Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1874-03-27
The Better Side of the Story.
To the Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle:
n ~ sOnrrr. or, - 4nlro IL, Z, 10 nor.

difficulties between married people. Then
turn to the correspondence, and some
husband complains of the extravaganza
of women, of the leniency of the law in
giving women so many privileges OF
property denied to men, or some poor
subdued wife ventilates her opinion on
the tyranny of men in general, or the
fearful injustice of the law in regard to
wives and their right in their own
children. Perhaps some bachelor OF
ancient maiden utters growl at the fet
tiers of matrimony, and declares how
much better and wiser it is to remain
single.
The newspaper columns are mediums
of complaints, grumbles and abuses; but
whoever represents to the public that
b. large class-in fact, the majority-of
contented married people, who trouble
e not themselves about the law, except in
e. a general way, because the law of their
households is love, which "casteth out
fear," and never. say Mime" and
tThine," and "What | have done for
you and "What you have done for me.''
| am proud to own that / belong to this
So class, and / audaciously claim to repre-
sent at least two-thirds of the households
living in the pleasant, shady streets "on
~ the Hill" or the elegant brown stone rows
"on the Heights" the houses from
which the sunny, happy little children
come whom you meet going to school in
the morning, and from which you get a
b. delightful odor of good dinners, and a
glimpse of a warm, shiny dining-room as
you pass toward evening.
f. ~ Our young men and maidens, with
thoughts of matrimony and each other
naturally lurking in their brains, and
plenty of newspapers to read at home,
conclude that it is all farce, and the
only way to be happy and Independent
is never to marry, and thus escape those
. dreadful letters.
81 Not long since l read letter-in the
iGrGp7t5c, | think-from a Bachelor"
who claimed to have solved this whole
problem. l can just see him clustering
around while he tells how he and another
fellow hired nice house, furnished it
comfortably, got respectable house
b keeper who did not see too sharp. and
who understood her business; how they
, had their meals faultlessly served, buttons
all right, and how they took their night
keys, came in any hour they chose, and
no one said word. This he called com
fort, .-.~
Brother, let me tell my experience
We-my John and I-are close in the
neighborhood of our crystal wedding day.
We have three or four children, all boys,
which is a pity Now, honestly do not
think John is perfect, and | never heard
Of his saying that was. In temperament
we are not alike. John is one of your
punctual, accurate men, intelligent Cor l
g shouldn't have married him), kind hearted
and loving Tor he wouldn't have married
me), not very demonstrative, and no one
but his wife, / sometimes think, knows
how much he does feel Now, | am en-
thusiastic; if l like thing, people in the
house generally know it, and, if want to
do anything, there isn't much peace till |
. accomplish it. have sometimes wished
that John would not be so non-committal,
and would not look so horror stricken
when [ make mistake or forget some
thing. And know he thinks (he's told
me SOY that if would be more moderate
and not tear around so, things would be
pleasanter But for all that, [ wouldn't
change Johns faults for any other mans
projections, and [ never heard him be-
wall his lot; at any rate he does not do it
in the papers. / shall have to confess
that we did try to make each other over
at first, but we gave that up before we
reached our wooden wedding.
We have tried so long to please each
other that somehow now we seem to
have the same tastes, enjoy the same
pleasures, and suffer at the same sorrows.
l do not say that we never differ, and
never part in the morning with shade
of. something unreconciled between us.
But you never saw two such miserable
wretches in your life when such is the
case, or two such happy beings when the
thing is made up. +-m-o
About that nightkey. Bless your
heart, John don't want to go out evenings
alone. | cannot get him out. Here is
our bright coal-fre; here are our boys,
81 with their young life and their school
projects; here are books, slippers,
cigars Che is a little particular about
smoke in the curtains himself, and no
one to scold him. Really, now, he does
not care to be out half the night.
Sometimes we take a fancy to hear
Nilsson, or something nice at the Acad-
envy; and how do we do? Why, we put
our nightkey in our pocket (pantaloons,
of cOurse), 60 where we like, come home
any hour of the night we choose, and
who's afraid?
cO Oh! We have had many rare treat,
John and I, all by ourselves. AS to ex-
travagance, if ever want something ex-
ira good, silk dress or carpet, take
John with me, for men have way of
spending money for good thing with an
abandon which takes a womans breath
clean away. Doesn't he want his wife to
look as we'll as the next mans wife, to be
sure? l know the state of Johns affairs
as we'll as he, and, when we have to be
economical, it is as much my interest to
go without the silk dress as his, and /
can do it and still be happy.
| could write book about John and I /;
but this is enough, know, for thousands
of husbands and wives to say, "Thats
true"
. Sad cases there are of unhappiness and
uncongeniality, and they always come to
the surface. But does any one believe
that all we MARI led people are groaning
under our bonds and looking about for
s.. easy divorces? To most of us the thou hit
of the time that shall surely come CIV nen
one shall be taken and the other left'
makes the heart stand still.
.eru Does any one believe that all the little
50 children who go dancing to school every
morning come from unhappy homes?
;, No, they go with their mothers loving
kiss still warm ON their lips, and the
happy, proud glance of their father linger-
ing about them as he straps their books
and says good-by. After they are gone,
do the father and mother sulk and quar-
rel? Not bit of it.
: There is a little talk about the morning
news, good-by kiss, very likely dis.
cussion about which it shall be, roast beef
or chicken, for dinner, and with injunc-
Of tons to "Come home early" and Don't
tire yourself all out sewing,'' they each
go about their work with a hymn of