The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-02-20


the sunny dreams of their youth, for
| anxiety, abuse and poverty but there
is no longer any opportunity for the gal
liant assistance which we were won't to
tender them in days gone by. They
accept fate not only patiently, but have
a sexual way Of glorying IN it that we
cannot understand. There's Madge--a
Venus but two years back never seen
outside of gayety, and always queen.
We used to think it fortunate to touch
the hem of her dress on such occasions,
so packed away was she with courtiers.
Cheney and found her out in a mar
row street-she had thrown herself away
on a sp0rtiye youth, whose funds and
prospects were aerial. Chesney accoun-
ted her drab-and, in truth, it was ter
rible. She who had foated, we might
say, on adulation, to be trying to earn a
livelihood, or at least to exc it out, with
her white taper fingers. But if Ches-
ney or I he'd undertaken to play the be-
nignant fairy, and said Ny dear
madam, for old acquaintance sake, let
me assist you, she would have assumed
the demeanor of Ristori or Rachel, and
=" Sir-r.r My husband is capable, !"
etc. In fact, with these dear departed
ones we of former days are interdicted,
They seem to regard us as forming part
of their own discarded folly.
To be sure, occasional executions
there are. Now and then girl marries
without changing her nature, or she
does not change her circumstances,
which amount to the sa re thing, and
then we are reserved for invitations and
go through very formal interviews, with
the husband as affabIe as he can be with
a mental reservation against us. We
praise the baby extravagantly, and talk
business principally-for be it recorded
that themost downy human seraph fedo1
love and romance up to the altar, drops
all that when she takes off the bridal
veil, and instead of poetry and flowers
and purling brooks she bankers after
cent per cent and corner lots, and has
an eye to the markets, like a sensible
person. IL there is any nonsense left
in her, she reserves it all, angel that
she is, for the one dear partner of her
Joys and SORROWS, and confides it to him
in the honeyed moments of sequestra-
tion. If an unusually amiable young
wife rashly resolves to keep up her old
acquaintance, it is at the risk of do
mestic war Do you think, oh ye lovely
legion, that we cannot see your sweet
contempt for us, emitted in little prim
politenesses, coiled away in a matronly
reserve? That you have a confidential
exchange of sarcasm with him about us
when we are gone is certain. All men,
in the woman's religion, are as nothing
to one man-eSpecially with those
women who before immclation acted
upon the motto of having all at her
feet, but favoring none. I say at the
risk of domestic war. He is suspicious
of us. We, in his overweight mind,
are the representative men of another
world and era we, curiously enough,
may have made VOWS to the very woman !;
we at least have admired her when she
was open to promiscuous admiration,
and he fears that we have incomprehen-
sible claims or precedents, and he des-
pises us in his heart, though he rattles
on glibly enough till we were gone, and
then he says % An old flame Of yours,
Agnes 2" {" Nonsense !" says Agnes.
8" A conceited puppy; no principle-no
brains-vapid, etc. And Agnes agrees
with him.
We are no better off with our own fell
lows. The iovial baehes of former
sprees flicker out and dwindIe Iamenta-
bly, into husbands. If they attain cot
tages and wine cellars, and their wives
are sweet and hospitable, we are slapped
on the back and reminded that the elatch-
string is out. But the hospitable an
gels eye us askance, and cannot share
in the hosts enthusiasm, as he declares
over the claret that many's the jolly
lark we've had together-eh? Many's
the scrape we've hunted up in company;
and who'd Thought that would have
been caught this way before you, my
boy -? BY the way, what's become of
the Tullivers? =? Fine girls Do you
reccolIect the firtaticn we had with
them one summer at BallstoD, eh p The
old man was a bitter enemy of mine
then, and I vowed to revenge myself
upon him Cha! la y Carrie and I
were going to Venice Cha ha y and
here I am The hospitable angel re-
spends dutifully, with hospitable but
somewhat forcible smile at each of the
ha, has but when we are gone, and
our old friend is asking her if his guest
| is not a capital fellow, evidently proud
| of him, as he had ought to be, she
| comes out in the role of propriety, and
thinks our old friend had better not
have anything to do with such fellows
now. '' What do they care for you %
| she asks, as though she had read selfish
ness in every lineament, curve and ex-
preston of our manly exterior. "He
/ comes here to drink your wine, of
course p And this bit of devilish
cruelty the hospitable angel drops into
the innocent soul of your old friend as
carelessly as she drops his loaf sugar
into his tea.
It is perhaps well that we have our
| opportunities of revenge. Occasions
will present themselves when we catch
the dear departed out of their strong
holds, away from their intrenchments,
and then they suffer. They sometimes
escape into balls and picnics, and then
we torture them. And now we fling
back the old aroma of love and romance
for their disquiet. Then they feel the
loss of chivalry in their choice. He
does not mingle the admirations Ia his
service to her that we do in ours tC
them, and we know so well that the
dear creatures miss the homage more
than aught else. She compares his duti
full offices with our generous gallantry,
and what contrast She tolls up the
steep hill without a body guard of at
tendants and courbiers, and, woman a.
she is, she misses them. If she desires
anything, we call her husband, and she
is at liberty to think either that We
would not dare to interfere with. his
right of servitude, or that We did mo
care to.
There are, cf course, occasional re
surrections. Here and there q CIR
comes back to us-in weeds, it is trHe-
but temporarily, and with addeC
charms and-I assert it with all tn
triumph that my theory demands-the!
come back to the world with an eviden
zest. Still, one cannot help thinking j
wonld be much pleasanter if they dit
not go away at all-if, somehow o
other, married women could only b
Just trifie girls, and sometimes ste
down from their domestic thrones
n l~fra1 b 4 l. H.