The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-04-16

charitable .giver to thoae who, after stric,
and very stern investigation, she thought
worthy of her assistance.
The deacon Of the incorporation again
Murdoch Waldie, was a man Of different
cast from the boxmaster. He was a per
son of considerable parts; but his conceit
which led him to conceive himself clevere,
than nature had made him, produced often
all the consequences which result from q
deficiency Of mental parts Proud and
domineering, he loved to rule his corpora
ton with dignity. and authority; while his
love of Official show and domestic parade
rendered him extravagant, and made him
poor. notwithstanding Of good trade, which
he carried on with great success. In bis
choice Of wife, there might have been per
ceived the tendency of his peculiar disposi-
ton; for he married beauty, who qualified
bis love of authority by an affected sOftness,
gentleness and meekness, and his selfcon-
ceit, by showing herself inferior to him in
understanding, as indeed she was, though
she excelled him in another quality, which
more than supplied its place. What with
his business, bis deaconsbip, bis chain, his
gold headed cane, and bis fair wife, dressed
in the gaudy colors of his own dyeing,
Deacon Waldie was an important parsonage
in those times, when to be high in a corpora
ton was to be in the enjoyment Of the truest
elevation to which human nature, in this
world, could aspire.
Vain, snowy, gaudy, and frivolous, Mrs.
Deacon Waldie held the same position to
Mrs. Todd that the boxmaster did to ber
husband. She had no sense or power to
rule her lord, who, indeed, would not have
submitted to female authority but she had
what Mrs. Todd wanted, and what served
her purpose equally well, and that was cum
ning-the signal quality Of small, weak
minds, and the very curse Of the whole race
Of man and woman. This insidious power
enabled her to detect her husbands failings,
rs well as to profit by tbem-and hence her
Affectation of total subjugation to his high
vii and authority, and her tame system Of
and asserting to everything be
said or did, whether right or wrong. But
in all this her selfish cunning had part !;
because, while she pretended to love him,
and dote on him and prize him beyond all
mortals, her adultaion, her Establishments,
and submission were accompanied or follow
ed always by petitions. She coutrived to
have hardihood enough to make the most un-
requests, and to show that she
vas too sensitive, too fragile, and too weak,
70 bear a refusal. If her suit was rejected,
,he flung herself upon the naughty deacon's
bosom, and sobbed and what deacon could
the appeal Of beauty in tears ?
The sight was the very personi6cation of the
triumph of his pride and dignity. The
,hain Of his official authority, and the arms
IF q praying, suppIcating, weeping wife,
hanging at the same time around his proud
neck, were the very counterparts Of each
other. His love of subjugation bent, as il
oflen does, his own head and cunning en-
ioyed its greatest triumph in overcoming
one, by turning bis own weapons against
himself.
The contrast which we have thus exhibit
ID between these two couples, is that Of real
everyday life. The characters Of too many
married parties partake, more or less, Of the
qualities possessed by those we have now
but how strangely do apparent
contrasts often meet in grotesque resem-
blances? Mrs. Todd ruled her husband,
and he knew it; but Mrs. Waldie
ruled her husband, and he was ignorant of
It: while the one followed her occupation
for her own and her husbands good, the
other was bent (unconsciously, it may be)
on her own and her husbands ruin.
These two couples were on the most in
innate terms--the circumstance Of the two
husbands being offce-bearers of the same
corporation having increased an intimacy
which had been of considerable duration.
But there vas little respect felt for her
snowy friends on the part of the wife Of the
minor official, who probably saw that their
extravaganza was fast driving them to ruin.
This foresight was soon verified. The de
mands of Mrs Deacon Waldie were not IL
mited to her own wants and wishes they
were extended those Of her friends. Hel
father, trusting to the reputation of heI
husbands deaconship, had occasion for his
security to the extent Of 4200 and she was
fixed upon as the instrument to wiring, by
her usual artifice, out of her proud lord and
master, not only his own name to the bond
but also that of some Of bis friends, to be
procured through his means and intercession
She had, for considerable time, been 90
cupied zealously in endeavoring to accom-
plish her object bringing into contrast bel
husbands proud domination, and her limo
cent and interesting weakness and timidity
and showing, as she hung round his neck
her belplessness and insigni6cance, at tht
very moment when she was exercising more
power than ever was arrogated by the box
masters wife in all her female tyranny
She succeeded in her scheme, and Waldit
consented-but only as king grants th'
prayer of petitiOn-not only to give BIZ
own name to the bill, but to endeavor t.
get that Of Mr.. Andrew Todd. Tears o
thankfulness, and a full acknowledgment
of his great power over ber, was the reward
offered and granted for his great eondescen
sion and unparalleled favor. But it was NOR,
easy for Mrs Waldie to ask, and Civ,
thanks and tears, and for her husband t
vouchsafe his own name as cautioner, thar
for him to get out of the clutches of Mrs
Jean Todd the consent Of her husband. Th,
deacon knew how bis brother-of6cial wa
ruled by his wife, and Justify despised tn
white-livered caitiff for his pusillanimity.
Il Gamma promise, Mrs. Deacon Waldie,
said be to his wife, according to the fashion
of address that suited bis dignity" I canni
promise to get the boxmaster to gle hi
name to yer fathers bond. Hes sac com
pletely, puir cratur ! under the power AM
direction O. woman, that be daurna tax So
muckle liberty wi bis ain. The woma
brocbt him naething when be married hel
but the iron rod o authority by which sh