Dorothy Dandridge

Yet, for their personal happiness, marriage is far more important to them, far more vital, than business. The average man who is happily married is happier by far than the genius who lives in solitude. Turgenev, the great Russian novelist, was acclaimed all over the civilized world. Yet he said: "I would give up all my genius, and all my books, if there were only some woman, somewhere, who cared whether or not I came home late for dinner." What are the chances of happiness in marriage anyway? Dorothy Dix, as we have already said, believes that more than half of them are failures; but Dr Paul Popenoe thinks otherwise. He says: "A man has a better chance of succeeding in marriage than in any other enterprise he may go into. Of all the men that go into the grocery business, 70 per cent fail. Of the men and women who enter matrimony, 70 per cent succeed." Dorothy Dix sums the whole thing up like this: "Compared with marriage," she says, "being born is a mere episode in our careers, and dying a trivial incident. "No woman can ever understand why a man doesn't put forth the same effort to make his home a going concern as he does to make his business or profession a success. "But, although to have a contented wife and a peaceful and happy home means more to a man than to make a million dollars, not one man in a hundred ever gives any real serious thought or makes any honest effort to make his marriage a success ...»