Kimball enterprise. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1883, 1883-06-22
sweethearts and Wives,

| SWeetheartg and Wives.
At the army of the Potomac reunion
in Washington recently, Charles Dudley
| Warner, in responding to the toast,
| "Sweethearts and Wives" spoke in part
| as follows:
This is an excellent and venerable
toast. have no doubt it could be found
| deposited under the foundation stone of
| one of the Oldest existing monuments in
the world-that to Washington, over
yonder. 1t is old, but it will be still new
| and fresh long after the Washington
monument is finished. 1t is one of the
most ingenious sentiments ever devised
by evasive men. 1t origin is lost in the
mists of antiquity, but it was no doubt
concocted before latch-keys were in
vented. "Sweethearts and Wives" Is
that ''and" a conjunctiye ora distinctive
conjunction? 1t is both. 1t suits the
convivial hour Of the banquet, and it
will pass muster under domestic in
spection, at any hour of the morning.
1t may mean, for the worldly moment,
that there are sweethearts and
there are also wives, and it
may mean, when it must, in
the hour when, an account has to be
given of the deeds done here in the ban
quet, that sweethearts and wives are
the same persons. 1t is an honored
toast. being usually kept, like good wine,
| till the last.
1t IS not'necessary, in the presence of
the Army of the Potomac, that l should
| appear as the eulogist of woman, She
| is indeed beginning to speak for herself,
| and | am expecting the day when she
will begin to speak for us, when she will
do man some slight justice for the little
part he has played in history. She
knows all about it; she reads him like
the alphabet. She knows just when he
has been false and when true, when his
from the fear of being called "a coward,
when he has been pretender, when he
has been hypocrite, when he has been
so loyal that she could worship him,
without reservation, and love him
without blush; she has studied him,
and kept all these things in her he art.
She has shed tears enough over him to
wash away all his sins-to float him into
Heaven, if he could 90 there by water.
She has fiattered him till his head
touched the stars. She has strengthened
his heart, and sent him out into the world
with shield and the Injunction not to
on it.. She is always willing to hold
out light, by which he can swim across
the river to her, and her smile is always
worth the swim. She is always ready to
pray him out of any mischief she has en-
tlced him into. She will make man OF
himif anything in this world can. Her
constancy is proverb; she is the one
thing that is never twice the same, and
that never changes; the one object that
man can confidently tie to. She is our
national motto personified-lnfnite
variety in unity. What she was yester-
dey she will not be tomorrow, and she
was not the day before; she is everlast-
ingly the same.
What she was to the soldier of the
Army of the Potomac I need not saw.
whether she remained at home to sew
for him and pray for him. or followed
him atield with lint and bandages, or
went about in hospitals in the garb of
saint with the smile of an angel the pic
ture of self-sacrifce, to "kiss him for his
mother" How her patriotism and gen
lus for organization shone out in that
great army she created, second only in
Importance to the army in the field,
which cared for the wounded and sick.
When you are balancing in your mind
the cost of a spring bonnet and 10000
regalias, remember it was American wo-
men who devised and executed the
greatest alienation ever known for the
miseries of war. Did she make any less
sacrifice than you, patient in her lonely
home, keeping up her courage and
yours? l need not say how you thought
OF her constancy and of her pride in
you, and your desire to play the man
partly for her sake-sweetheart or wife
heartened you and refined YOU. You
thought last at night and first in the
morning that she was thinking of YOU,
and the thought that she would weep
with Joy in your victory was the sweet
est thing in it. God bless her! how she
stood by you, and was proud OF you, and
loved you. Oh, faithful heart, what is
there in life SO sweet!
But am not here to praise women or
the Army of the Potomac; only to give
you, "sweethearts and wivesn-a sweet
heart is good; a wife is better; best of
all is, sweetheart and wife in one per
SON