Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1875-06-24
! picture Of Married Life in Paris.

This Is Thine A young man mas mar
red 4 Partisan beauty: Before she was
married her life was confined TO this
seeing her friends, paying visits 70 I'VE OF
SIX grave people, behaving herself proper
| " in drawing-room, playing upon inc
piano. etc. Sic continues this life, ana
would think it Strange to have to change
Il He did not know her, and could no.
well have known her When l courted
nv wife each visit was an inspection;
cousins. male and female, uncles, aunfs,
passed me in review. Nothing but cere-
mony, no intimate conversations. Of our
future projects no chance for aword. One
must be gallant; had to follow my wife 5
wishes, and ihat is why our furniture Is In
such bad TASTE The void Is made. and
now all conversation flags between them.
She is waiting for visit from friend
before she makes up her mind whether she
shall put green stitch instead OF yellow
stitch in her tapestry. Thereupon he
takes advantage of the diversion, seizes his
hat, and runs off. Impossible TO interest
her in his preoccupations, his thoughts,
the difficulties which he must surmount,
and which are too special for her under
standing. Sometimes he lowers them to
the level of her intelligence. But they
make no impression upon her; her lDtelli-
gence and education afford no hook on
which TO hang them She listens to their
recital rs part OF ordinary conversations
and thinks no more of it. They disa-
gree on the very groundwork OF
life-about religion and society. lie
said out loud--rather imprudentiy, too
that many a man has become a
priest to avoid being soldier; that before
fifty woman has no other ideas than
those she has learned from others, etc.
She contradicted him--no Difference or
submission, even in matters OF Intellect
He tries 10 instruct her, and finds resist
ance in the soil, which is hard because
uncultvated In fact she has been
brought up without ideas or solid reading,
Just as all young girls with their little
manuals of facts as dry as pebbles, and
the catechism Of perseverance laid over it
as q stucco and varnish. All the intellect
ual formation stone Of France, all the ma
tional bed above which grow the special
ties and superiorities of Paris, are the
aame as in the Middle Ages. The little
books of the Name Library give the tone
to French education. Their two lives re-
main divergent, and he feels it. They
will always remain SO, and he feels that
also. He will not initiate her; he cannot
make of her the second in his life, and is
resigned to it. The evenings already
seem TO him very long and void. How c-
cupy and amuse q woman forever! She
sits ut the piano and plays; passsbly well
or only ordinarily well, it is all one--a
goldfinch in a cage. You cannot forever
be telling it 70 sing and putting the littlo
bucket in its claw. He fortunately per-
ceives that she has an aptitude which is
developing itselt-the talent of housekeep-
ing She had never known what louis
was. She learns and practices economy.
No other outlet for her-that is the only
one proportional TO her education and her
intelligence. Could one have believed it
Of her, with that pretty face 50 expressive
in its saucy and original gracey in this
way at least she will'be useful and will
feel herself useful. 1t is & good house
hold, and both Of them belong to that mid
die bo,age0isie where good households are
to be found in greatest number"