The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1875-11-03
THE MODERN HUSBAND.
Various Facts In Regard 10 that
Useful Person.

From the Golden Age.l
He is not unsympathetic and hard. His
I 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 I'M
\ fits his tongue for the utterance of sweet
and dainty nothings which occupy so
large place in the vocabulary Of wo-
mems expectations. He Is decidedly
matteroftact. He takes n great deal for
granted, and wants his wife to assume
something, and not look for vain repeti-
tions 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, insensibly, but efiectually, and
he appears Indifferent without knowing
it. He is absorbed in his business plans
and ambitions, and cannot pretend to
the least enthusiasm in his wifes ruffles
and laces and lawns, and his enjoyment
of her new set Of jewels is materially
abated by the prospective raid upon his
bank account. In modern life the differ
entiations are vastly greater than in the
old days, when husband and wife worked
together behind the counter and on the
farm, each understanding the labor of
the other, and joining as true yoke-feI-
low in drawing the mutual load. The
modern husband earns for his wife to
spend and he earns in methods and UNI
der conditions she does not understand,
50 that her advice is worthless, and even
her sympathy eXhales oftentimes without
his notice. The new condition under
which we live and Labor affect domestic
haIaito and ineon5ibl3- -anot ON disnnsitio,
and character. Once husband and wife
spent most of their time together; now
they spend most of it apart, and cannot
follow each other through the trans
actions of a day even in Imagination.
They are less mutually 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 somo respects as he |
might be, and as she would like to have |
him. He has not kept his first estate -
He is a harder, drier, more worldly crea-
ture than she took him to be. He thinks
more of soup than of sentiment, and di-
gestion occupies a larger place than mu-
sic or society in the economy of his life. |
But in spite of all Attachments, he is es-
sentially true and prevailingly kind
He thinks more than he says, and feels |
deeply oftentimes when he says nothing.
He puts love into labor and expresses
his confidence and tenderness in wise
provisions and unsentimental bank notes.
He prays less than his grandfather, but |
he pays better and is less Of tyrant.
The word "obey" has dropped out Of his
iolo he Ice
ton he exacts less service in return. The |
wife in the old days had a hard lot She
was the silent member Of the matrimOni-
al firm. Most of her nature was sup
pressed. She was under bonds. Her
lord commanded, and she obeyed in fear
and trembling oftentimes. In most ca
ses she wrought more like a slave than a
wife and as no Slave would. In a Gene
terry not thousand miles from here
stand six black stones in a row, marking
the graves Of husband and his five
wives. "Yes," said our guide, "Deacon
Smith had five wives, $50 acres, twenty
eight children, the fOrehandest man in
town, and had famous funeral" An
intelligent coroner's jury might discover
a visible connection between the aches Of
the women and the acres Of the farm,
and attribute their mortality to something
other than the mysterious dispensations
of Providence. The modern husband
does not wear his wife out in butter ma
king or child bearing. She neither
weaves nor spins, and the tailor makes (
his coat, if he does not sew on his but
tons He treats his wife more as a COM
panion than drudge He takes pride
in her wit, enjoys her singing, admires
her taste and is pleased with the society
she draws around their fireside. The old
ardor is not utterly gone, although it 10
longer flashes into EXPLANATIONS of endear-
ment ; and it only needs the breath of a
real occasion to blow what seemed the
dead embers Of affection into brilliant
flame. Scarcely a day passes that we do
not hear of some beautiful instance Of
devotion and selfsacrifice on the part of
those whom it is too much the fashion to
ridicule for selhshness and accuse Of inf
delity. The steady toll and devotion Of
a lifetime are a thousand times more
precious than gallant protestations, and
the husbands who stood sinking with fold
ed arms on the deck Of the sinking steam
ship, choosing to 20 down in death with |
their wives rather than escape and leave /
them to their fate, illustrates in a pictu- |
rescue and thrilling way what thousands |
of modern husbands are doing every day. |