Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-05-23
DISAGREEABLE WOMEN.


It is a mistaken kindness to proclaim
all women beautiful and virtuous, aud
a young gentleman starting in life with
such faith would soon find of what
clay his idols we're made. We are not
now going over the old cynical ground,
well nigh worn out by this time, but we
propose to glance at what appears to us
to be an almost unknown district.
What part in the world has the disrgree-
able woman to play? Is it to punish
some masculine sinner by acquiring him
in marriage ? Is it to set of her fairer
and worthier sisters Is it to be talk
ing and standing protest against the
angelic theory of womanhood The
disagreeable woman haunts every sphere
of society. She is not necessarily ugly.
Up to certain period she may not ex'
hibit the traits Of her disposition. She
may resemble the tiger kitten, whose
claws are not grown and whose habits
are attractive and playful. But her
nature soon breaks out, If she marriss,
the victim soon gets foretaste of his
misery. If the husband is we'll of, the
disagreeable woman can utterly destroy
his domestic comforts She studies how
to do it, and brings born capacity to
the task. She dislikes what he likes.
She won't visit the friends he wishes her
to visit, or if she does, she manages to
insult them. She is never ready to go
out when he wants her, but she is off
with cheerful readiness when he would
prefer her to remain at home
Ia = -, bar Y,foctop N ho 1ioa.
greeable, and disagreeable she will be
until perhaps her spouse has the melan-
choly satisfaction of following her NOR
tai remains to the grave. But in nine
cases out of ten the disagreeable woman
manages to disappoint him in this re-
spect, and enjoys the mournful pleasure
of erecting tablet sacred to his memory.
In that walk of life where q carriage is
not kept a disagreesble woman is indeed
a scourge. If her husband is a gentle
man, and suffers her to follow her wicked
bent his days and his nights are burden
to him She talks aside at him in the
presence of company. AT breakfast she
seldom appears, for your truly disagreea-
BILE woman is addicted to lying in bed.
If he is poor she is very extravagant, yet
always deploring the want of money,
As rule, she grows thin as she grows
old. The aristocratic species often
generates into angularity and spectacles.
Those who have been taken down to din
ner by disagreeable woman (for to
speak of taking her down would be a
very inefficient description of the pro-
cedure), and who have been compelled
to sit next to her, and to hear her talk,
will not easily forget the sufferings they
have endured. But those who have had
her for supper-and we all have had at
one time or another-will remember the
occasion with something akin to horror.
She misses the step in a waltz, and
rocks against you, and then stops
abruptly and sails over to an ottoman
with an indignant and mortified air; or,
if she is able to keep up, she will insist
on wheeling with you round and round
long after you have left your senses on
an unknown part Of the waltz, and seem
to yourself to be looking for them in a
reelng and uncertain manner The
disagreeable woman is never happier
than when rendering others unhappy,
especially those who are among her
friends. In the festive season she is
sure to spoil sport aud what she does on
the green lawn, she is sure to do years
afterwards, perhaps, on the dry arid
desert into which she has converted some
unfortunate mans home. If real vir-
tuous wife is a crown Of glory to her
husband, what sort of crown is the wife
who has, if not a depraved, peevish
sense, which she cultivates until she can
use it with the skill of vivisecting op-
erator7 The disagreeable woman never
firts. To hirt she should deny herself
for awhile, at least, the delight of her
being unpleasant, and such sserahee
she is never prepared to make. In the
bosom of her family, as it is called, she
is a sore thorn; when she leaves the
parent nest she is not improved.