The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1883-08-26
FLIGHT OF MARRIED MEN
Leaving the City BY Hundrcds--A Peculiar.
ity OF the Agc-A Mystery: Where Do They

Any Saturday evening one may see at the
depots OF the railroads great hurry and
hustle OF duster dressed and bundle-loaded
men. These are married men; youngish
ones chiefly. Their wives are in the coun-
try with the old folks or other relatives, or
at hotels in the mountains. The loving
husbands join them to spend Sunday, but
before leaving town they have various
commissions to ill. The wives want spools
Of cotton, skeins OF silk, hair-pins, ribbons,
combs, shoes, and various other articles,
great and small, which, combined with na-
ture, make beautiful woman.
They just write to +" Dear Husband" for
these things, and tell him that II Is i'm
possible funderscored once)-quite impos-
sibe indeed (underscored twice)-to do
without the articles mentioned In their
requistion.
Then the old fellow has to go out shop
ping; or, rather, he fumbles through the
dry-goods stores in fear and trembling, for
well he knows that about each investment
OF five cents or upwards his wife Is going
to tell him that he Is cheated twenty per
cent. That Is thing that makes man hot
to hear, but he ALWAYS bears it. There's
many a one who would occasionally drop
into dry-goods store and buy his wife
seaIskin cloak, or q silk dress. or box Of
kid gloves, or half a dozen parasols. but for
dread that Immediately after receiving the
thanks and maybe kisses OF his darling she
will commence catechizing him about what
the things cost and wind up by saying,
- sell, he charged you too mucb."
The Saturday-night fellows have to go
along anyhow and do the shopping the best
they can. Then they must get basket OF
fruit, and after great fret with all their
encumbrances they reach the depot. There
they find dozens Of other fellows OF the
same Sort Every man has his bundles or
baskets. Some have both. Worse than
that, some have band-boxes. When man
carries band-box you can always be sue
that he hasn't been married long, or il he
has, that he has done something bad and is
undergoing penitential abasement. Either
that or the other, or the wife is the boss.
Such fidget these husbands make In
getting into their seats; they fill the hat
rack and vacant places about them with
bundles and baskets; Oh the floor they put
their valise; they feel in their left inside
coat-pocket for their TASKS. and in their
right vest-pOckets for their tickets; and be-
fore they are done wondering whether they
have everything aboard and about off the
train starts.
They ale dropped all along the line.
Often the wife meets one at the station, her
cheeks glowing with pleasure and recently
acquired freckles, and looking in her saucy
chip-bonnet and white dress as sweet as a
peach hanging over a neighbours fence.
Sometimes the wife and seven children
Thnr, bor l. n ~
welcome indeed, and the packages have to
be opened instanter, and kissing goes all
adown the line.
on Saturday evenings JOY and dry goods
and fruit are scattered.
Sunday the husband spends in the bosom
OF his family. The air OF the country is
fragrant; the odor OF the fields and forests
is like benediction. The weather is
cooler and his appetite ravenous. He eats Il
big dinner, gets drowsy, his wife fans him,
and he takes nap, snores, and wakes up,
sourcd with the idea that he has to go back
to town. Sunday night or early in the
morning he is seen coming back. He looks
like one driven from Paradise. He is not
quite so enthusiastic about everything or
so charmed with the scenery rs on Satur-
uiN evening. Ills DunultS are Hout.
flask is empty. He il travelling light, and
he approaches the suburbs Of the city with
repugnance, for the gad-grind is to COM
mence anew, and already he feels the hot
air steamng up from the paved streets.
The spirit and flesh are very weak. and
would surely faint but that hope buds in
his heart and fancy pictures another Sat
urday evening coming when he may and
will quit his bachelordom here, and with
| the same delight return to his loved ones,
carrying to them bundles and ioy. And un-
ill then he resolves to endure the discom-
forts OF city life. which, when he comes to
think over it, are not so eyerastingly intole-
rabe after all for cool watermeons can be
/ had here for song-in the mountains they
are rare; fresh beer on ice is to be had
/ here on every Squarc-in the country 1t is
warm and fiat; the minstrels may be seen
| herein the rural districts there is only
the bang Of 4 wel-worn piano; then there
| is baseball sometimes here, and there
only tenpiDs and croquet; here he is In
vited out now and then to take tea with
other pro tenn. bachelors, and there Is q
! breezy feeling Of freedom, and no need to
| carry his shoes i'm his hand as he finds his
] way to his wiiecss home about 2 A. VI.
And so he concludes that it is hard to be
parted from his wife, but he will try to
| bear it like good fellow.
[F0R OTHER LOCAL SEE FOURTH PAGE.l