Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1870-10-13
Migratory Husbands.
BY SUSAN sNAPP

never had one of them, thank hcav-
en-, but | know they must be dreadful
these heads of families who are for
ever popping up in new localities with Il
"Lo I'll build here. Here's rising
bit of property !" or,"This old cottage
| Il rcnovae-clNp on wing aud pi-
azza, live in it six months, and sell out
at bargain" Then those husbands who
are forever shifting their business from
place to place - now to n vii
lage--now TO the city-now TO the back
woods: delightful time must their
wives have of it! Never mind how
faithful, devoted aud cntrrprising wo-
man may be, it s a greal trial for her
to be continually pulling up stakes, and
tearing away home tendrils, even ii her
migratory spouse is in other respects
the best in the world. I'd like to see
the person who would tell me that !
wouldn't 90 with John if he decided to
set up u sofia fountain in the deser, Of
Sahara. No. I'd 90 but Id suffer in
the going, though [ told my woes not
evcu to old Cheops himself. But what
if, instead of one grand move, he fitted
about like a grasshoppcr? What if he
tried Bloomfield, and Flatbush, and
Woodside, and Harlem, and "A dozen 9TH
cr places, from the coming of the first
nursery tooth to the going away OF the
last nursery measles? What if he dipt
ped the children ito twenty schools, fiji
led every April air with mourntul fare
wells to all our Deighbors, and kept the
parlor carpets in perpetual fpasm of
contraction and expansion Would
b, tn, blessed, happy woman that |
am? Wouldn't be thin weary aud heart
sore, and the children, morally, just lit
tie waits made of shreds and patches of
many villages? Certainly. Es-
tabished SMILES are all very well but
your oaks don't hop about They stand
still and give the clinging vines chance
to take root beside them.
Only yesterday,while shopping in town,
T chauced to find myself in a street car
beside a man and stout woman engag-
ed in earnest conversation. His was
thin, flushed face, with restless eyes
and lips that ask "Why?' "Who"
"Whcre?" even when they were silent
Hers was soft, heshy, massive, and its
little eyes were full of temporary atfa-
bility and interest. lie evidently was
speaking of some reccut bereavement,
while the lady leaning toward him wore
sort of wash of deep feeling which
was not u dye, though It gave her hue
of sympathy quite proper in street car
Presently caught the words;
"She was in deed. You lost treas
ure when you lost her,"
"Yes, and wonderful creature Tor
moving about pursued the man with
deep feeling. 1T didu't make any dit
ference-you could take that woman and
set her down anywhere !"
His eyes filled with tears, and | look
ed out of the window-sorry for his
sake, bu. glad that the angels had taxi
en- at least one poor woman away from
a migratory husband
The country abounds with these nat
uralzed Bedouins. say nothing
against men who go North, South, East,
or West, and settle. They are the
nerves of the body polite, and indes-
pensible to our new civilization. But
l do feel impelled to quote mothers tav-
orlte expression, and whisper to hun
dreds of men almost within hearing dis,
tance at this moment "Do stay put. y
For the sake of wives, home, children
yourselves take root somewhere. Help
to build up in America the beautiful
homestead feeling so common to En-
ropeans and almost unknown to us. lie
your very saplings understand that IL
time they are to shade your great-srea'
grand childreu.-Hea1th and Home.