Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-06-26


thinking that he can neither be
wrong nor mistaken, is a sore griey-
ance, quite sufficient to extinguish
all thought of her constant and
patient self-abnegation. Indeed,
this, which is like most other SUI
preme virtues, its own reward is
seldom honored by having its ex-
istence recognized. Has she not
the excessive honor, glory and pride
of being his wife? and is not that
sufficient to render it the duty of
any moral woman daily to thank
Providence for her unspeakable
good fortune?
AS has been already said, the
women men really like, are the real
fools, and those who have the SUI
perlatiye talent to appear SO; the
former they love, though in
sighting, contempsuous manner,
regulated chiefly by personal at
traction; the latter they adore, and
are led unsuspecting slaves by the
fair jailers, who, if outward ador-
ing, inwardly laugh at and despise
them. The fools attract them by
physical beauty, by their utter alb
sence Of intellect, and therefore of
any power of wounding the cher
ished masculine idea of mental alb
solution, and by their general kit.
tenish and coaxing ways. AS
rule, they are utterly devoid of any
deep feeling, but petting and kiss
ing are about the only occupation
besides dressing and flirting of
which they are capable; and they
have just the instinct to know that
men are very amenable to the ca
resses of a pretty woman. 1t is
true that the charm only endures
while she is young and pretty; but
even when she is old there is the
fact that she has never wounded
her husbands egregious vanity as
have her intellectual and straight
forward sisters; she has equivocated
and romanced and made things
generally pleasant, and receives a
certain amount Of general tolera-
tion. Moreover, she has no sensi-
tive feelings, and no comprehension
of the value Of the words justice or
injustice ; her husband has called
her a fool times beyond number,
and if he has spoken loudly or
Grossly she has cried at his tone
rather than at his words; but the
word itself has made no impression
upon her, and the next time he
gives her a caress she dries her
tears and adores him worse than
ever.
The assumed fool is the mistress
Of the situation; she has COM
prehensive brain, with a distinct
turn for intrigue, and both honor
and truth are to her words and
nothing more. She knows how
dexterously to fatter a mans van
ity, to let him believe himself the
wisest Of mankind, when in truth
every sensible word he utters is due
to her direct inspiration she can,
with imperturbable countenance,
hear him say, when some one ad-
dresses her on particular subject,
"0h, it's no use of your talking to
my wife about such things; | never
make her understand them," while
she is conscious that every argu-
ment he has used has been learned
direct from her. Her powers of
invention are both unbounded and
artistic. When a storm is seen to
lower on her lords brow, she is
ready with some pleasing fiction,
some laudatory phrase of an apoc-
ryphal admirer, and she has her
recompense in the renewed sun
shine. Naturally, she soon acquires
supreme command and it is power
which su h women love, and for
which they are willing to undergo
any trouble or discomfort. She lets
her lord know nothing but what
she judges requisite, suppressing all
possible disagreeable details, and
softening those that must Of ne
cesSity be known and she reaps
her reward in an alteration that
knows no bounds. 1t is true he
has not the faintest conception of
what he owes her, nor yet suspi-
cion of the utterly double life
which his wife lives. He is happy,
delighted, adoring; she is sublime
ly contemptuous of the vanity of
which, nevertheless, she takes such
full advantage, and utterly careless
of the affection she exeites, except
ing in so far as it conduces to her
own ends. She disguises her intel
lect as carefully as if it was a
sin, and not unfrequently passes
among her husbands friends as a
frivolous, silly woman, but always
pleasant and good tempered, and il
is hardly demonstrative of the doc
trine that men like to find real IN
tollectual companionShip in woman
to observe that while the clever wo,
men in a room are left to talk tc
each other, the fools, whether real
or assumed, whose talk is Of balls,