdpline 1 som and daughters who will bring their gray hairs iu on iw to the grata; women who are bringing ruin or. thoi:-husbapds thoi:-husbapds by trying to keep up with people belle; n't than themselves, and bcllee that they can somehow escae the conseuuenees of their own folly. They never do. but perhaps it is only this sublime egotism and Ignorance Ignor-ance that glv.s women the courage-to courage-to live. |