The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1875-09-09
A Domestic Lesson.

Saddest OF all sad things is it to see two
once very dear friends employing all that
peculiar knowledge of each other which
love has given them only to harass and
provoke-thrusting and piercing with a
certainty of aim that only past habits of
confidence and affection could have put
in their power, wounding their own hearts
with every deadly thrust they make at
one another, and all for such incxpressi.
bly, miserable tritles as usually form the
openings of fault-finding dramas.
For the contentious that loosen the very
foundations of love, that crumble away
about what miserable, worthless things do
they commonly begin-a dinner under
done, too much oil consumed, q news
paper torn, waste of coal or soap, dish
broken-and for this miserable sort of
trash very good, very generous, very re-
ligiOus people will sometimes waste and
throw away by double handfuls the very
thing for which houses are built and coal
burned, and all the paraphernalia of
home established-their happiness. Better
cold coffee, smoky tea, burnt meat better
any Inconvenience, any loss, than loss
of loUe; and nothing so surely burns away
love as constant faultfinding.
For faultfnding once allowed as hab.
it between two near and dear friends
comes in time to establish a chronic sore
ness, so that the mildest, the most reason
able suggestion, the gentlest-implied re-
proof, occasions burning irritation; and
when this morbid stage has once set in
the restoration of love seems well-nigh
impossible.
For example: Enthusius, having risen
this morning in the best of humor, in the
most playful tones begs Hermione not to
make the tails of her g'sq uite so long; and
Hermione fires up with:
"And, pray, what else wouldn't you
wish me to do? Perhaps you would be 50
good, when you have leisure, as to make
out an alphabetical list OF the things in mo
that need correcting"
My dear, you are unreasonable"
II don't think so. I should like to get
to the end of the requirements of my lord
and master sometimes"
Now, my dear, you really are very
silly"
"Please say something original, my dear.
have heard that till it has lost the charm
of novelty"
"Come, now, Hermione. don't let's quar-
REL"
"AIy dear sir, who thinks ofsquarrel-
4\OC LII sure was Ouly dSAluS
to be directed. l trust some time, if live
trust the coffee is right this morning, and
the tea, and the toast, and the steak, and
the servants, and the front-hall mat, and
upper-story hall-door, and the basement
premises; and now suppose I'm to be
trained in respect to my general education.
shall set about the tails of my g's at
once, but trust you will prepare list OF
any other little things that need amenda-
ton
Enthusius pushes away his coffee and
drums on the table.
"If might be allowed one small criti-
cism, my dear, I should observe that it is
not good manners to drum ON the table,"
says his fair opposite.
Hermione, you are enough to drive
man trantic!' exclaims Enthusius, rush.
ing out with bitterness in his soul and
determination to take his dinner at Del
monico's.
Enthusius feels himself an abused man
and thinks there never was such sprite
OF woman-the most utterly unreasona-
BILE, provoking human being he ever met
with. What he does not think of is that
it is his own inconslderate, constant fault
finding that has made every nerve so sensi-
tive and sore that the mildest suggestion
of advice or reproof, on the most indiffer-
ent subject, is impossible He has not,
to be sure, been the guilty party in this
mornings encounter; he has said only
what is fair and proper, and she has been
unreasonable and cross; but, after all, the
fault is remotely his
When Enthusius awoke, after marriage,
to find in his Hermione in very deed only
a bird, star, flower, but no housekeep-
er, why did lie not face the matter like an
honest man? Why did he not remember
all the fine things about dependence and
uselessness with which he had been filling
her head for year or two, and, in COM
mon honesty, exact no more from her
than he had bargained for? Can bird
make good business manager? Can a
flower oversee Biddy and Mike, and i'm
part to their uncircumcised ears the high
crafts and mysteries of elegant housekeep-
ing?
If his little wife has to learn her domes-
tic role of household duty as most girls
do by thousand notifications, a thou
sand perplexities, thousand failures, let
him, in ordinary fairness, make it as easy
to her as possible Let him remember
with what admiring smiles before mar
riage he received her pretty professions Of
utter helplessness and incapacity in do
nestle matters, finding only poetry and
grace in what, after marriage, proved an
annoyance.-Mrs. St0,ce.