The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1885-06-26
Decreased WiYGs' Sisters.
Harpcr's Magazine for May,

VI NllC IlpSN maj ~ u RAANASAASN' VI W
times. The deceased wife's sister bill
may be said to be his steady occupa-
ton. In all his breathing spells from
pmergenrir, he turns TO that. hen
he is not being m~asSaCrcd by the South
Africans. or Staying ~Soudanese, or
fighting Afghans, or pacifying the
Irish, or being blown up in his tower,
he is attending to the deceased wite's
sister bill. He comes back to it out of
all victories and defeats with unwa-
vcring ~pertinacity and courage. 1t
appears to be the passion Of his life to
marry his deceased wife's sister. We
who live in a land where nobody OPP
poses such an alliance can not con
c8iye the attraction it seems to have
to Englishmen. And seeing how uni
versaI and strong this desire is in
England. we cannot but inquire why
the Englishman does not marry the
wife's Sister in the first place. Why
does he go on marrying the wrong one,
and then wait for death or the law to
help him out?
1t seems to us that much as this mat
ter has been agitated, it never has
been discussed in a philosophical Spir-
it. We admit the fact of the oyermaS-
tering desire to marry the deceased
wife'S sister; we can see how the pro-
hibitiOn of the marriage increases the
longing for it; but we have not ana
lyzed the origin of the desire itself,
IL has bee4 treated IN England as a
question of morals, when it is, in fact,
d question of sociology. When we
come face to face with the question, is
it not this: Does not the man generally
make a mistake when he marrieS one
or two CT more sisters? The world Of
ten sees it at the time, the sister who
is left sees it, but the man is blind to
what he is doing. He not only takes
the one who does not make him the
best wife, but the one least eligible for
a life insurance, and SO voluntarily, as
one may say, in the end ONE round
to bother the world with his deceased
Wife'S sister bill. And the reason of
this mistake lies a good deal in the ma
ture of the man himself, but somewhat,
as we shall show, in the nature of
woman also. He is so constituted that
he does not recognize the qualities nee
essary to make a good wife. He is at
tracted by outward appearances.
Beauty goes for much with him; liveli-
ness counts for a good deal; even will
fulness (befOre marriage) is attractive.
In nine cases out of ten he will choose
the girl out of a houseful who is at
once the pet and tyrant of the house.
the spoiled child, whose seltiShness
procures for her the slayish su~bServien-
CIV of all the rest. Seeing all this de-
votion, he thinks he is marrying the
Queen Bee. We are intending to say
nothing against the woman he makes
his wife; as women go, she is we'll
enough, and if the circumstances con-
tinued to be what they were at home,
she would be forever attractive and
and adored. But when she is thrown
upon her own resources, it then be-
comes evident how much she owed to
her sisters, whose unobtrusive virtues
were the necessary background to all
her s~pecious attractiveneSs, Nine cases
out of ten the man will take the girl
of the family who knows the least
about cooking, or the management OF
a house, or about nursing, and is the
least patient in trial, and has the least
common sense-that is, the least of
those everyday qualities that make
an agreeable pastime from hour to
hour and day to day. Hence, to cover
his own plumbers, the clamor for a
deceased wife's sister bill.
The man loves his wife-of course
he does; ever her faults, her little sell
fish demands upon him, are better in
L.. $50, AI.. Ate .srk.x4a & OtLo.. 0
men. But when real life begins, and
the sister comes to live in the house,
as she pretty certainly will come, then
he sees who it is that makes life go
smoothly, who takes up the hundred
household burdens, who is always
kind and patient, and especially indul-
gent to him-for the capacity of the
wife's sister to be indulgent. to all the
weaknesses of her brothef-in-law is
one of the circumstances that we must
take into account in this investigation.
Her utter self sacrifice and ability to
come into confidential relations with
him, and to take his part against an
authority which he sometimes feels the
weight of, all the novelists have taken
note of. 1t is not she who keeps a
blgu rein Oh utIu. ne ID uUL dlTdIu Oh
her. She III Kim, and makes it
easy for him to get on with himself.
And she has certain sterling qualities
that admirably supplement the love-
illness and attractiveness of the
wife. He feels this for a good while
without exactly seeing it or knowing
It, but when the great bereavement of
his lie comes, and the world is sud-
denly desolate to him, he around
with the deceased wife's sister bill.
Look at the world as it is. Consider
the capacity of the sister for making
herself indispensable in the house. She
may not have had the power to attract
the man into matrimony, but she has
the qualities that he finally recognizes