Arizona weekly enterprise., 1882-04-01
As to Wives.

lS. only when q woman becomes a wiiS ruu can see her true character. Be- fore this epoch she Is so cramped in con- ventionalities that her very sonl Is kept covered up, and the heart has no room for healthy action. But the bonds are broken on her wedding-day, when, from d chrysssli5 condition, she comes out a butterfly, or bee, or perchance q wasp. Then she begins to breathe freely, and to aim at the supreme happiness of womanl1ind-tne having her own way. The husband, still stiff in his own con- ceit, Is fairly startled and shaken with the shock of surprise The meek and modest maiden whom he courted so cav alierly soon shows him she is woman with tongue and with temper, and a woman who will have her own way. When he talks about home and happi- ness and the duties of wife, all in cap- itals, she laughs at him for his inno- cence, and wants to know if he would treat her as a child, as did her nurse, and her governess, and her mother, asd her charelon, to keep up the proprie- ties.
 Possibly some of his over-weening conceit Is thus laughed out of him, and he agrees to take his proper place as his wifes husband, giving up with a sigh the good old copybook and church-ser- vice notices about being her lord and master, and gettiug from her nothing but honor and obedience. If this sensi- ble conclusion be quietly come to, all may yet be well; and should he bear the yoke gracefully, his wife will be easy with him, will let him have his own way in little things, and look as docile as a dove when company IS present. But in case the unlucky husband clings to the ancient superstition of his own authority, then will be war to the knife, and none can tell what will happen, save the certain ending that, at some time or other, the wife will succeed in having her own way To watch woman training her husband to fetch and carry is a delightful past1me for those who are inclined to philosophic study. With heaven-born instinct the wife knows ex- actly when to smile and when to frown, ard where touch of the whip or tongue will be most etfectual. Graciously giy- ing way to his wishes, after they have been suggested by herself, she turns him round her little finger, and holds him up laughingly to the gaze of won, dering world.
 Women are not generally humorists but they cannot help feeling the fun ol the thing when they so successfully manage their husbands, who all the while think they are managing them This artful appearance of innocence and obedience Is, indeed, the surest sign that a wife is having all her own way She is not so foolish as to care for all the semblances of power. He may seem i be the master, and really act as the fig head of the vessel but the wife 1 rult the rudder, and steers the shil whithersoever she may chance to wish ! Every wise married man knows this tC l be so, and bows to tine inevitable. But 1 then, few husbands are wise and they i therefore, only to often expose them | selves to the ridicule of the philosophiC 1 few. who see things as they are, ant smile serenely at the spectacle of th' bold lions being driven, each il single harness, in the chariot of Home 1 They are but poor company, these mar ried men being either tanned out of al knowledge, or else restless in chafns
 under the bit and the reins. Theil wives are far more sociable and amusing because they are women of the world who have shown the strength of thei character by choosing men for husbands and then having everything their owl .Y