The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-02-07

MARRIED WOMEN AND UNMARRIED MEN-THE CON.
sPIRAcIEs OF THE FORMER AGAINST THE
LATTER.
From the London Saturday Review1
We think it was Lamb who made Q pathetic
complaint against the endearments and exchanges
of married couples in his presence. Inlhis quaint
style, the humorist let out that such occasions
be felt entirely subdued, awkward and desolste,
that he had also experienced q sense of injury,
and as II there were an indirect attack upon his
peace of mind. We should say that most persons
of single views would feel very much as Lamb did
under similar circumstances but there is another
bachelor 10 often made conscious of certain social
advantages possessed by the married man.
Even In good circles, visiter may observe
constant flashing of signals between the married
guests. 1t 10 perhaps needless to remark that
that such messages are confined, where there is
proprety, to wives and their respective husbands
but, in any case, the fact of these going about,
combined with the consciousness that he, Of all
assembled, has nothing In common with the no.
tons that prompt them, render the bachelor. If
not for q moment unhappy. at least compelled to
fall back upon those cynical consultations which
have been specially designed for celibates. He
may note that II he addresses q remark to Mrs. A.
who sits next to him, Mr.. A. at the other end Of
the table seems to have it conducted to him by a
process Of sympathy which we must leave mes
merists or Mr.. Hume to discover. When Mrs. A.
replies. A. looks up with glance Of intelligence,
although his attention is due, and indeed is given
to the conversation of those in his immediate neigh
borhood. You must know that what you say and
what you do will be subjected, on your departure,
to dual criticism, which has the dangerous ad-
vantage Of being neither public nor responsible,
and which, being the sum of two experiences, one
male and the other female, often possesses an ac-
curacy terrible for the subject Of IL TO contem-
plate. For instance, supposing you are the sole
bachelor ct country house. A few of the men
remain up to smoke last cigar, having been al.
most audibly cautioned (you can either hear or
see the notice. against overstsying short leave
of absence. I
One by one they disappear, except, perhaps,
an extra polite or courageous gentleman who Is
good enough TO see you suffering from dim sense
Of injury, and remains longer than the rest. At
you may be perfectly certain that. If you were
thought worth discussion, you have been thor
oughly weighed, measured and done for, In that
mysterious concave at which there are no wit
nesses. If you only study or draw out the men q
little, ten to one you will get from them what the
wives think Of you, and, perhaps, even what they
have said for there are men with clever wives
who do not object TO give you quiet prod OF the
bodkin they are proud of. But the wives-sweet
bypocrites conceal their opinions from most,
though II you watch their faces off guard, you
catch glimpse Of 1t. Here, without doubt, the
married man has social power far beyond the
isolated and wild ass" independence of the bach
elor. 1t has been settled that the wife selects her
husbands friends after marriage. She weeds
them ct her own taste, and plants others more In
accord with her sentiments. And indeed she does
this constantly, to the end of the chapter and as
rule. she is right In her instincts. For a woman
in this way acts In great measure from instinct,
aided by the direct knowledge which she ex-
tracts from her husband, and which has been,
perhaps, impaired to him In bursts Of confidence
never intended for conveyance to her.