The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-12-02
TEN YEARS A HUSBAND.
A little Story Which Many sorrowipg
Wife Knows by Heart.

care you going to the lecture, Henry?"
7 said, as I saw my husband "ne evening
putting on his overcoat after tea.
"Yes," was the reply.
az wish you would take me-" l an
swered.
"RcalIy, Mary, l think home is the
proper place for a mother
"But one eof my sisters would look after
the children. l do so want to hear this
great lecturer"
"Tell the truth, have but one ticket"
was the reply, as he went out of the door,
"and don't think I can afford 10 buy
another"
Nv husband and | had been married
for several years. Before the marriage
he had been unusually attentive, even for
a lover, and if another gentleman spoke
to me he was jealous. When there was
lecture or concert anywhere he always
took me. If I was invited to party he
was only too glad to attend me, But now
"parties are BORE" he says, "he can't
think why women wish TO go to them"
Then he was all affection. Now, he acts
as if he would lower his dignity to show
his love for me or my children, and if |
offer him a kiss or caress he is almost
certain to refuse me. cannot complain
that he neglects his more obvious duties.
He gives me plenty of money for dress,
lives we'll, and is even talking of buying
a new house. But he seems to think that
q wife has no business with anything but
housekeeping, and never needs change OF
scene or other recreation.
"Whal's the use of a woman" he says,
"going about? Home is the place for
her"
1t may be so, but after hard days
work often feel as if walk in the fresh
air or visit to neighbors would be
real blessing. said to him the other
evening when he was going out again:
"Won't you stay at home, Harry, to
oblige me? just this once; l am so
lonely?" o,,
"Lorcly ?" was his answer. Glow can
you be lonely with the children"
"But they are abed. And rccollect, l
see nobody, day in and day out. Can't
you do it to please me, for this once| |
could hardly speak; it was as much as
could do to keep the tears from coming,
his conduct seem so cruel.
"The fact .is," he replied, 'I'm dead
beat with working all day, and must 60
out to get frightened up q little. You
women never make allowances TOR
man." And he vent out quiet Grossly.
Never make allowances If the hus'
band is worried with business, and do
not doubt it, is not wife worried with
housekeeping? Are the servants and
children and sickness no trouble? And
is a woman differently constituted from
man, so that the recreation which one
considers indispensable Tor himself is of
no use to the other. -,
"How your complexion has gomez"
said nv husband to me the other day.
at seems to me that in this climate
woman is old at 30."
Again the tears came into my eyes.
Harry did not mean to be unklnd; ne
was only thoughtless. But why had l
.ost my complexion? Can a woman live
forever in rooms heated by hot air, never
going out, except on some errand, and
then hurrying home as soon as the errand
is done, without losing her complexion?
Is it the climate or her mode of life that
makes her old before her time? It was
on my tongue to say these things, but l
refrained. Ihave learned that silence il
golden" -,
"How wish 1 bad something to read"
I said yesterday. II think if had a
new book now and then, the evenings
when you are out, Harry, would not 81
SO long,"
"Books cost too much money in times
like these" answered my husband. II
should think your sewing would amuse
YOU enough. 10 get bread for his family
and lay by little for rainy day is as
much as prudent man can 90 nowadays"
And as he spoke he lit his cigar and went
out.
Will men ever understand women?
Will they ever see their own selhshness
in lis true light. These thoughts rose to
my mind as I reflected with a sigh that
tithe of the money which Harry spent
on cigars would buy all the new books l
wished.
Yet Harry does not mean to be unkind.
He saw his mother treated as be treats
me, and he thinks 1 have no right 10
complain. Perhaps have not. But, o!
how much happier 1 would be if things
were different.
Are women only machines to sew, darn,
sweep, dust, bake bread, take care OF
children and keep house? Have they no
need of recreation? No higher nature
that is starved by life like mine?
There is no contention between Harry
and me. But his love row is, it seems to
me, very different thing from what it
seemed before marriage. Is my fate the
fate of all Is every wife like me when
- o DL.LnIaI,nL;n Mnrfh