The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1864-09-02
The Art of Wife Preserving.


A woman must make herself obvi-
GUS to her husband, or he will drift out
beyond the horizon She will be to
him very nearly what she wills and
works to be- Unless she adapts her
self to her husband, he viii fall into
the arrangement, and the two Will fall
apart l do not mean that they will
quarrel, but they will lead separate
lives. They will be no longer husband
and wife. There will be domestic
alliance but no marriage. 4 predomi-
nant interest in the same subject binds
them together after a fashion; but
marriage is something beyond that. If
a woman wishes and purposes to be
the friend of her husband--if she
would be valuable to him, not simply
as the nurse of his Children and the
directress of his household, but as
woman, fresh and fair, and fascinating,
to him intrinsically lovely and attrac-
tive, she should make an effort for it.
1t isnot by any means thing that comes
of itself, or that can be left to itself.
She must read, and observe, and think,
and reach up to it. Men, as a general
thing, VIII not tell you so They talk
about having the slippers ready, aud
enjoin woman to be domestic. But
men are blockheads-dea and aflec-
Tomato, and generous blockheads be-
neyolent, .large-hearted and chiyalrous
kind, and patient and Woodworking,
but stupid where women are concerned.
indispensable and delightful as they
are in real life, pleasant and comforta-
bic us women generally find them, not
one in ten thousand but makes "a
Ounce Of himself the moment he opens
his mouth to theorize about women.
Besides, they have an axe to grind.
The pretty things they inculcate slip
pers, and coffee, and care, and courte-
sy ought indeed to be done, but others
ought not to be left undone, And to
the former women seldom need to be
eXhorted. They take to them natu-
rally. A great many more women fol-
low poorish husbands with fond little
attentions than wound appreciatiye
ones by neglect Women domesticate
themselves TO death already. What
they want is cultivation. They need
to be stimulated to develop a large,
comprehensive, catholic life, in which
their domestic duties shall have an APP
propriate niche. and not dwindle down
to a narrow and seryile one over which
those duties shall spread and occupy
the whole space.
There are women less foolish. They
see their husbands attracted in other
directions more easily than in theirs.
They have too much sterling worth
and profound faith to be yulgally jeal-
GUS. They fear nothing like shame or
crime; bnt they feel the fact that their
own pre-occupation with homely house
hold duties precludes real companion
ship, the interchange of emotions,
thoughts, sentiments, living, palpa-
BILE and vivid contact of mind with
mind, of heart with heart. They see
others whose leisure ministers to grace,
accomplishments, piquancy, and attrac-
tiveness, and the moth flies toward the
light by his own nature. Because he
is a wise, and virtuous and honorable
moth, he does not dart into the flame
He does not even scorch his wings.
He never thinks of such a thing. He
merely circles round the pleasant light,
summing himself in it without much
thought one way or another, only feel
ing that it is pleasant; but meanwhile
Mrs. moth sits at home in darkness,
mending The childrens clothes, which
is not exhilarating. Many woman
who feels that she possesses her hus-
bands affection, misses something
She does not secure his favor, his adj
miration. His love is honest and sol
id, but little dormant, and therefore
dull. 1t does not brace, and tone, and
stimulate. She wants not the love
only, but the keenness, and edge, and
flavor Of love, and she suffers untold
pangs. know it, for have seen it.
1t is not a thing to be uttered. Most
women do not emit it even to them
selves; but it is revealed by the lift of
the eye-lash, by the culver of the eye,
by tone of the voice, by trick of
the finger r. Gal Hamilton,