The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1875-11-19
YOURS TRULY" HEARD FROM.

and she (the silly mother) has been
peevish and cross, and Phil has been
dictatorial and ''smart"-indeed, you
couldn't touch him with a forty-foot
pole if you tried, Mrs. D., he's so con-
ceited about that little pug-nosed polly
wOg, which he accosts continually in an
awkward attempt at dignity, with the
appellation - alluding, of course, to
himself-of "its delighted dad"
But Yours Truly isn't delighted; not
bit of it. The paregoric and soothing
syrup and nursing-bottle and catnip and
collie that she's had to contend with
have nauseated, disgusted and discour-
aged her.
What business had Phil to come back
to the governors and impose all these
family cares upon girl of the period ?
Mother, dear patient invalid that she
is, says, quietly, that she never used
any of the absurd nostrums that our
mantel is heaped with when her chill
dren were babies. But she's perfectly
childish over PhiPs pug-nOsed peace
disturber, and will spoil the squalling
urchin if the soothing-syrup doesn't;
and Yours Truly expects nothing else
but that she's to be a martyr to the
young one till it gets out of pinafores.
"Serves you right" says the gov
ernor, as he kicks his boots in the cor
ner and scatters the newspapers to the
right and left like an overgrown boy,
'for you might get married yourself
An old maid is always an duntie.'
Now, who would have thought of
Yours Truly being an "old maid ?"
Would you, Mrs. D.? Why, she isn't
out of her teens yet, with all her expe-
rience and sagacity. Besides, how is a
girl of the period going to get married
while such paragraphs as this are going
the rounds of the newspapers, she'd like
to know?
1t is certain that the prevailing extravaganza
for snowy dress and expensive ornamentation
among our girls, with their attendant frivoli-
ties and follies, inclines thousands of young
men away from matrimony. They greatly
prefer TO marry. But how to support Q wife is
the question. If they think seriously OF a help
mate one look at the window of a millinery
shop dissipates that delusiOn. They have
| learned that fashion has become the ruling
passion with the majority; and they rightly
Judge that, If their income cannot sustain the
fashions the wife is one of the most uncertain
things in the world; for what is love with a
fashionable woman unless her passion Tor dis
play can be gratified? They see, in prospect
i've married life certain toll, probable Invalid
! ISM and uncertain happiness. They choose
the lesser of two evils, and remain single
They hirt, but do not propose. They court, but
do not marry.
Now, Mrs. D., speaking after the
manner of the supporters of women,
"the climax is capped"
Chow to support wife" is the ques-
ton. Of course it isn't to be presumed
that the wife is anything but an expen-
sive luxury. Whoever dreamed of q
woman who, to quote one of your lee.
lures, Mrs. D., "washes, bakes and
stews and fries; and makes and mends
and washes dishes; whose whole mar.
ried life is continued study, not as tc
what she shall spend, but what she car
do without" being anything more Ol
less than an expensive burden to the
self-sacrificing, economical man of the
era, who would greatly prefer tc
marry" but Zone look at a millinery
shop dissipates the delusion."
Now, Mrs. D., who blames the men
Certainly not Yours Truly. For ISM
there a cigar stand just ahead? anC
aren't Havanas GaCfuILy expensive? AnC
! then, there's the billiard-room and the
doggery, and the club and the race
course, and the fast woman-how cOulC
any economical young man think o
giving up these luxuries, albeit hi
cheats his mother, who has alway!
been his landlady and washerwoman
out OF one of those same marvels o
millinery that hangs in the window
and frightens him-how could he think
of abandoning any of these for the ex
pensive luxury of home, with a dea
little wife in a pretty bonnet, with ruff
fies and laces ad Abitum.
Phil, proud as he is of that pug noseC
parasite, to which he cooingly calls
himself ''its delighted dad" (excus,
Yours Truly, Mrs. D., she believes sh,
said something like that before), prouC
as he is, the poor fellow feels that he's
ruined man, almost, for bis expenses arr
so heavy now he's married-and yet ht
remorselessly packs the heaviest o
them upon the devoted shoulders o
Yours Truly, who endures all in silenc
THAT'S doubtful.-ED. while he denie
himself of absolutely nothing, excep
an occasional all-night at the club.
His wife-dear little growler, VIII,
really is sweet when she is well, poo
thing-hasn't had a new bonnet sine
she married him; and she has cut u
her wedding finery, that she earned b,
teaching while single, to make clothing
for that pug-nosed plaything; and ye
Phil had the audacity to read tha
: quoted paragraph in her presence thi
: morning, and sigh over his matrimo
nial expenses, and set Yours Truly t
} indignant scribbling, while the smok
f from his Havana stifled the air, and th
little wife darned busily at pair of di
f lapidated stockings, because, being
3 married woman, she no longer gets an,