The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1884-03-29
WOMAN GOSSIP.
The Power, for Good or Evil, OF WO-
neutrality-suspicious. for
HOuscYork.
The Wages of Women.--American
Beauty and Its Low
Average.
MOMENTS pnWER.

From his cradle to his grave man re-
| lies Tor his happiness upon the love OF
woman, says southern writer, His
light, his joy, his very life, depend
blindly and trustinglv upon the mother
love that nurses his infant years, tends
his childhood, trains his youth, and re-
joices in his manhood. Infinitely holy,
utterly self-sacriiicing, pure, noble, and
beautiful is the maternal instinct
and, knowing the heights of it, proving
its strength, seeing its abnegations OF
self, men call ii divine-and SO realize
the love of God unto all humanity.
Yet, even from this fount of exquisite
tenderness, they turn their steps to a
love more ailuring, more enhancing,
more absorbing; they leave all and
cling to their wives, possessing in them
everything. Wonderful and peculiar
is this great mingling of human hearts,
of organisms irresistibly attracted, of
souls that feel with and for each other,
Of two brains forming, one mind, OF
two lives and loves from which spring
other lives and yet another love-pa-
rental affection.
This is true marriage, and in this
state woman is most lovely. Standing
on an equality with her husband. she is
adviser and assistant-the sharer of
his happiness and his troubles, his
helpmeet, his comfort, his joy.
That there are marriages far different
from this is true, most hnhappily; but
even here woman shows her power
for evil if she chooses to curse, for
good if she desires to bless and en-
noble the life thus brought beneath her
personal influence. A great poet says
that
AS the husband is the wife is; thou art mated
with clown,
And the grOssness of his nature viii have
weight TO drag ihee down.
This is entirely fallacious. 1t will
always be the strongest that leads,
whether their strength be of an intel
lectual or moral force, and a woman
of mind, of refinement, of honorable
nature, of ideality, could not fail to
modify and even correct the materiality
that may exist in her husbands
thoughts, feelings, or actions, as his
very coarseness would serve to lessen
his power. A wife need not sink to
the level of the clown" to whom she
is mated" She can raise him, per-
haps slowly, but still surely, to her
own standard. Let her first touch his
heart-through pity, through shame.
or even through his mere passions, but
once possess power over that and it
will not be difficult to influence the
brain. If the soul can be made to
respond to beautiful and refining agen-
cies, the battle is won. 1t may take a
lifetime, but woman can afford to
spend even a lifetime in such enrolling
endcavOr.
A man finds his warmest, his most
tender, his most unselfish friend in a
woman. Possessing no interests that
clash with his, she believes in him
thoroughly and hopefully, and her
great faith in his powers encourages
him to act up to her standard of be-
lief She makes him feel that she truly
likes him. Her affection is frank
and free, and he appreciates her SYM
pathetic interest, her cheerful looks,
her many little womanly ways that
make all her surroundings in harmony
with herself. If weary, her sensible,
quiet talk rests him; if discouraged,
she finds a thousand ways to cheer him;
if too elate, her sound common sense
gives him the needed balance. The
lamp of friendship burns clear and
bright between man and woman--lit
by an emotion springing from tAe best
impulses of human nature.