The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-04-19
THE DECEASED wIFE's SISTER.
investigation Into the Causes of that Per-
sons Importance In England.

Investigation Into the Causes of that Per-
sons Importance In England.
Charles Dudley Warner in May Harper.
The desire of the Engishman to marry his
phenomena of the times The deceased wifes
sister bill may be said to be his steady oc-
cupation. In all his breathing spells from
emergencies he turns to that. When he is not
staying Soudanese or fighting Afghans, or
pacifying the Irish or being blown up in his
Tower, he is attending to the deceased wife's
sister bill. He comes back to it out Of all vic
tories and all defeats with unwavering pertinac-
ity and courage. 1t appears to be the passion
of his life to marry his deceased wifes sister
We who live in land where nobody opposes
such an alliance cannot conceive the attraction
it seems to have to Englishmen. And seeing
how universal and strong this desire is ia
England, we cannot but inquire why the En-
glishman does not marry the wifes sister in the
first place. Why does he go on marrying the
wrong one, and then wait for death and the law
to help him out?
1t seems to as that much as this matter has
been agitated, it never has been discussed in q
philosophical spirit. We admit the fact of the
overmastering desire to mary the deceased wife's
sister, we can see how the prohibition of the
marriage increases the longing for it, but we
have not analysed the origin of the desire tseifj
1t has been treated in England as question OF
morals when it is, in fact, a question of soci-
ology When we come face to face with the
question, is 1t not this: Does not the man gen.
orally make mistake when he marries
one or two or more sisterss The world
often 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 who does not make
him the best wife, bnt the one least eligible for
a life insurance, and SO voluntarily, as one may
say, in the end comes round to bother the world
with his deceased wifes sister bill. And the
reason of this mistake lies good deal in the
nature of man himself, but somewhat, as We
shall show, in the nature of woman also. He in
so constituted that he does not recognise
wife. He is attracted by outward sG ap
| pearances Beauty goes for much with
him; liveliness counts for good DEAL even will
fulness (before marriagel is attractive. In nine
| cases out of ten he will choose the girl out of
| household who is at once the pet and the tyrant
of the house, the spoiled child, whose selfshness
procures for her the slavish subserviency of all
| the rest Seeing all this devotion, he thinks he
| is marrying the queen bee We are intending
| to say nothing against the woman he makes his
wife; as women 20, she is well enough, and if
| the circumstances continue to be what
! they were at home, she would be forever
| attractive and adored But when she il
! thrown upon her own resources, 1t then becomes
evident how much she owed to her sisters whose
unobtrusive virtues were the necessary back
ground to all her specious attractions Nine
cases out OF ten the man will take the girl Of tho
family who knows the least about cooking or
the management of a house, about nursing,
and is the least patient in trial. and has the least
common sense-that is, the least of those every
day qualifications that make life an agreeable
pastime from hour to hour and day to day.
Hence, to cover his own blunders, the clamOr
| for a deceased wife's sister bill.
The man loves his wife---of course he doeg
even her faults, her little selfish demands upon
him, are better in his eyes than the virtues OF
other women. But when real life begins, and
the sister comes to live in the house, as she
pretty certainly will come, then he sees who if
is that makes life 60 smoothly, who takes up
the hundred household burdens, who is always
kind and patient, and especially indulgent to
him-for the capacity of the wife's sister to DO
indulgent to all the weaknesses Of her brother
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 novelties have taken
note of. 1t is not she who keeps tight rein ON
him. He is not afraid of her. She excuses him.
and makes it easy for him to get on with him
self And she has certain sterling qualities that
admirably supplement the loneliness and attract
ivensss Of the wife. He feels this for good
while without exactly seeing it or knowing il.
but when the great bereavement of his life
comes and the world is suddenly desolate to
him, he comes around with the deceased wifes
sister bill
Look at the world as it is Consider the ca
pacity of the sister for making herself indispen-
SADLY in the house. She may not have had the
power to attract the man into matrimony, bus
she has the qualities that he finally recognizes
as necessary to perfect comfort in it; and in
England. when it is too late, he wakes I'D to the
fact that he should have married the sister,
But this is not the end Of the inquiry There
is something in the nature of woman
herself that brings about this state Of things
In order to bring out the best there is in wom-
an sacrifice of herself is always necessary. For
tunately she enjoys this She has a kind OF
pleasure in seeing her sister preferred and led
away to the altar She likes the man all the
better for being such goose as to choose the
pretty and more Incompetent one. And in the
new household, whether she is permanently
part of it or only has an occasional superin-
tendence of 1t, she develops in her subordina-
ton many of the lovely virtues. In some cases
she was not naturally so selfish or so sweet
tempered or so tolerant of mans unreasona-
bleness as her sister who marries, but her role
of self effacement is training school, and all
the sterling qualities of womanhood are evolved.
The very position of being wifes sister is au
invaluable discipline and we do not wonder when
we see so many households where the sister,
under this discipline, shines with the steady
radiance of a star of the first magnitude
1t is probably useless to urge the Englishman
to marry his wife's sister in the first place. Ii
would take away one of his grievances; and
something of this kind to put into reform bill
he must always have. Human nature is con-
Trajectory, and perhaps if ne could carry his
deceased wifes sister bill the subject would losa
its attraction for him, and assume the tnimport
ant position the matter holds in this country.