St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-03-30


HEELS
Wrote Pope. The keen analysist will al
ways find proportion of the same ingredient
in that strange mpound-humanity.
Mankind as well as animal kind possess the
''power to hurt'-and are as conscious of it
too; and the more man knows the greater
this power.
AS the blows of the trip hammer, and the
skill of the grinder give temper and edge to
the weapon, so that the dull harmless piece
of steel becomes a deadly Damascus blade;
80 do education and society give man an
increased ability for cruelty, greater power
''to increase SORROW"
We are all cruel in some degree, and if we
watch ourselves closely the cloven foot will
show itself some where. "Know thyself,"
was a precept Of the Ly-
ceums of ancient Greece, and
if any person is DESTROYS of obtaining that
knowledge the first place to commence the
study is at home. The very fact that others
love US gives us an almost unlimited power
over their tenderest and most sacred feel
ings. Our tyranny and cruelty may hurt
those outside our homes, but it is there where
we are loved and trusted that we can give
the sharpest pain.
A man does not need to strike his wife or
beat his children to be cruel. There are
sneers and looks, or passive indifference
and neglect that perform the work
much better. When he was
lover how assiduous were his attentions,
how eagerly he strove to convince her Of his
true, undying love! After marriage-well
as the wreaths of mist that veil the land
scape in early morning and soften all the
harsh outlines, hiding all that offends the
sight, fade and melt "into the viewless air''
at the SUMS coming, so do these promises Of
love, of happier time, these glimpses of
Paradise fade, and leave only the hard, bare
reality, no more illusions, or glamour, only
the exceedingly real
God alone knows through what heart-ache,
agony, and despair wife often passes before
she settles down in the belief that her hus
bands Indifference is real, and that if she
wants love she must look to her children, if
she has any, if not elsewhere than home.
So her love becomes simply liberation
fringed with contempt. AS she knows he
slammed to win her. her eyes are pretty wide
open to detect all that is mean and false in
him.
Men often excuse themselves on the plea
of business, and making love is too great
tax to be kept up forever, besides
they don't care about their WIVES assuring
them of their love, they are willing to take it
for granted" When husband thus excuses
himself does he not put himself down a
swindler? What was the meaning of all the
assiduous devotion, the thoughtful attention
before marriage? To win her by showing
his love. Each act of devotion was prom
Use, a note of hand to be paid when they two
should be one. Did he not obtain goods
under false pretences? Would the woman
be his wife to-day if he had told her the
truth2
Besides man does not forget, although
business drives him with sharp lash, to be
polite and attentive to other women. How
pleasant the knowledge must be to wife
that although her husband is too busy to be
attentive to her he can find time to be agree
able to other ladies'
The notion that marriage is a state of lib
erty-of freedom to appear in ones truest,
and often worst, colors, is very prevalent,
and more generally acted upon
than most common ideas. In this lies the
secret of unhappy marriages. Before we'd
lock the parties were acting their parts; after
wards, when the costumes were taken off,
came the reality. Before, the lover took the
part most pleasing to the lady, afterwards, the
part most pleasing to himself 1t is no I'M
common thing for man to regard his home
as select boarding house, where he is the
chief boarder, to whose comfort all must con-
tribute, and where he has perfect liberty to
be the loutish, selfish animal he is by nature.
You remember the story of the man who
had bought his ticket for Colorado. He was
deserving his wife and five little children.
The little train boy, Tommy Tucker, began
scraping on his fiddle, and in the thoughts
inspired by his songs the man went over all
his bad luck, his sickness, his failures in bust
ness, his poverty and the money he had
wasted at theaters and saloons. The one
thing that stung him most was not his child
ren's cry for bread, but "Annie's quivering
lips.'' ''Confound it!'' he muttered.
'Why couldn't she scold or cry?" Now,
when the train was bearing him away from
her forever, he remembered her quivering
lips, the only protest she ever made to his
cruelty and neglect. Of course he was
brute. Are there not multitudes of wives
who have long ago given up all hope of
sweet companionship and love, who have
taken up the burden of life and walk on with
fearless eyes and unnoticed quivering lips?
''To love her, comfort her, honor her, and
keep her in sickness and in health" says
the marriage service.
Are wives less cruel? In nine cases in
ten if the husband is loyal, tender and true,
the chances are in favor of his wife's being
the same. But as an ordinary woman can
think of more ways to vent her spite and
cruelty in a minute, than an ordinary man
can in an hour, she has that advantage.
What misery must that man suffer
who is tied for life to a
nagging, irritable selfish wife. It is
much easier to face an army than a
swarm of hornets. Guatomozin smiled on
burning Goals, but if his bed had been net
ties it would had been different effect
The husband who must live with a buzzing
singing wife, needs particularly the ten
der mercies of Heaven, for '.the grace of his
home is cruel.''
In no way do mankind show their cruelty,
more than in their treatment of children.
Not burning starving or MAIN
Ing them is meant, but the
usual training of parents and teachers. We
are quite apt to forget that the little body
with its various needs, and the young mind
with its eager intelligence is not all, that
there is a sensitive, moral nature, an I'M
ta1rht con snience to he .or11ided