Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-07-14
siiRi;MIsH WaNEN.

4 d VI EOAAC AONtANA'
instances Of shrewish women, thus:
Perhaps one of the earliest shrew'
was the wife Of Rabbi Jose. The storJ
Is forcibly told In the Talmud-thai
compendium, one might say, OF allegorJ
and anecdotes. It seems that Jose, d
rabbi of fair attainments and character
had the happiness of being married &c
a woman who was as perverse aftei
marriage as she was gracious before
hand One day, the story runs, the rich
and learned Eliezer, the son of AsaTya
| paid visit to Jose. Jose received his
guest with great pleasure, and feeling
himself highly kOnOred in the com
pany Of one so wise and wealthy, en-
treated Eliezer to stay to dinner. he
lcOnsented,- unconscious of his friend {
ccnnubial blessedness. The wife, de-
lighted 10 vex her husband, turned her
back ON his friend, and by sundry slips
OF the tongue. and gestures gave the
unfortunate joss TO understand how
little she cared for hiIi OF his learned
companion. Jose good-natureGly took
no notice Of her churlish conduct, but
merely asked her what she had for din
ner. "NOthing, nothing" replied tie
termagaHt IN q shrill voice, nothing
but a few vegetables This Hebrew
Xantippe had, however, prepared sOEle
very fine chickens forherself, which she
afterwards ate with the greatest relish,
leaving Jose and Eliezer to ponder over
their seanty vegetables and the saying
of Solomon, at Is better 20 dwell in a
corner Of a roof, than with quarrel
some woman in a roomy house"
Milton had a most vixenish wife. 1t
might have added TO bis comfort to have
been deaf instead Of blind. ToAatter his
wife, buckingham once called hera rose.
81 am no Judge Of co1ofs, replied the
poet, "and it may be so, for"-he added
with a sigh feel the thOrns daily"
The " judicious" Hooker Jared no
less badly in his selection of better
half ind experience With her. The pic
ture of his domestic relations. asdrawn
by Whipple though truthful, is by no
means hattering. Whipple attempts
to excuse, in a measure, the temper Of
Mrs. Hooker, on the ground that Hook
er married her to be his nurse, and,
"tEere being no possibility of equality
between them, she, in spiritual self
defense, established IN the household
the desp5tisrn Of caprice and the tyran-
nv of the tongue" His snarIiHg wife
used to frequently bid him rock the
cradle, and so annoy his friends on a
visit that they rarely came to see him
again, except when they knew that Mrs.
Hdohe+; with her spiritual sarcasm,
was not at home. To Cranmer, repining
that hiswife shouldnotprove EiOrCF com
Portable" Hooker replied: MY deaf
George, If saints have usually double
share IN the miseriez Of this life, /, that
am none, ought not. to repine at what
nv wise Creator Esth appointed fOT me,
but labor-as indeed ] do daily-tO
submit mine to his wiz, andpossess my
soul in patience and peace.
Tho famous DIR. Parr had wife who
used 20 luafrl with her husband for
e1psEdinf 50 much money for bis books
while he allowed his library chairs to be
sadly out of repair. One day, meeting
him in the library, she exclaimed, MIR.
Parr, we should have new chairs for the
Iib-arF; they are in a very sad way"
81 cannot AFFORD it, Mrs. PAR, " quickly
replied the doctor. "Not afford II =
returned the lady, when you can give
ten guiBeas for a rYusty book which you
never open 81 tell eos, ] esnnet
afford 1t, :" vociferated the doctor, grow
ing angry with his wife's Obstinacy.
mot afford it? 4" slowly said the lady,
when your rents are coming IN so fast
ipJinting to fast-wide1ing gaps IN her
husbands garmenss), ''when you are
in as much need of repair as the library
chairs" DIR. Parr, Who hcd exDected
a scene, quietly collapsed at his wife's
mastery stroke Of humor, and immedi-
ately sent for the upholsterer and the
taller, completely yanquished by his
wife's sharpness.
Although James Ferguson, the ceie-
brated astrOnomer IN his autobiography
does not once allude to his wife's con-
duct. 1t has been wei asCe-tetned thst
her temper was not the most congenlal.
One anecdote illustrating the fact has
come down to US. 1t appears that one
evening IN London, while be was deliy-
ering a lecture on astronomy, his wife
entered the lecture room in a passion
and maliciOusly knocked dGSc ssTeral
pieces Of the apparatus. Ferguson
calmly surveyed the catastrophe, and
turning to the audience quietly said:
Ladies' and gentlemen, I have the mis-
fortune to be married to this woman"
Even great artists have not been free
from the sharp action of shrews. The
wife of Alters Durer compelled that
renowned painter to toll merely to graf
ify her own misery disposition, and
when, IN disgust at her wretched treat
ment, ne ran off, she allured him back
to his death-bed. Disraeli the elder
relatesof Berghem, that his wife would
constantly keep him busy, and she con-
trived an odd experiment to detect his
Incidence. He worked IN foUm above
her own; ever and anon she cheered HIM
by humping a long stick against the
ceiling. while the meek, Obedient
Berghem answered 10y stamping his
foot on the floor, and clenchlng his inst,
too, perhaps, to satisfy his wife that he
was not mapping, but that hestill lived!
Moliere was extremely unfortunate
in his wife. Captivated by the grace
and vivacity of the actress, Bejart, he
married her, only to find that after
marriage her grace became converted
into giddiness, and her vivacity into CO.
quetry. Her vanity and articles often
drove him to despair. She had no pity,
to use his own words, for his sOrrows,
and ensnared by the desire of general
admiration, laughed at his anxlet1es.
In the fiscal wear 1866, before carpet
baouprs and thieves obtained control OF all
the departments Of government IN South
Carolina. the total expenses OF tue STATE
government were only 2GO,66S59. In
he wear IST2-3 the expenditures reached
the enormous total Of 81, S96,544.I3, OF
which s54O.32S was for the Deficiencies.
Tbus in the seven years expenditures have
increased seven-fold. The State taxes for
ISTA wore fixed at II mills on the dollar
a most burdensome rate when it is remem-
bered that properly is assessed at lis MI
valuation and sometimes, through lgnor-
auce or rascality, at two and three tunes
what il IS worth.
From the English papers we Ind thai
Rochefort passed through England almost
unnotieed. His daughter joined him IN
london, This man has played a eonspiea-