Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1869-08-10
Bored Husbands.

/ The honeymoon at last draws to close, and
the relieved brides groom gets back to his old
haunts, to his work, bis friends, and his club
! and though he takes to all these things again
| with a difference, still they are helps and
additions. This is the, time of trial to woman.
Ii she gets over this pinch, and is sensible
enough to understand that human nature can
not be kept up at high pressure, even in love,
and that man must sooner or later come down
from romance to work-a-day prose, from the
passionate lover to the cool aud sober husband,
If she can understand this, and settle into his
pace. without frettlng on the one hand or cast
ing about for unhealthy distractions on the 9TH
er-she will do well, and will probably make
pleasant home, and thereby diminish the bore
dom of life. But, unfortunately. not every
woman can do this and it is just during this
time of the man S transition from the lover to
the friend that SO many women begin to make
shipwreck of their own happiness and his
They think to keep him romantic wooer still
Dy their tears at his prosaic Indifference to the
little sentlmentalities once so eagerly accepted
and offered; they try to hold him close By
their hattering but somewhat tiresome exac-
tons their. jealousies-very pretty perhaps,
and quite as fattering-are infinite, and as
baseless as they are infinite; all of which is
very nice up to certain point and in the be-
ginning of things, but all of which gets awfully
wearisome as time goes on, and man wants
both little change and little rest But wo-
men do not see this; or, seeing it, they cannot
accept it as necessary condition of things
wherefore they go on in their fatal way, and by
the very unwisdom of their own love bore their
husband out Of his. Or they grow substan-
tally cold because he is specifically cooler and
think themselves justified in ceasing to love
him altogether because he takes their love for
granted, and SO he ceases to WOO it. sraa51 ii
r Ii they are jealous, or shy, or unsocial, as so
many women are, they make life very heavy by
their exclusiveness and the monastic character
they give to the home A man married to
woman of. this kind is, in fact, house priso-
ner, whose only hours of freedom lie beyond
the four walls of home. His bachelor friends
are shut out They smoke, or entice him to
drink more than his wife thinks is good for
him; or they induce him to bet on the Derby,
or to play for half crowns at whist or billiards.,
or they lead him In some other way of offence
abhorrent to women. So the bachelor friends
are shouldered out, and when the husband
wants to entertain them, he must invite them
to his club-if he has one-and pay the penal
ty when he goes home In few years time
his wife will be glad to encourage her son
friends to the house for sake of the daughters
on hand but husbands and sons are in a diff.
ferent category, and there are few fathers who
do not learn, as time goes on, how much the
mother will allow that the wife refused. If
bachelor friends are shouldered out of the
house, all female friends are forbidden any
thing like an intimate footing, save those few
whom the wife thinks specially devoted to her
self and of whom she is not jealous And they
are very few.-Londo. Sot"~7.,n Reriear