Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1875-09-15
a Domestic Lesson.

other which love has given them only
to haraSs aud provoke-thruStiug and
piercing with Il certainty Of aim that
only past habits of confidence and af-
feclion could have put in their power,
wounding their own hearts with every
deadly thrust they make at one anoth-
J er, and all for such inexpressibIe miser-
able trihes rs usually form the open
ing Of fault finding dramas.
For the contentious that loosen the
very foundations OF love, that crumble
away all its fine traceries and carved
work, about what miserable, worthless
things do they commonly begin "a
dinner underdone, too much oil CON
sumed, newspaper torn. a'waste Of
coal Or soap, q dish broken-and for
this miserable sort of trash very good,
very generous, very religious people
will sometimes waste and throw away
by double handfuls the very thing for
which houses are built and coal burned,
and all the paraphern'lia Of 4 home
established-their hoppi"ess. Better
cold coffee, smoky tea, burnt meat, bet
ter any Inconvenience, than loss Of
lore and nothing 50 surely burns away
love as constant tauit.hnding.
For fanlt-finding once allowed as a
habit between two near and dear
friends comes in time to establish Il
chronic soreness, so that the mildest,
the most reasonable suggestion, the
gentlest-lmplied reproof, occasions
burning irritation and when this NOR
bid stage has once set in the restora
ton of love seems wcll-nigh impossi-
bic.
For example: Enthusius, having risen
this morning in the best Of humor, in
the most playful tones bcgs IIermione
not to make the tails OF her g's quite
so long and Hermione fires up with {:
"Aud pray, what else wouldn't you
wish me to do? Perhaps you would be
so good, when you have leisure, as TO
make out an alphabetical list of the
things in me that need correcting"
"My dear, YOU are very unreusona-
blc.'
don't think so. | should like to
get to the end of the requirments 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. Hermionc don't lets
quarrel
"My dear sir, who thinks of quar-
reling Not | I'm sure was only
asking to be directed. trust some
time, if | live to be ninety, to suit
your fastidious taste. | trust the cot
fee 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 base
ment premises and now | suppose
I'm to be trained in respect to my
general education. | shall set about
the tails Of my gs at once, but trust
you will prepare list of any other
little things that need amcnhation.'
Enthusis pushes away his coffee and
drums on the table.
IF | might be allowed one small
criticism, my dear, should observe
that 1t is not good manners to drum
on the table, says his fair opposite.
"I!ermoine, you are enough to
dive a man frantic T. eXclaims En-
,husius, rushing out with bitterness
In his soul and q determination to
take his dinner at Delmonicos.
Enthusius feels himself an abused
man and thinks there never was such
sprite Of woman-the most utterly
unreasonable, provoking human being
he ever met with. What he does not
think of is that it Is his own inconsid
crate, constant fault finding that has
made every nerve so sensitive and sore
that the mildest suggestion OF advice
or reproof, on the most Indifferent
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.
aud she has been unreasonable and
cross but, after all, the fault is re
motely his.
When Enthusius awoke, after MIR
riage, TO find in his Hermoine in very
deed only bird, a star, a flower, but
no housekeeper, why did he 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 filing her head for
year or two, and, in common hon
esty, exact no more from her than he
had bargained for? Can a bird make
a good business manager? Can flow
er oversee Biddy and Mike, and inn
part to their uncircumcised ears the
high crafts aud mysteries of elegant
housekeeping?
If his little wife has to learn her
domestic role of household duty as
most girls do by a thousand mortif
cations, thousand perpIexities, a
thousand failures. let him, in ordinary
fairness, make it as easy to her as
possible. Let him remember with
what admiring smiles before marriage
he received her pretty professions of
utter helplessness and incapacity in
domestic matters, finding only poetry
and grace in what, after marriage.