The Indianapolis leader. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1879-1890, 1880-05-22
HOME.
why May Not Man Take His Real Troub-
les Home-One Particular Recognition of
Woman's Rights.


that man should never carry into his HON
the smell of the shop. We are told wit
much owlish oracularity that we have n
right to raise the veil that hides our hearth
from the smoke of the worlds sordid con
flcts; that how keen soever our anguish, w
must suffer and make no sign lest we darker
the light of home. That was pretty fancy o
the poet who, in telling the pathetic story
of her sailor-brother's loss, found consolation
| i'm the thought that his sbeauteous head
if it did 90 down, carried sunshine into tn,
sea-
would like to be able to say that in al
the wrecks of human ventures, men might
carry only sunshine into the realms OF those
who love and wait for them; but that would
be to argue state of existence quite to bea-
tifc for us who are yet in the tolls of earth. IL
one be hurt his pain is soothed by soft caress
ing. The lad makes even stone bruise endur-
able by his gentle tickling oft once saw a
brown-faced boy who came home, from an
excursion to q blackberry patch, with athorn
in one of his feet. Through days and nights
his torments were excruciating, until he dis
covered that tickling gave him easement, and
from that time until the thorn was removed,
some member of the family had employment
in tickling the center of suffering. "Men are
but children of larger growth" and if there
are sometimes thorns in their hearts, whittier
but home should they go to have them
"tickled?" There are no common hospitals
where that kind of surgery is practiced.
Only the home surgeon, whose love is skill,
and whose name is woman, can wisely or
safely be trusted with that class of patients.
You will be surprised, perhaps, to learn that
her clinics are very numerous and very un-
pretentious, and that her cures are among
the most wonderful achievements humanity
has known. She claims the Office as her in
disputable prerogative. 1t is hers by every
right OIL earth. She will not be deprived of
it. She instantly and angrily ressts any at
tempt to wrest it from her, and so far as /
know She has never yet failed of successful
resistance l have q strong conviction that
men with thorns in their hearts only aggrav-
vate their torments by trying to conceal them.
Let them bare the sore places that the healer
may know how best and soonest to heal.
Observation has shown me that the man
who takes his troubles-real troubles--home
to his surgeon-in-chief, is cured of them a
thousand times when any other course would
render them only the more burdensome.
This seems to me to have the recommended
ton of common sense, and do not hesitate
to advise its general adoption. 1t is kind
of mock heroics not to do so. One OF the
first proofs of love wife demands is that she
be given opportunities to put to practical
use her Hottest and divinest attribute, COM
passion, twin of love. Ask that of her-give
her to know your need of it-and she is
equal to all occasions; a very genius in ex
pedients; worker of miracles by sympathy,
and revolutionizer of accepted conditions
In that she stays and strengthens where all
her life before she was content to be the
clinging vine. 1t is trite compliment to the
real underlying nature of woman to say that
by suffering is her exaltation achieved and
her all-daring courage animated; but think
we owe it to her to add that not her own but
Others suffering is the electric spark that
sets her soul on fire and nerves her arm to
draw the bow of mighty Odysseus. In her
best mood woman is always mans surest trust.
1 do not care what tempests roll the heaving
waters of his mans nature, it is her voice
commanding "Peacei" that stays the flood.
Let him then, anchor his faith to her, and
when he sleeps she will hold the helm with a
steady hand and conscience that never
cheats on watch.
Goethe has in Wilhelm Meister limned
with loving and skillful hand the calm, self
poised, cleared headed and reassuring woman
who makes her home the mans Mecca of re-
pose. There he can say with the silvery
singer over the sea:
sAnd now arrives Q lull in the hot race
Wherein he doth forever chase
That flying and elusive shadow, Rest
Such are the homes that most women make.
or would make if given fair encouragement.
1t is no uncommon thing to see woman
whose generalship in the shifting and endless
round of domestic affairs is of the highest
order. To keep this machinery moving with
out Jar or creak asks qualities which, directed
in any channel where men alone are permitted
to try their skill, would be productive of great
results. Among these qualities are tact, pa
thence, frmness, adaptability to varying con-
ditions, power of concentrating thought, de-
votedness, economy in time and money, order
the cunning hand, the wise head, the soft
heart, government, knowledge of gastronomyy
(of supreme importance) and the "knack" Of
being simultaneously in many places. Set 9
hundred men in line and tell me how many
would or could discharge the functions of tina;
office even passably. For my own part had
rather undertake happy outcome OF the
Chinese treaty. / should take some homes
pride in being endowed with like qualities
and when run over the long catalogue o
elegant accomplishments in which those sam
domestic diplomats have mainly educated
themselves my admiration is certainly no
lessened. And by that token l am remindet
that the estimate which men myself anon!
the many are apt to put on womans worl
is both ignorant and supercilious. l am
good deal ashamed that did not make tn
discovery long ago Possibly my humilia
| ton grows out of the consciousness that
| failed see that which all ought to recogniz
at glance; but at any rate feel better tina
| The confession is out.
| l regard this particular recognition of VIC
mans rights as one of those practical, every
day essentials to the composition of the idea
horne, and hope it may help many of us
better understanding of the truth. l d
not come to the confessional on this point i
a wholly unselfsh spirit. The fact is 1 Sc
that the more justly, not t
say chivalrously, we deal wit
women the stronger is our assurance of
responsive compensation. Women will no
as rule, consent to be outdone by us in t..
practice of those graces which make compar
ionship of the sexes ennobling-nor indee
in the smallest interchange of courteous wor
and act. You that have wives, let me ret
ommend as an experiment (if you hay
never tried it) social homeopathic treatmen
When your dinner is to your taste speak of
in as complimentary phrase as you would
you were dining with your neighbor's wi
and your neig hbor's wife's husband. ]
your moments of Burgundy glow, or Havar
serenity, perhaps you might discover
brightness in your wifes eye; rose in b
cheek; sonnet in her hair; sentiment
, her soft flowing drapery, or note OF mus
in its rustic. Then there are times VIII,
, the opera or the play is very efficacio'
,, Great rs woman can be on great occasio
, | che can vet extract a world of hannins