Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1875-09-03


saddest Of all sad things is Il to see two
once very dear friends employing all that
peculiar knowledge Of each other which
love has given them only 10 harass and
provokeSthrusting and piercing with
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 inexpressi-
bly, miserable trii1es as usually form the
openings of faultflnding 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 under
done, too much oil consumed, 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 bandfuls the very
thing for which houses are built and coal
burned, and all the paraphernalia OF
homo established-their happiness. Better
cold coffee, smoky tea, burnt meat, better
any inconvenience, any loss, than loss
of lone, and nothing so surely burns away
love as constant faulthnding.
For faulthnding once allowed as n hab
IL 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-implled re:
proof, occasions burning irritation; and
when this morbid stage has once set in
the restoration Of love seems well-nlgh
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'squite so long; and
Hermione fires up with:
"And, pray, what else wouldn't you
wish me to dor 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 unreasonable"
81 don't think so. l 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"
my dear sir, who thinks of quarrel
ingf Not | I'm sure | was only asking
Il 4
10 be ninety, TO suit your fastidious taste.
l 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
upperstory hall-door, and the basement
premises; and now l suppose I'm to be
trained in respect to my general education.
| shall set about the tails Of my g's ut
once, but trust you will prepar n list Of
any other little things that meet amenda-
ton"
Enthusius pushes away his cvilee and
drums on the table.
"If might be allowed one small criti-
cism, my dear, should observe that 1t is
not good manners to drum on the table,"
says his fair opposite.
" Hermione, you are enough to drive
man franticr 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
1t 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 indifier-
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
bird, star, flower, but no housekeep-
er, 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 filling
her head for a year or two, and, in COM
mon honesty, exact no more from her
than he had bargained forf Can bird
make good business managerY 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, thou
sand perplexities, a thousand failures, let
him, in ordinary fairness, make 1t 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
mestic matters, finding only poetry and
grace in what after marriage, proved an
ANNOYANCE -H(yS .SiOLbs