Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1875-11-06
THE MODERN HUSBAND.
A Charitable View for Dis
satisfied Wives.
From the Golden Age.l

He Is not unSympathetic and
hard. His business tends to make
him somewhat harsh and rough
Contact with the world rubs the
poetic bloom from his mind, and
dries his sentiments, and units his
| tongue for the utterance of the
sweet and dainty nOthings which
occupy so large . place in the vo-
cabulary of wOman'S expectations.
He is decidedly matter-of-fact.-
He takes q great deal for granted,
and wants his wife to assume some
thing, and not look for vain repe-
titions when words are worth so
much. The wear and tear of life
tell on his nerves and sensibilities,
and take the sentiment, the poetry,
the gallantry, out of him, insensi-
bly, but effectually, and he appears
Indifferent without knowing it,
He is absorbe lin his business plans
and ambitions, and cannot pretend
TO the least enthusiasm in his wife's
ruffies and laces and lawns, and his
enjoyment of her new set Of jewels
is materially abated by the pros
pective raid upon his bank account.
In modern life thu differentiations
are vastly greater than in the old
days, when husband and wife
worked together behind the coun-
ter and on the farm, each unde:
standing the labor of the other, and
joining as a true yoke-fellow in
drawing the mutual load. The
Modern Husband earns for his
wife to spend; and he earns In
| methods and under conditions she
does not understand, 80 that her
advice is useless, and even her
sympathy exhales oftentimes with
out hts notice. The new condi-
tons under which we live AMI la
Dor effect domestic habits aud In
sensibly react on disposition and
character. Once husband and wife
| spent most of their time together !;
now they spend most of 1t apart,
and cannot follow each other thro'
the transactions of the day even in
Imagination; they are less mutu-
ally dependent than when each
was all the world to the other, and
their lives were one.
The Modern Husband is not SO
lovable nor attractive in some re-
spects as he might be, and his wife
would like to have him. He has
not hept his first estate. He is q
harder, drier, more worldly crea-
ture than she took him to be. He
thinks more of soup than of senti-
ment, and digestion occupies lar
ger place than music or society in
the economy of his life. But in
spite of ATTACHMENTS, he is essenti-
ally true and prevailingly kind.
He thinks more than he says, and
feels deeply Oftentimes when he
says nothing. He puts his love
into labor, and expresses his conf
dence and tenderness in wise pro-
visions and unsentimental bank
notes. He prays less than his
grandfather, but he pays better
and is less of a tyrant. The word
"obey" has dropped out of his
spoken dialect. If he gives less at
tention, he expects less service in
return. The wife in the old days
had hard lot. She was the silent
member of the matrimonial firm.
Most of her nature was suppressed.
She was under bonds. Her lord
commanded, and she obeyed in
fear and trembling oftentimes. In
most cases she wrought more like
a slave than a wife, and as ne slave
would. In cemetery not thou
sand miles from here stand six
black stones in row, marking the
graves of a husband and his five
wives. EYES," said our guide,
Deacon Smith hau five wives, $50
acres, % children, the forehanded-
est man in tow n, and had famous
funeral.n An intelligent coroner's
jury might discover visible con-
| nection between the aches of the
women and the acres of the farm,
and attribute their mortality to
something other than the mys-
terious uispenoatlon of Provi-
dence. The Modern Husband
does not wear his wife out in
butter-making or collaborating
She neither weaves nor spins, and
the tailor makes his coat If he does
not sew on his shirt bosoms. He
treats his wife more as q compan-
ion than a drudge. He takes pride
in her wit, enjoys her singing, adj
mires her taste, and il pleased
with the society she draws around
their own fireside. The old ardoR
lie not utterly gone, Though IL no
longer flashes into EXPLANATIONS
of endearment, though IL only
needs the breath of q real occasion
to blow what seemed dead emhsrs