The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-03-09

such woman--the dread of the children and
meeker kind of young folks in her district, the
sport Of rude boys who like to "set her of,"
from safe distance, and the scof OF beery
men who chaff her husband in their heavy
way about the gray mare at home; but with all
that she keeps tidy hearth, saves money, and
has as good name for honesty as for indus
try. She brings up her family after the strict
est pattern of morality, leading them into the
way they should 60 by thumpngs and ratings
that never end, and she would disown any of
them who by chance lapsed into public trans
gression; yet she drives her husband to the
alehouse, as Rip Van Wrinkles wife drove hers,
by the force Of her tongue alone, driving her
sons after him, while her daughters take to
snowy dresses and Illicit love-making, as their
form Of am-drinking, to help them over the
hard lines laid down for them by their shrew-
ish mother. So that, in spite of herself and
more often than not turns out badly, simply
because Of her ungovernable temper. Every
community has one such member, q busy,
bustling, notable little woman who halves her
life between toiling and railing, working hard
to keep her family respectable, but succeeding
for the most part only In making them misera-
bic, and who, when she dies, dies in chorus
by all.
But, beyond this primitive type Of the shrew,
we have enough and to spare Of more re-
fined kind among the educated; good women
who do not f1irt, nor spend too much money
on dress OF pleasure, who are content to stay
at home and lock after their houses and chill
dren, but who take out in Ill temper what they
deny to naughtiness, and think themselves
Justified because their sins are not those Of the
lust of the flesh or the pride of life. The house
over which the shrew presldes Is WEAKNESS
to the souls of those forced to dwell therein.
She Is forever scolding the servants when she
is not changing them; and servants never do
we'll when they are scolded. Either 1t makes
them more stupid than they were before, or 1t
rouses their bad passions, and turns an unin-
tentlonal mistake into wilful misdeed. But
the shrew cannot be taught this; nor can she
make allowance for human inirmities With
her those uneducated maids and men who do
her services must be free from all traces OF
original sin, and from all the consequences OF
ignorance. They must be able too to bear unjust
rebuke without so much as looking remon-
is sure to end In an angry warning this day
month" The same kind Of thing goes on with
her children. There is no good natured slip
ping over faults, no smoothing away OF dill
cultles, no making the best Of the bad, and so
escaping the full flavor Of evils which are bad
enough at the besti she worries and drives and
scolds them through the whole Of the day,
then wonders that they shrink from her, and
that their very fear induces falsehood. AS for
her husband, she Is OF 30 much use by her per-
petual naggtng that she saves the necessity
OF purgatory after death by giving him the
full benefit of it beforehand. II he quietly
withdraws from the unequal contest, and
leaves her to her shrewness while he betakes
himself to his club, she then makes capital
l. 20
virtues; how she has always done her best to
save his pocket; how she has been o faithful
wife and careful mother, and worked and
kept house like any slave, while others, whose
husbands idoliZe them, spent and racketed,
and have had more than one Irritation such as
married woman should not have. And yet
look at them and their husbands, and then see
the difference with hers. POOR snrew tnat
proverb about the dinner OF herbs and the
stalled OK has never carried any weight with
her or taught her any lesson. AS with the
village scold, so with shrew OF the upper
class-her children either leave home prema-
turely or marry Ill. They neither see nor care
for the real love and sterling goodness offen
underlying that bitter temper; all they Know
Is that mamma is always cross ana that sne
makes their lives wretched. And as we are
oil more or less superficial In our Judgments,
and swayed by our OWE selfish pain or pleas
IRE, preferring to be made happy by little
less rigid morality rather than unhappy by
extra virtue, we can scarcely blame the chill
| dren of the slIrew for not diVinine- they
do not see, and for doing their best to escape
broken her heart before now for what seems
to be the lngratitude and coldness OF those
whom her own temper only drove from her.
Shrews are generally inclined to meanness
of habit and stlnglness OF dealing; neither are
they women of luxurious temperament: A
woman may be violent, passionate, Jealous
| and unreasonable, with blood boiling ut al
points, as ardent In anger as In love, and
| fierce in all her passions, but she Is not
shrew. The shrew proper ls thin-llpped
unscnsuous woman, unmerclful to "hnssles,
and lntolerant of self-lndulgence. There II
something In the very fact OF being ut loose
ends In morality that seems to soften people,
| tcmpers, save, Indeed, when the whole nature
IL Coarscly wrong and violent altogether
on the score of discretion often gives hersel
no trouble on that Of amiabllity. She seems
TO think that nothing else Is needed If only
| Mrs. (,rundy Is satisfied, and that to be goot
nnd tlIsagrrcnblc Is not the high treason
ngulnst virtue which the old saying makes |
out 10 be. Perhaps, however, II IL too muci
10 expect poor humanity to be square on al
four sides and right In every corner. Mer
rarely scOd NJ women scold. A few do so, Ger
tuinly, nil types running Into each other; bu
mon nrc kept In order by the fact of physlca
strength, us well lib by certain instructive re
spcct inr Cnch other which women have no
got Men could not bo brought 10 suffer from
| nuc unui her whit women brar from women
hence u sculdng man generally takes Ills wlit
| md daughters for Ills vessels of wrath, thei
srx rendering them incapable of furnishing
him, snyu by retaliation In kind, when they
generally como the worst of. For In u scold
lng mltcll, IN everywhere else, the heavier
! metal must tell, ind when men are shrews a
all they sl,rpuss even the shrcwlshncss oil wo
men.
l,uL though we Gun afford to laugh at IL from
M,In distance, the full OF sllrcwlshness Is IN.
deed II great one 0tlcn times appreciated II
Ut rather IL high figure. The cncking-stoo
wherein the sCOltl wus bound before her own
door, To bc prltcd und lnsultcd by the mob,
unr Tho tucklng.sLOol IN which She was duck
cd nnd llall drowned, were rough modes ol
showing dislike To M unpleasant habit. Ger
lninly we do not wish to sec them revived,
nnd Indeed, VIC rarcly meet nowadays With
Tho same kind or amount Of slrcwishneSS thai
WIS unce SO general In ul classes, and punish.
cd M severely nm0ng tllcp poor. Manners have
M lnr suIlcnell md become refined lllat q
Hhrcw of tho latly cl,Ss, however srewish she
may br, llls To refrain from abusive cpllhcts
under palm of clss degradation, nnd must con-
fine herself To the expression oil her ulsplca'
sure without the nd OF iiI-ilnvured adJectiyes.
Vel, though the form may DC ~ much soltell-
rl, the Vice Is not cradlcated; and what we
want To make clear Is, that scOding Is Il vice
like any other, difficult TO shake of when once
uuOptctl, and one that eats in tile morai nature
more deeply tllan people are aware Ol. Anu
the odd parL Of the business is that most shrcWs
nre unconscious of deserving blame. The