The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1878-02-14
Managing " Husbands.

Is there any thing, we wonder, thai
/ these dear readers of ours think we dc
not know? One would say not, to SCI
/ the questions that come to the editors
table during a year. Here is a good
woman now-six months married-whC
writes to us for advice as to ''the best
way of managing a husband" She is
sure it would do a great many puzzled
women good to get few hints in this
/ direction.
Yes-but how about the husbands
| VIII they thank us? Is there not dan
ger of their learning too much from such
! public advice? And does our inquiring
/ friend forget that we belong to that
/ class, and may be interested on the 9TH
er side of the question:?
However, we are always glad of a
topic, and so we will try to evolve a lit
/ tie wisdom out of this one. At least, we
shall get an article!
In the first place, then, according to
our notion, the true way to "manage a
husband " is not to manage him. The
most experienced and successful men,
molders and husband-tamers would
agree with US in the subtle wisdom of
this suggestion, we are confident. The
average man, high or low, is good deal
of p = o in one particular; the way to
get him to 90 north is try to drive him
to the south. He is also like the horse.
You can coax him to you with corn in
the measure; but if you leave out the
corn too many times, he is the deafest,
blindest, and most absolutely independ-
ent of all animals. He may let you
get very near him, but it is only for his
own diversion. Just as you are going
to slip the halter on, up fly his heels,
and away he goes!
Another thing: if a husband needs
too much management, itindicates that
there has been a mistake somewhere.
There should be but one will, in mar
ried couple that are truly mated, and
that should be the will Of-both. If the
husband is the head of the household
as it does not always happen,
by any means, the day having
gone by when sex alone outranks
natural endowmens of mind and spirit
is not the woman the heart? When,
as sometimes happens, the head and the
heart-the Judgment and the natural
affections or emOtiOns-come to an is
sue, one must give way. But when Love
is the umpire there can be no dispute,
nor any sense of injustice in the one who
yields We have known cOuples-not
so many as we could wish-each of
whom could truthfully say, after a doz-
en- or 20years' walking of "the long
path together, that they had had their
own way; because the necessary mutual
yielding had been done so cheerfully
and so wholly that but the one way re-
manned.
There is n certain sort of strong
headed, laundering, self-willed fellow
good enough at heart, but with mighty
queer ways Of showing it sometimes
who undoubtedly needs g managing in
the feminine sense. The recipe for
this-as old as Eve-we should be pre-
sumptuous to attempt to tell to any
woman possessed of the slightest knowl-
edge of men, But for those who have
not, we will repeat that it is simply
" honey-fugling" them into the belief
that they are having their own way,
when it is your way all the time. Illus
bands are requested not to analyze and
apply this too closely. The operation is
a really necessary one at times, and it
leaves every body happy-a sort of mat
rimOnial ether, producing a blessed I'M
consciousness, in which the pain of
O. giving up'' is not feltD
Some of the more direct methods of
managing husbands may be mentioned,
if it can be done without getting
"preachy." Keep him IN lore nth yov,
is the first injunction to a wife who asks
such a question. When that can be
done, all the rest follows. Hon. it can
be done, we do not know; you ought to,
if you know what he loved you for in
the first place We do not mean SIM
ply faithful, and provident, and kind
but I0Uing, with all the world of mean
ing which that very word of God con-
tains. 1t can not always be done; for
many men are selfish, sensual, devilish,
and more yet are careless and unstable.
But the good and true men who love
their wives are easily 90 manageable" in
all reasonable directions.
Uniform good nature and loving serv-
ice will make a company of street gam
ins tractable. Good-tempered persist
ence will wear away the rock of Grim
inal'S obstinacy or Indifference. Kind
ness viii propitiate a lion. Devotion
will inspire respect in the breast of
savage. Tact will supplement talent in
swaying state or leading the world.
And above and in all, and stronger than
all, is Love-" the impelling force of
life"
If with this equipment woman can't
manage her husband, she had better let
him manage her, or devote herself to
other fields of effort. - Golden Rule.