Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1866-09-21
From Hours at Home
WHOSE FAULT Is IT?

WHOSE FAULT IS 1T?
Whose fault is It. when every thing
goes wrong in family, Mr.. Murray
Jennie and / were sitting alone quite
I late at night in our cheerful little library,
when I suddenly put the question. Mr.
/ Murray Is minister Of the town of Sey-
mour, Jennie is his wife and my pet sis
ter, and [ have, to-day, come to visit
them. While | am here, [ become very
much interested In their parish matters
a small country village Is such a world in
itself, if one Is only accustomed to look
beneath the surface. One of Mr.. Muir
rays deacons had called to consult him
about a son. who was becoming a bad
boy. There Is something Ia such a char
acter which always touches a sympathetic
part of my nature, aud found myself
soon as anxious for Tom as his father
Mr. Murray gave him some very sound
advice If the deacon followed it faith
fully, his child was saved, so l was con
scious Of being very CHEEKY as 1 bade him
gOod-by. He ought to have gone home
a happier and wiser man. In the after
noon the deacOn's wife, Mrs Upper,
called, and when she went away, would
not have given straw for any chance
there was for Tom.
Mr.. Murray laid down the Review from
which he had been reading an article
aloud to US, and having given the hem
usually preparatory with him to a speech,
he began
. President Edwards says"
[ held up my hands in horror. Now
please don't, L said. Ifyou begin with
President Edwards, by and by we shall
have EmmOns and Hopkins, and then
there will never come an end. [ don't
"a for ha 0FasFiOr fhanIoui0allxy traat
ed; what l want to hear is, simply,
Whose fault IS it 2
q Do you. suppose there is any manner
of doubt who is to blame for Tom Tup-
per's eOnduet?"
There" said Jennie, laughing, s. 1
knew 1t would come l have been waiting
all the evening for it.
:. For what?" asked her husband
For Kitty's opinion of Mrs. Upper.
She called here this afternoon.
Well, L SAID, nothing daunted by
being so easily found out, IS there any
doubt who Is responsible for the sins of
that whole Upper family So far from
wondering that Tom Is bad boy, my ou-
Iy astonishment Is, that the deacon and
all the daughters haven t come to the gal
lows. Who do you think (turning
sharply on the minister) is the most
culpable for his wrong doing, Tom or his
mother 2"
8 [ am afraid your theological educa
ton did not do you much good, if you
can not answer that question, said Mr.
Murray.
"Wen, / confess, I can not. I know
well enough what l ought to say, but this
thing puzzles me. There is Mrs. Upper
small enough in every way, perfectly des-
picable; but for this very reason, it
seems to me, all the more capable Of doing
an infinite deal of mischief
"Oh stop, do, said Jennie, you are
far harder on the poor woman than she
deserves. / pity more than L blame her.
. Pity her, for what p
" For-fOr-Well, it may as well out, for
being a non cODtp0s, you know" she said,
looking apOlOgetically toward her hus-
band, 1t is safe to speak freely to Kit
[ should be less hard on her." an
sWered " if | thought God had really
made her with weak intellect. She
would then come under that class whom
our Scotch brethren so kindly call jnnO
cents but / think she is one of class of
women not only capable of, but actually
doing large amount Of mischief. | mean
silly women, not God made, but made by
criminal self-indulgence, by their ignor-
ing every matter of discipline from which
they might have derived grOWth-by-
oh there are so many ways IN which a
talented woman even may, in course Of
time, make herself silly that it Is useless
to try to enumerate them. A very wise
Writer-in her own eouceit at least-has
written on pages which the lines sully
forever: Marriage is the grave Of love.
If it is so, the grave IS dug nine times
out of ten, by Just this class of women
All Mr.. Murray don't laugh at me but
when read that line, l thought saw the
kind of hands by which it IS made. There
are your inefficient, idle hands; your sell
fish, ease loving hands, your irritable,
fault-hndlng hands your foolish, bab-
bling hands They may be hard aud bo-
ny and red, or delicate and jewel covered
but if they belong to a woman ike Mrs.
Upper, they Will dig a grave SO deep,
that from il there can be no resurrection
of the poor lost love. Little ehildrens
feet may patter over it, but there comes
no echo. Dear voices may call it back,
with all the agony of desOlatiOn which IS
/ born, when it dies, but alas they listen
| In vain for an answer. A dead love
who ever heard of there being for such a
resurrection p
| Mr. Murray and Jennie looked at me
/ soberly, l almost fancIed reprOachfully.
! The minister does not believe in exag-
/ geration, and l could see that he thought
/ l was treading little too mSahe in my
/ bind lnVecuVe, IN the footsteps oI the
author | had been condemnIng so L
tried to speak more moderately, but Mrs.
/ Tupper had so annoyed me. 1 think of.
all trials to the patience in this world,
there is none quite equal to a self-aade
/ foolish woman but L lowered my voice
and spoke more quietly. l can tell
you" | said, " how they live at Deacon
Tupper's, as well as if [ had summered
and Wintered with them"
How do they ?" asked Jennie archly-
Ever since the good deacon was mar
ried, Mrs. Upper has hectOred him. L
don't know as you will find the word IN
Webster's Unabridged : still 1 maintain
it is not only good English, but the only
word which just expresses the sort OF life
he has led. She has crossed him IN every
one Of his little favorite habits. If he
has even a chair of his own, he has fought
his way into the ownership OF 1t. de al
ways has to a0dit This Is fayorlte
weapon in the hands OF hectoring wife,
to make a man wait, day after day, minute
after minute. Now, let me ask, Mr..
Spencer, how often do the deacon and his
wife come into church together
Not very often, must confess.
Who comes first?
The deacon, of course.
es, that is il. Nine times out OF ten
woman like Mrs Tupper will be late