The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1878-07-31
Coujugal Discords.

The weaknesses aud follies of women
are theme on which men, from the sage
to the clown, have at all times been elo-
quent. Her natural coquetry in dress,
her maternal vanity, her devotion to the
little elegancies of the home, to clean
windows and fresh curtains, are mex
haustible sources of masculine merriment
or abuse. What housekeeper ever COM
planned of an aching back or of nervous
irritation without being scolded by her
| "lord" for some extra work she had done
in identifying the home? Men never
seem to learn that woman, as a rule, can
not find life endurable in the atmosphere
of dust and disorder which characterizes
bachelor housekeeping, and which seldom
disturbs the equanimity of the masculine
mind in the least. Men and women are
| so different in their tastes and ways that
there must always be discord and un-
| happiness in the household until the
| sexes give over trying to change or re-
model those tastes and ways, and learn
to respect them. Men must accept as
the fact that women to be happy must
have artistic, or at lenst dainty and COW
| environments, and women must learn to
preserve their souls in quiet when men
spill their tobacco and ashes over the
carpets and tables, for probably no man
ever lived who could fill a pipe, even
from wash tub, without scattering the
tobacco over the premises.
That the sexes will give over trying to
reform each other does not seem likely
to happen very soon. Indeed. one might
be pardoned for believing that matri-
money is specially adapted to develop all
the imperfections and manners # human
character, and that even it those match
that are made in heaven, the devil ar
ranges all the subsequent conditions.
There is hardly pure and innocent de-
light that unmarried women enjoy which
they can carry into that blissful world
bounded by the marriage-ring. One of
those delights is that of squandering a
little money, which is merely the equiva-
lent of man spending it as he likes, with
out according to any one. Few wives
can do this and be subjected to the hu-
initiation of hearing the hunsband say.
my dear, are you not q little extrava-
giant? Is all that money gone that gave
you last week."
| Men and women seem incapacitated, in
the very nature Of things, from under
standing each other While mutually
enamored they meet as upon bridge-a
Bridge OF Signs perhaps; break this and
they are for ever separated us by any i'm
passible gulf. Leaving aside entirely the
enamored state, do men as rule seek
the society of women and prefer it to
that Of men? The thriving clubs. the
billiard and drinking saloons, and. the
other resorts Of men common all over the
civilized world, seem very like a mega
tive answer to the question.
In savage life we know that the sexes
90 not hunt or fish or do any work to.
gether. In our modern drawing-rOoms
most men confess themselves .'bored.' .
They long to get away to their clubs OF
some other resort of their fellows. When
husbands spend their evenings at home.
if no one happens to call, it is not com
mon for them to enter into long an exhil-
Grating conversations with their wives.
To be sure, wives are too often ignorant
of the subjects that interest intelligent
men; still, not more ignorant than before
marriage, when the one bridge upon
which the could meet was unproken
Then conversation never tagged; it was
ever new and enhancing. Both talked
pure nonsense, while having the art Of
kissing full sen-e into empty words
i On the other hand, it is, / think, quite q
defensible proposition, despite the infer
ences to the contrary drawn from the
the failure Of the Women's Hotel, that
women enjoy conversation with women
more than with men when there is nc