River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1877-04-26
WIVES, SECRETS.

though we bv no means vOuch LOT ~ 40
to those secrets which are entrusted to
them by others, but it is certainly not the
truth in regard to their own. These they
win occasionally hold to with tenaclty
unequaled by any secretiveness OF the
male sex.
There is the essential difference be-
tween the motives for the retention OF
their secrets by men and women, that
while the former ordinarily refuse dis
closure to the latter from contempt, fear
commonly prompts the reciprocal reserve
of these.
r There are unquestionabiy many things
which husband, father and son would
carefully withhold from wife, mother and
daughter through a reverential dread OF
offense to modesty and respect; and thus
il is that the cultivation Of the most lntl-
mate confidence in all the family relations
with woman is the surest safeguard OF
mans purity. This is the liberal educa-
ton. in its highest sense, which Steele, IN
his lofty tribute TO one of England's fair
est ana nobiest women, said it was to
know her. A faithful attachment TO
high-minded woman seeks conformity
with her moral excellence, and release
from every drag of grossness which may
hinder that delicacy of sentiment which
alone can raise it to the elevated SYM
pathy to which it aspires. No man who
really loves an excellent woman can long
possess stains which require hiding. The
pr1est men, however, though they refuse
10 cherish any feeling of the heart at va
rance with the moral sentiment OF those
women worthy of their symaathy, and
Consequently have nothing of the kind to
conceal from them, may yet be very Sc
cretive. Husbands will often regard
their wives as proper confdantes to whom
may be trusted every concern OF the
heart, and yet deem them quite insult
able for the least revelation of matters of
business. These are generally the secrets
withheld by husbands from their wives,
and the motive which prompts their con-
cealment is the contempt with which
man ordinarily regards the intelligence
of woman.
The excessive fondness of some women
/ for trinkets and fine clothes frequently
I leads them into expenses which they are
induced to conceal for fear of the dis
pleasure of their husbands. These are
| often, it must be confessed, such crusty
dihpeaas5 IF ffaRsir s oSS8 nsSXsp gyhsdh 6f
I ture of q household, that their wives pre-
sent their habitual accounts and make
their necessary demands with fear and
trembling. 1t is not, therefore, surpris-
/ ing that woman who has been tempted
/ by her love of finery or other motive to
/ incur an irregular and exorbitant expense
Z should dread to disclose the fact to any
/ husband not endowed with more than
/ the average good nature and readiness to
disburse of his kind.
There are women, however, who will
have their bit of glistening gewgaw, be
/ it what it may at any hazard, and if they
cannot presume upon the indulgence of
a husband, they will, unless they have
/ the courage to defy, which is rare, evade
I by some means or other, the severity they
+ have reason to dread from him. With a
magpie cunning they will avail them
selves of the oldest articles of conceal
ment, and the most familiar but least
suspected localities are often chosen for
favorite hiding places. They have been
known, for example, to cover up an ir-
resistible piece of new silk with the dirty
clothes, and put acoveted bit of jewehy
into the meat tray, so that a grumpy
+ husband has paid the quarters bills OF
+ the washer-woman and butcher, not, in
deed, without grumble at their exor-
/ bitancy, but with no suspicion of the
cause. These resources are, however not
always available; there is limit to the
capacity of the most expensive accounts
| of grocer and market-man, and to the be-
/ lief of the most credulous husbands
! Wives are often tempted to indulge
/ their love of expense to an extent which
renders all little articles of concealment
useless. They accordingly, unable, like
most spendthrifts, to resist the immediate
/ fruition OF prodigal caprice, get at once
/ whatever fills their coyetous eyes for the
moment, and leave the consequences,
whatever they may be, to the future.
They thus incur debts, assd when the de-
mand comes, as it must, for their pay
ment. the foolish women bethink them
selves, for the first time, of the reluctant
! paymasters at home, surrounded by all
the terror of angry and storming hus-
bands. Tt
Many of the articles of the toilet are
merely means by which the vanity of
woman seeks to hide her secrets of in
creasing age and diminishing beauty
from the world. Women should be re-
minded of the frequent futility of their
efforts They alone are ordinarily the
victims of the deceit they practice, for
! they are deluded with the idea that they
are deluding others, when they are only
deluding themselves. Their attempts
not merely fail in their object of giving
them the grace and beauty of youth, but
I actually rob them of the charms that be-
/ long to age.
We are by no means disposed to en-
courage the plaintive class of affectedly
ailing women, but we believe that there
/ are many wives who unwisely deprive
! themselves of the sympathy which is
+ their due and of the care they require by
hiding their sufferiugs, through fear of
either disheartening or perhaps repelling
/ their husbands. 1t is astonishing with
what bravery some women will bear the
I intensest agony, and with what resolu-
I ton suppress its cries. Lady Mary
+ Wortley Montagu, with a cancer gnaw-
/ ing at her vitals for years, continued the
/ brilliant wit and cheerful woman to the
I last, without raising suspicion in all
the gay society of which she was the gay
est that she suffered the least pain, or had
occasion for it. Horace Walpole visited
her when she returned, at the age of
seventy-two, from her long wanderings,
to die and be buried in England, and
says: Her face is less changed in
twenty years than l could have imagined
told her so, and she was not so toler-
able" adds the ill-natured gossip,
twenty years ago that she should have
taken it for fattery; but she did, and lit
orally gave me box on the ear. She is
very lively, and all her senses perfect
/ This was only few months before the
brave woman's death.-Hdyper's Bdsdr.