Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1882-02-24
Price Four Cents.
Wives as Trained by Men.

Wives as Trained by Men
Experiments Husbands Make and With
what sueceSs-Certafn Accomplish
ments to be Mastered or the Marriage
to be Null and Notwithstanding a
Young Girl with Natrimony in View
Thomas Days Dron Undertakings.
From the London spectat0r-I
Sir James Hammer has had before him q
case in which man. marrying woman IN
der circumstances which gave him some
power over her, though not the power
which he supposed, forced upon her pre-
nuptial agreement, in which there was one of
the oldest clauses that ever entered the head
of a marrying man. This hero appears to have
been urging the woman to learn 'tpiano. sing
ing, reading, writing, speaking and deport-
ment," and now gets her to agree that If
within four months, with the loan of his
harmonium, these accomplishments are not
mastered, the marriage shall be null and void.
Whether he really believed in the validity of
this chivalric stipulation does not much mat
ter the vulgar think the words 'swhereasn
and aforesaid" can do wonders and even
the educated writer's make strange mistakes
concerning the law of marriage But the
story suggests hundred cases, recorded and
unrecorded, in which men have endeayored
to train up wives for themselves beforehand
them to their will. The lighter aspects of
the latter case are too common in story book
and farce to need more than q passing refe-
renee but it has serious aspect, too, which
also has been touched by poets, noyelists and
moralists
By grzces he himself had taught
is the dictum of Fredericks mother, in Mr..
Coventry Patmore's Faithful for Ever, :"
and II is frrra
may pretend to the contrary. OF course the
poet refers not to Undersigned teaching or IN
conscious learning, in which man and wife,
like any other friends, help to modify each
other, but to deliberate efforts on the part of
the husband to work his wife up to a certain
model, efforts such as we may imagine
James Mill to have made early in his mar
left" Mrs. Wraggs may have borne that sort
of education, but the average woman viii
either rebel or die under it.
There Is another case within our scope.
however, in which what is called married
happiness has been attained We mean the
case in which man. taking fancy to girl
(perhaps very young, and admiring hsr
character and abilities, sets her apart quietly.
waits for few years before he speaks to her
of marriage, and in the meanwhile has her
educated in way of his own, or at least in
way which the girl did not naturally look
for. There is no question of love, in the
finer sense, here but of ordinary attach
ment, pitched, perhaps, q little higher than
usual; more carefully cherished, more
thoughtfully led on to its natural end A
sort of romance about such case, of course,
there is !; but, after all, when a man makes
call every now and then to see how his sin
tended"-the word acquires new force In
that views getting on, and generally how
near she comes to pattern, there is something
about it which reminds you of watching how
the bread rises, or how the stuff takes the
dye. Of course, too, there may be worse
accidents than even the breads not rising st
ALL But there are many fortunate cases.
Thomas Day, the author of SANFORD and
Merton" made experiments in wife training
which are among the drollest things on rec
ord, but they we're failures of kind to wake
up even the creator of the portentous Alr
Barlow to the presence in life of factors too
high for him. 1t was all very well for Mr.
Barlow to discourse to AIr. Merton of s.Po-
lemo, who, from debauched young man.
became celebrated philosoper and a model
of virtue, only by attending a single moral
lecture" but when 1t came to two skittish
lasses Mr.. Day discovered that many moral
lectures were needed, and that be was not
the right lecturer for the desk Mr.. Day
was man of true humanity, mAgnanimity
and earnestness. and, perhaps, the most sim
pie hearted optimist that ever lived He
aourished within the 80 years preceding the
great French revolution, and endeaT-
ored to model his own life and that
of others upon the example of 1.-THE most
virtuous Greeks and Romans" He Was
most generous with his money, but had "a
great contempt for polished society, and for
the existing systems~ef- fernxis eddc5Ffor re
resolved to find a young woman who should
have, or should have instiIled into her, all
manner of literature and science, moral
and patriotic philosophy" and then to marry
her. She would then be fit mother for
such children as he felt ne had right to look
for, and would assist him in bringing them
up fearless and intrepid as a Spartan wo-
man. and otherwise fitted for stubborn
virtue and high exertion." Having procured
testimonials to character, Mr.. Day proceeded
to the Founding Hospital at Shrewsbury,
and fixed upon two girls, one fair and one
dark, whom he named LGcretia and Sabrina,
Of these British foundlings
the philosophical Mr.. Day resolved to make
Roman or Grecian heroines, and having thus
secured two strings to his bow. to marry one
of them. He entered into heavy money
bonds for their education, apprenticeship,
etc, and for providing one or both with 4
marriage portion.
Mr.. Days next step was to take Lucretia
and Sabrina to France, and. in order that
they might imbibe mo ideas but such as he
chose to communicate, F" he Travelled alone,
except for Philosophy, who was, of course,
with him. The two misses, however,
''harassed and perplexed him not little. "
pullePeach others hair, and took the small
pox both at once. This was awkward, even
for philosopher, especially as the girls
and cried if any human Being came
TO their bedside who could not speak Eng
fish. To be mental nurse to two such girls
was an uneasy task but Mr.. Day was equal
to it, and also TO saving both their lives.
when they were upset in boat on the Rhone.
Sabrina being felt to be the favorite, after
this short trial, lucretia was handsomely ap-
prenticed and Mr.. Day now bent all his en-
srgies to the purpose of training the bru-
nette in 'the characteristic virtues of ARIA,
Portia and Cornelia." He tested her truth
fulness and discretion by confiding secrets to
her, but she Immediately passed these ON to
The servants. This would never do She
would not study, but preferred skipping and
jumping about, or even less profitable idle
ness Neither would she acquire fortitude.
When Day, with a smile, dropped melting
sealing wax on her arm, she screeched and
Eept; and when he surreptitiously let of
pistols under the table, she ran to the win
low and cried, Murder This was neither
Sparta, Athens, nor Rome, and Mr.. Day de
sided to drop it. He placed Sabrina at
school and began 70 seek a wife al
ready trained. Being rejected by one
and excellent lady. on account
IF his "austere singulRrities," he went 10
Paris to learn dancing and department, and
in high feather, paid fresh court
10 this dame. To his immense grief she was
brown into fits of horror by his elegant con-
and told him she preferred
Thomas Day, BLACKBOARD, to Thomas Day,
inc gentleman" With another lady he was
more successful, and passed with her a few
Years of Happiness Yet it is not en-
,suraging to read that he made expert
nents" even on her, and that, in Difference
o Mr. Days dislike of music, she put away
Ter harpsichord and many innocent Injuries
This incurable philosopher fell victim to
,ne of his own experiments, F." in mounting
horse of his own training the animal re-
ented an ''austere singularity" on his mas
er's part, threw him and kicked him fatally
IN the head. He died childless.
It is certain that The tasted love with half
his mind, nor ever drank the inviolate spring
where nearest heaven" who at any time
ormed to himself the plan of training a wife
o suit his own notions. "A late essayist has,
n three of his books, drawn the same female
igure-first as Gretchen and last as 1.-THE
Ainah, " always as a woman beloved and
ooked up to-and has taken some pains to
idicule .he sort of stress which Sir James
Iannen's sutton laid upon speech, spell
ng, and the like, in his ridiculous agree
nent always representing the heroine as
woman of great intelligence, richness of char
Icter and true feminine modesty, and yet as
woman who wanted much more than four
months training before she could either