OCR Text |
Show j Dorothy Dix Talks By DOROTHY DIX, the World's Highest Paid Woman Writer I HUSBAND HUNTING I got. a great man letters from women, who are sitting on tho anxious bench of the late thirties and early fortlep, asking my opinion as to the advisability of securing a husband answering an-swering tho advertisements In loma matrimonnla! paper of a man who says that he Is handsome, wealthy and has a kind disposition, but Is lonely and I desires a congenial malo. I never know whether to laugh or cry over these letters. It is so ridiculous ridic-ulous to think that anyone Is credu lous enough, and unsophisticated enough, not to realize that any man who is fit to marry, does not have to waste any money on ad ertlslui.- tor a wife There are too many ho could get for the asking And it Is so piti- ful to think that any woman so longs i for a husband and home of her own, that she Is willing to shut her eyes, and grab one In the dark Heaven knows a woman takes enough risks when she marries a man whose antecedents eho knows and whose peculiarities of character and indisposition she has studied. This being the case, we tan only marvel at the foolhardlneas of one who takes for bettor or worse, a gentleimin she never saw before she met him at the altar, and whom she recognizes by bis! I 1 I kU l,ll,m i weariuK a rcu caiuihiuu iu inn uuvtw hole as tho Romeo of the Matrimonial Gazette. Of course all such mnrriages almost Invariably turn out disastrously for the woman. She hasn't men a sporting sport-ing chance at happlnepr. in such a union, yet women who are old enough aond Intelligent euough to know better bet-ter seriously consider advertising for a husband, when they can get one no other way. Nowhere else Is society more lnjust and Illogical than In Its attitude to wards the husband hunter Nature made matrimony woman's foreordain ed business in life, and all the teachings teach-ings of all the centuries hn e Impressed Im-pressed on the feminine mind that a woman finds her greatest career, her truest happiness, nnd her sweetest re ward In the holy estate. The verv toys that are given to girl babies, the dolls, the miniature tables and dishes and chairs are intended to turn their youthful youth-ful fancies towards the babies and real furniture they are taught to look forward for-ward to having some day in homes of their own Having thus made marriage the aim and ambition of a woman's life we QOl only forbid her to go and get a thine;, she wants, but we are shocked and horrified when she even admits that she desires it. We think it natural and even commendable, when a mid die aged man says that he is lonesome, lone-some, and tired of living in hotels and clubs, and that he wants to marry and set up a homo of his own, and that he is looking around for a puitabh-wife. puitabh-wife. But la, la. when a middle aged woman Bays (hat she is lonely and tired of being by herself and that she would like to have some man to cook for and fuss over, we mock and rid lcule ber All that the woman who wants to marry can do is to sit around and look willing, which In many cases doesn't get her anywhere, for men are pur blind creatures who are very apt to o Hook the best matrimonial bets. When a woman Is young and pretty and striking looking she may catch some roving masculine eye and find ravof In It, but it is purely a matter of luck, for no human being CD0W8 what Quality It Is that makes B man take to some particular woman. Even holy writ sets down tho way of a man with a maid as one of the unsolvable mysteries of existence. Now one of the things that every woman knows le that ir women were permitted by custom to do their husband hus-band hunting openly, instead of by stealth, there would bo not only a great many mere marriages, but happier hap-pier ones.' For women are wiser In matters of tho heart than nn-n arc, and many a woman knows that she would make exactly the sort of wife that n certain man needs, and thai he and she would be perfectly happy to-gother, to-gother, If he only had sense enough to marry her. Hut ho hasn't. Ho never notices her. Ho never gets really acquainted with her She Just passes, as one In a crowd, across lilt horizon, and our idiotic conventions do not permit her to go up to him and say, "You poor simp, don't you see I'm Just the wife you need? Come with me to the par-; par-; son. and we will live happllv eevr aft- ler" I Why, when wo say that propinquity i is a great match maker, we merely i mean that circumstances have given ! sonic woman her chunce to put herself on tho map for some particular man ( The reason that so many widowers i marry their first wife's relatlvo, or her best friend is because the women sold themselves to them, as tie commercial phrase goes, and they knew just how charming and lovely the ladies were It will take at least two generations genera-tions more before women achieve the woman's greatest right a right which Is of far more Importance to them 'than the right to vote, and that is tho privilege of popping the question In 'he meantime they must still do their husband hunting on the sly, and so !to the middle aged woman who wants I to marry, I would give this piece of Remember that with men, familiar i ity breeds indifference. The men in any community can look at a woman until she becomes as familiar as a lamp post, and creates no more thrill, j or Interest in their bosoms. Therefore, I remove yourself nonce Get you some good clothes and 6eek some place where you will bo a novelty and, there-lore, there-lore, Interesting. If you can once arrest ar-rest a man's attention, the remainder Is up to you There is no use in beating around tho same old bush, year after year, v. here every bird knows your tactics. Seek fresher fields and gieenor pas I lures. . And good hunting to you. |