The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1874-08-20
Wives and Sweethearts.

wife falls short Of the possibilities Of the
sweetheart? Does not her sweetness Of
temper too frequently evaporate in the
atmosphere of her own homer Do not
all the little faults which she had labored
to keep in the background during the
days of courtship encroach one by one
on the matrimonial territory on finding
that the guards are drugged at their
posts? Does not the spotless toilet
become demoralized and curl-papers and
slip-shod shoes and crushed ruffles come
to be admitted at the brcakfast-table?
Often the girl who would not allow her
lover to find her in soiled laces, or with
an undarned rent in her gown, or venti
lations in her gloyes-who would scarce
ly dream Of appearing before him without
Il flower or ribbon in her hair-docs not
scruplc to receive her husband at dinner
with tumbled chignon and gaping button
| holes, and the general air Of sloven;
and though the poor baby or babies may
be brought forward in extenuation, yet
in her girlhood legion Of babies would
not have sufficed to undermine the arch
itecture of her bralds or to muss the
drapery of her overskirt when Adolphus
was expected. How often do we hear
her say, with tone of relief, ''Oh, it is.
only Adolphus" upon being surprised in
her shabby wrapper in the afternoon;
and with what consistency does she keep
| her most becoming ornaments for the
envy of her neighbors, when she once
| counted them efficient aids. in the art of
fascination, comforting herself with the
assurance that "Adolphus won't know
whether | am wearing point lace or tat
ting?" Wonderful transformation that
has blinded him to the effects of color
and order which first attracted him!
If the sweetheart OF Adolphus found
it such pleasure to adorn herself for
his eye, to design pretty surprises of
toilet and bewitching arrangement Of
tresscs, why should his wife allow herself
to forget her cunning, and to obiterate
the lovely image from his remembrance,
when she can least afford to do so-when
her bloom is vanishing and her outlines
sharpening? If beauty consists, as many
contend, in association, the husband will
doubtless continue to find delight in
those things that allured his bachelor
fancy, If they are presented with the
same grace; the same care for harmony
and taste in dress and surroundings will
renew the sentiment of those earlier
scenes in loves young dream, if the sc n
timent has lost it's freshness; and since
it is more difficult to regain that which
has once been lost than to retain what is
already our own, a wise and scasonable
attention TO triilcs will often render the
prize secure which self denial and long
suffering may fail to recover. Who has
not seen many pettish and selfish wife
still maintaining the illusions of the
sweetheart by virtue of considerable at
tention to all the innocent charms which
she had proved in her girlhood? 1t is
not that men place Il Fictitious value upon
show and expense; many woman is
both snowy and eXtravagant in her per-
sonal expenditure, and yet falls short of
being well dressed at the fircside or the
family board, from fatal habit of think
ing it incumbent upon her to appear at
her best only among strangers and those
who do not care straw how she APP
pears.
But aside from the question of the tot
let, Why is it that, having acquired
rn1 hcr J1>
lore marriage, she should deem it no
longer expcdient or necessary to perfect
the reform, but should allow her irrita
bllity, her love Of ease, her talent for
rcpartee, to get the better of herr Are
the aggravatiOns of ones own children
and housekeeping harder to be endured
than the teasings of thoughtless brothers
and sisters, who are too well acquainted
with ones foibles and the uncertainty of
the future? How does it happen that
the wife forgets the soft answer with
which the sweetheart turneth away
wrath? Does she fall into the mistake
OF believing self-control to be a means
and not an end in itselfg In the DAYS
when Adolphus went counting Araminta
read the reviews, and quoted the poets,
and had an opinion on the questions of |
the times, and played delicious arias from
operas, and solemn passages from ora
torios, and painted in water-colors; they |
read history and metaphysics from the |
same page, and she even pretended to an
interest in the heavenly bodies and the
phenomena of science. Perhaps he won
ders If it is arrested in Mrs.
Adolphus which renders her so inditfer-
ent to the claims of culture, and if the |
woman who presides at his urn and sits
beside his hearth with nothing but Cos
sips and commonplaces upon her tongue
is the same Araminta who once bore a
resemblance to the girl in the
fairy tale from whose lips pearls and
rubies fell like rain.
Is 1t not as important to entertain ones
husband as ones lover? Why should
Araminta prefer the admiration of one to
that of the others 1t may be said that
the cares of a family exoneratc her, in
measure, from the charge Of hiding her
talent In a napkin; but is 1t not true of
al Of US that we fritter away many mo-
ments that might be made mentally
and that the busiest woman
san find time for anything in which she
takes genuine pleasure? To be sure,
Araminta wishes to please Adolphus, and
IS not seldom greatly surprised that she
ails to do SO, laying the blame to some
'adical change in her husband much
'ftener than it is just, when in truth the
'eal failure results from the discontin.
lance OF the means by which she engaged
his regard in the beginning; which is
bout the same thing as if@.one should
separate hydrogen from water, and vet
expect to allay thirst with the residue
4arper's Bazaar.
ALL the authorities and the combined
experiences Of mankind go to show that
he morning is the proper time to eat
ruit. The old adagc says that fruit is
old in the morning, silver at noon, and !
cad at night; but though this statement
to be taken like all general statements.
Nth limitations and qualifications. vet