The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1884-10-30
IL He Had Asked Us.

lowing statement OF facts:
was married to fine looking young
girl about two years ago, and about q
year ago a horse she was driving ran
away and threw her from her carriage,
and she was so injured that she has been
partially paralyzed ever since. She
can not walk except on crutches, and
then only with great difficulty. l am
very fond of society, and especially of
dancing and boating, but my income is
small, and my sister says l ought to
save my money and buy my wife an
invalid chair, or hire a carriage and
take her out for an airing occasionally,
but do not enjoy her company as well
as that of other ladies, since she was
hurt, for she is not lively now, as she
was before / married her, and am
very much disappointed with life.
What would you advise me to do?"
To this the exchange replies: "Do
as you please, and don't bother people
with such foolish questions. F"
If that question had been put to us in
stead of an exchange, we should have
given an answer about like this:
Young man, did you ever see q fel.
low who had whipped his wife dressed
up in shining black suit of tar and
feathers. promenading on the pdblic
highway astride the roof of worm
fence? Well. sir, if you think for a
single minute of abandoning your poor,
crippled wife, and spending your
money in dancing and boating with
other women, that is the kind of trans
| portation you may expect. When you
! stood before the altar with that gay
young girl you have described and
| promised to love and honor her, and to
her only cling in sickness and health,
in adversely as well as prosperity, there
was no exception made and no proviso
in the vow you took, that in case she
became paralyzed you should be at lib
erty to leave her housed up like a Gagged
bird, and go dancing and boating with
other women while she is pining her
life away for few kind words from
you and drive in your company, and
whenever you do that sort of trick
you deserve to be struck by lightning
or have the dome of the court house
fall on you.
You think it is pretty hard on YOU to
give up dancing and boating and save
your money to buy your poor, sick lit
tie wife an invalid chair. by means of
which you can take her out on pleasant
evenings, and talk over the good old
times to her, and mako her smile, be-
cause it does her good to breathe the
pure air out of doors, and know that
you have not forgotten the old days
when she was well, and that you SYM
pathize with her and have just little
| af hot iah Il
never grow less, before she promised to
marry you, left. If you will take a
maui and pound your giddy head with
it until you can see what an ass you
have made of yourself by asking such
a question, you will come to your senses,
and wonder why you did not fall into a
coal mine thousand feet deep, when
such vile and silly notion came into
your head.
Your sister is right You have no
more right to 90 boating and dancing
with other women when your wife is
sitting in her chair and crying because
she sees you drifting further and further
away from her and the old love, every
day, than you have to poison her. She
is wasting away and fretting herself to
death, because you do not seem to care
for her any more, and if there is spark
of manhood in you as large as q grain
of cosmic dust, you will get somebody
to take baseball club and fan it into
glow that will warm you up and
make you feel as if there is something
else besides lungs in your bosom.
If you can work yourself up to the
level of manly feeling, do it before that
little woman becomes mere shadow OF
what she was when you married her
and buy her chair on wheels, ano
every evening when the weather is fair
take her out for an airing, and if it il
not too much trouble, bend over the
back of her chair once in a while anC
kiss her right on the mouth, like YOU
used to before you married her, and
you will feel as if you are something
more than stomach on stills before
you get back from the first evening out,
and the people will not look at you a:
if they suspected you of being a horse
thief, as they do now, and they will
smile when they meet you, and will moi
be afraid you will bite their heads of
if they venture TO inquire about youl
suffering little wife on the street
Ii it is so hard on you to give
up dancing and boating, how
do you suppose she feels when the
awful fact that she cannot walk crowd.
upon her brain, and sees you running
off after other women, who are no
worthy to touch the hem of her garment
You think you are acting smart wher
you go around flirting with brainless
women whose feet are a Thousand
times larger than their hearts, and wht
would rather have a plump arm anC
wear clothes that will let you see il
than to possess warranty deed TO
home in Heaven. That is the kind O
a hair-pin any woman is who will
dance and firt and boatride with yol
when she knows you are spending thu
money that ought to comfort you
sick wife, in giving her and yourself
q good time, and we are not afraid tt
bet thousand dollars against her falls,
hair that she has not brains enough t.
fill her shoe. You take the advice O
your sister and buy the invalid chair
and if it don't prove the best investment
you ever made we will support YOU
wife the rest of her life. BIoomtnqto,
IHrouqh MGil.