The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1883-03-08
Poor Mems Wives.

happens that they ''marry money
it is a great waste of good material
and they themselves so feel it in an
unconscious fashion. They are
CHEEKY little bodies, with a genius
for keeping things clean, and an in
genuity in making use of simply
marvellous. AS girls, if they be.
long to a large and impecunious
family-as they generally do-they
make their own dresses and bonnets
and cloaks, and sometimes they
create and keep in order the ward
robes of the family. We say
..create" advisedly, for it is one Of
the gifts of this altogether swonder.
full little woman to make comforta-
BILE. respectable, even bewitching ar
ticles of wearing apparel out of
what is generally known as "noth-
ing" She takes "papa's" old su il
of clothes, and tubs and darns, and
patches and turns, and finally pro-
duces a new suit of clothes for
brother Bob. When Bob has done
his best to render this suit of
clothes unacceptable, through
tatters and dirt, and discolorments
of every sort, it falls back into her
tireless hands. Does it go into the
rag bag? By no means. She
shuts herself up in room one day,
with that forlorn wreck. What in
carnations the little witch utters,
through what mysterious processes
she causes that wreck to pass, is
never known. But next day-it
being Sunday--she wears to church
warm gray jacket as spotless, as
trim, as cosy, as stylish as any 9th
er gray jacket in the sacred edifice.
The ''family" puzzle over the mys-
terry in vain, till Bob, after a close
scrutiny and stare of utter incre-
dulity, gives utterance to the follow
ing burst of eloquence: BY jim
go! if that amt my old suit of
cloths!' and so solves the problem.
1t is perhaps in the region of
bonnets that the poor mans wife"
most excels. As for an imported
bonnet, why she never owned one in
her life! Girls with fortunes to
spend on top of their heads tell her
that "home- made bonnets" always
have homemade looksl' And
though she winces a little she
shakes ner wise little head, visits
the stores, eyes those imported
bonnets" with the eye Of an artist,
goes home and with odds and ends
of lace and feathers and flowers in
her careful hands, appears in the
twinkling of an eye crowned with
the product of her skill, as grace
full, as simply elegant as a bonnet
can be and often far better suited
to her peculiar style than half the
lnonstrosities the milliners pursuade
their patro2essess are "sweetly be-
coming and just the thing" The
girl who is able to do all this is
generally the pink of personal
neatness. She is never seen by
any chance wearing soiled collar,
and however rough and dishevling
her work may be, she is quick and
careful to remove from her hands
and dress any trace of dust and
disorder. We have hitherto spoken
of the "poor mans wife in her
maiden state, who is only fitting
herself to bless home some day.
When she does become that poor
mans wife it is not long before he
has cause to bless her busy hands
and willing heart, and to thank the
fates for giving him such a sunbeam
to illumine all his life. Busy
enough she was in her maiden days,
ann ingenious in all her devices, but
now she expands, as all good and
loving women must, after marriage,
into wider activities and wiser
exertions. No longer content with
making a slender income go a long
way in the matter of personal adorn-
ments, she soon shows how pair
ofbusy hands, backed by refined
taste and ardent enthusiasm, can
soon beautify home and make the
desert blossom as the rose. There
is a certain winning charm about
homes made beautiful in this fash
ion that is sadly lacking in man
sions of far more pretentious luxu-
ry. AS time passes new fields open
for her exertions, new duties claim
her. Her children profit by her
power to do, her shill in making and
"She looketh well to
the ways of her house hold and
eateth not the bread of idleness."
Such are the wives that poor
men need, and it is only in marry
ing poor men that their worth be-
comes fully known and their capa-
bilities are fully developed Such
are the women whose virtues are
most fully appreciated at home,
and then marry, in ignorance per-
haps that they win "a treasure far
above rubies."
Such women, born to be ''poor
mems wives and setting forth up
on the waves of matrimony as
"poor mems wives" generally end
by becoming rich mems wives--for
where he makes she saves. All
that he gives into her keeping is
wisely expended, and what man
can fail to succeed, to grow stronger,
wiser, more daring, more success
full, when backed by such yencour-
agement as the bright smile and |
close and helpful haudclasp of the |
poor mans wife?
And these are the women of
whom one never hears. They new
er ride a hobby, for they never
seek the public eye or ear, for they
care only to make sunshine for one |
pair of eyes, and music for one pair
of ears, in the paradise of home.
They may not be noted as philan-
thropist, or religionists, or artists,
or authorsl They may not even
shine in society! But oh, We tired |
woman workers in the binding |
glare of the worlds arena, We lonely
writer's and thinkers, We desperate |
soilers whom the world dubs
'strong-minded," what would you
not give to feel the peace OF duties
Homo the roak well rnad of foil To 4