The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1879-09-11

sell or has wife was quite unnecessary.
But even these things were more ex-
cusable than the neglect of the common
est comforts of the household. For the
first 10 years of her married life my
friend managed to possess her soul in
patience without a drain to her kitchen
sink. Barns were built with fine cellars
and cisterns, but every drop of water
that came to the house for the supply of
Large family must be brought from 4
distance, and, after it had passed through
the wash-tub and the sink, it must be
poured beneath the kitchen windows,
there to give back its fragrance in the
heat of summer. and TO form mound
of ice in the cold of winter.
But when. at length, prosperity had
so far attended them as to warrant the
building of fine new house, the days of
such trials seemed over to my friend.
Imagine, then, her dismay at finding
the very same condition of things, with
a slight difference in two particulars:
The supply of water was several rods
farther from the house, and underneath
the kitchen windows was a tu6 to receive
the drainage, to be emptied when it was
entirely convenient for the men of the
household, and otherwise to overflow
and cause a running stream of foul wa
ter around the doors.
And then-well, | don't know what
happened then, but that is ID years ago,
and a tub is there still For, as my
friend merrily said, "men may come
and men may 70, but tubs stay there
forever Men of all trades have been
called to the farm to keep barns in re-
pair, and cattle well housed, and labor
ers are ALWAYS at hand, vet, in 10 years,
one days work could not be spared to
olga drain and lay pipe Il few rodsi
And this is the last half of the nineteenth
century, when every paper one takes up
Is full of sanitary measures relating to
this very thing. But what can be ex-
pected of man who is too poor even to
subscribe for a weekly paper, while a
daily would be quite out of the question?
As his wife argues, he is too poor not to
take one in these days of great improves
mentS.
L will say nothing of broken door-bells
left unhung for four years. or latehes off
for as many more, for these are only
among numberless minor matters which
have brought to my friend great incon-
yenience and WEAKNESS, but untold pa
tience and sweetness. To me, her hus-
band seems unutterably selfish; to her,
he is simply of so different a nature that
he does not realize how much a woman's
comfort depends upon such things. l
can not tell her what L can say here
that he ought to realize it: that his love
should teach him to consult her pleasure
if his intellect does not lay hold of the
reasons for her desires; that, though his
caresses may imply love, they will not
buy shoes for the children, nor give
them the benefits of cultivated society;
that, though money can not take the
place of love, little would sometimes
be an acceptable proof of it.
For it is just here that the seltishness
lies He will give her every thing that
she wishes, if the desire happens also to
be in the line of his own perceptions,
but that she should have an individual
want passes his comprehension. Salts
fled with her society himself, and with
the active life of the farm, he can not
the need in her of any wOm-
ans society beyond the kitchen maids.
Fortunately for her, she has proved her
self so valuable a friend that people are
not willing to give her up to solitude.
| could the more easily forgive this
man if he were of dull intellect and slow
comprehension in other respects, but,
on the contrary, though lacking in cul-
ture, he is, in most matters, a man of
quick perception, clear thought, and
sound Judgment, and withal, of a sweet
if that can be called sweet
which is merely neither sour nor sharp.
His children are fond of him, and his
wife loves him.
In times of great trouble or illness he
Is the anxious, watchful husband and
father, for he seems tolove tenderly that
which is a part of himself
Yet, because wife and children are a
part of himself, they must think his
thoughts and rest satisfied with his de-
cisions, though they may be made with
out the least reference to any individual
ity but his own.
do not wish to speak without that
charity that ''thinketh no evil,' but,
since life is so made up of these little
things, l can not help wishing, for her
sake, that my friend S husband would pay
a little attention to that other clause in
the same verse, .'Love seeketh not her
own" Unfortunately this man, not the
only one of his class, really thinks that
ne is doing "the very best he cam"
John says am making this article too
ong, and perhaps | am, though / have
not said a word about the experience of
another friend, an experience resulting
rom a kind of selfishness which is, | |
hink, more common among women than
men. | must not, however, say word /
,r shall want to tell the whole story.
But the portrait l have sketched here,
hOugh drawn from life, might, am
'orry to say, serve equally well with /
light changes as model for several
others besides my friends husband. even
n my own limited observation.
And the pity of it is, that they will fail |
o recognize their own portrait; while |
he best of tits, that those ofus who see
n it even the faintest likeness to our
elves, will strive all the more earnestly .
0 get away from the shadow of self into
he love that % looks also on the things
# others. "-PriScilla Alden, in the
Union.
Four WourS in tho narL