Smyrna times., 1872-07-10
hopeless confusion between selfshness and

nOpeIeSs CONFUSION DeCWeen selnsnuesS anu
wisdom.
You can usually, in small society Of stran-
gerS-say at dinner party of modest dimen-
sions-pair off the husbands and wives, it you |
have eyes and fair amount of perception; but
the married bachelor eudes you. The one wo-
man at whom he never looks, and the last
whom he addresses, is his wifc-not because
she is not pretty and interesting, but because
she is his wife, and the tie irks him, IT she does
not At the general breakup OF the evening,
however, the two who have seemed to you en-
tire strangers shake hands with the host and
hostess simultaneously and, to your astonsh
ment, coalesce at the door and drive off to the
marital home in company. You wonder if they
have quarreed, and perhaps speculate on her
hard fate III being married to such man, II she
| has pleased you and he has not. But they are
! probably quite good friends now that they are
together. Only it is part of his plan that they
shall be together as little as possible, and that
| the world shall rush in between them through
every available gap; and to pay attention to
his wife in public would seem, to the married
bachelor, the dreariest kind of fun imagina BILE.
The married bachelor has generally strong
sense of the rights of property-we will not
talk about its duties-and denies all claim on
his wife's side to have voice in its dstrlbu-
ton. Beyond the base-Hne on which he has
constructed his social being-the locality he
lives in, the establishment he has set up, the
amount and kind of entertainments he gives
he holds that she has nothing to do with the
matter. If he likes to spend the margln-any
amount of margin-on betting, on hOrse-raclng
on diamonds to one fair siren, or on pearls t
another, it is not his wife business to inquir
. or object. She has her house and her pin
money, her carriage and her servants, an(
what more does she want? She Is handsomel
subsidised; and so long as her comforts are no
!. interfered with, he holds himself at liberty t
= divert the remainder to any purpose he pleaseS
" Marriage being simply a one-sided conver
+ tion with him, coupling and not fusion, II
:, rights-frOm the woman point OF vlew-go n
= farther than public decencies; and if the maj
> ried bachelor is inclined to be a gambler or
i rake, neither the ocusts in the nursery nor tt
- wife in the drawing-room will have moral pow,
. enough to prevent him, or teach him the graz
II of sef-cOntrol and the religion Of duty. Al
-, y, if his wife interposes with remOnstrance or a
- vice. she is met as one without right, and ;
oI intruder, not partner He even thinks h
~ unreasonable if she makes fuss about his i
10 ~, trgues, and gets her friends to advise her
~ ''keep things quiet" when she has stumbl
lo h on the traces of more than he would care to
nv veal If she does not but, on the contra
aS' insists on the public punishment of separate
-, , or on the private repentance of renunclatlo
~ the married bachelor is immensely dlsgustf
u and never forgives her having got, as he calls
the whip-hand over him. He thinks her wa
r. ing in good taste. in common sense, in eve
lie kind of right feeling, if she cannot racon(
re- herself to the facts she has discovered With
Tor more trouble than if she had found rent in
rlt' best silk gown, which little careful stitch
Is would mend. 1t is mans privilege to K
oys over the traces occasionally, without be
or called to account or held any the worse for
up he says; and being without the shadow o
We sentiment for his wife on his side, he does
hey understand it for himself on hers, and resC
IN its expression when made uncomfortably. I
lelr he takes his revenge, and comforts himself
70 the same time, by inveighing against wome
ana general, and his own wife in particular; and
)y hear him talk, all men are lambs and Il
wives the wolves who insist on slaughter
hey oppression. Poor fellow! at the end of life
ter is heartily glad of his wife to nurse him
0 as amuse him, to minister to him. Old as she
who be, she is still his handmade and his bC
Vho, woman and when going to the devil is
Tres, vice of more pain than pleasure, then the h
re- begins to put on pleasant face of peace
lare. rest, and the wife so long despised, or
your gradually into her place as his nearest trel
on the one who sweetens the downward jour
with and who makes the barren latter days Sc
lie is and pleasant. Sunday Dispatch.