Dear Dorothy Dix

"The best approach to a problem," says Muriel Agnelli, a matronly, grey-haired lady in her late 40s, "is lots of common sense, a little less cynicism and a little more faith. Where children are concerned, we need a little more discipline and a little less indulgence." Mrs. Agnelli had better be right. On that homey recipe she has become a No. 1 newspaper counselor, and mother confessor to millions of U.S. newspaper readers. Last week Bell Syndicate let out a well-kept secret: Mrs. Agnelli is the new "Dorothy Dix." She is also the wife of the syndicate's general manager, Joseph Agnelli. She has been writing the column for more than a year, helping out ailing Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer, the original Dorothy Dix. When Mrs. Gilmer died last December at 90, Muriel Agnelli took over title to the column in fee simple.

In about 160 papers she is still Dorothy Dix, but in 20 others the column now appears under her maiden name, Muriel Nissen. The old-school, no-nonsense advice is the same mixture as before. Recently, "A.L." wrote: "My husband and I are both in our fifties ... get along very well except that he doesn't like the radio. When he comes home from work he has dinner, then settles down to read for the evening . . . never takes me any place, we have no company and I am really very lonely." Columnist Agnelli's advice: "Be thankful for a happy, contented and settled husband, and don't yearn for the moon."

20 Hours a Day. In private, Mrs. Agnelli herself has solved a problem that often plagues her readers: how to keep a home and a job at the same time. She does it by working as long as 20 hours a day. Born in Manhattan, she went to Hunter College and studied journalism and psychology at Columbia. After marrying in 1929, she got a job editing Bell Syndicate's four-page tabloid for children called the "Sunshine Club." Later, she helped write an advice feature and did a turn as stamp columnist before becoming Dorothy Dix.

Now a Long Island housewife with three sons (21, 19, 14), she does all her own cooking, still finds time for outside activities, such as being president of the Rosary Society of St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church of St. Albans. She gets up in the morning at 6:15, fixes breakfast, then tackles her pile of mail (800 letters a week). Four days a week she reads letters, dictates answers to two high-school girl helpers and sends pamphlets to advice seekers.

She spends two more days writing her columns in batches of six. Most of her editing is cutting, since "people don't seem to write briefly about their troubles." She leaves housework to a maid, but by late afternoon, she starts cooking dinner. Her husband never makes suggestions for the column, "is happy as long as the house and family come first."

Catch a Beau. A good third of her mail comes from teen-age girls, many asking how to catch a beau. ("The three great boy-catching qualities a girl can possess are: Femininity, Amiability, and Enthusiasm.") For those who want more elaborate answers she has a shelf full of pamphlets ("Mothers-in-Law," "Philandering," "Are You Sure It's Love?", etc.). To those who want her to broaden her interests and run a matrimonial bureau on the side she gives a sympathetic but firm no, has never been able to figure out why my most intelligent mail seems to come from Philadelphia."

For first-hand advice she often goes to her sons. She is seldom asked for any in return. "But they get it anyway. They can't escape."

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