The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-03-11


an improvement you would be on my pres
sent, and accidental meetings take place,
and late at night the man comes to his pro-
sale home whistling and hilarious, and
wonders that the wife is jealous. There
are thousands of men who. while not posi-
lively immoral, need radical correction of
their habits in this direction. It is mean
ness Unreasonable for man by his be-
havior to seem to say to his wife: "You
can't help yourself, and 1 will go where I
defy your criticism"
Why did you not have that put in the
bond, Oh, domestic Shylock? Why did you
not have it understood before you were
pronounced husband and wife, that she
should have only part of the dividend of
your affections, that when, as time rolled
on and the cares of life had erased some of
the bright lines from her face, and given
unwieldiness to her form, you would have
the reserved right to pay obeisance to
cheeks more rubicund and figure 1.-THE and
more agile, and as you demanded the last
pound of patience and endurance on
her part, you could, with the
emphasis of an Edwin Forrest or a
Macready, have tapped the eccentric mar
riage document and have said: "It's in
the bond" If this modern Rebekah had
understood beforehand where she was
alighting, she would have ordered the
camel drivers to turn the caravan back
ward toward Padan -aram.
The most worthy thing for the thousands
of married men is to go home and apollo
gize for past neglects, and brighten up
their old love. Take up the family Bible
and read the record of the marriage day.
Open the drawer of relics in the box
inside the drawer containing the trink-
cts of your dead child. Take up the
pack of yellow-covered letters that were
written before you became one. Rehearse
the scenes of joy and sorrow in which you
have mingled. Put all these things as fuel
on the altar, and by coal of sacred fire
rekindle the extinguished light. 1t was
blast from hell that blew it out, and gale
from Heaven will fan it into blaze.
Ye who have broken marriage vows,
speak out! take your wife into all your
plans, your successes, your defeats, your
ambitions. Tell her every thing. Walk
arm in arm with her into places of amuse-
ment, and on the piazza Of summer water
ing places, and up the rugged way of life,
and down through dark ravine, and when
one trembles on the way, let the other be
reinforcement. In no case pass yourself
off as single man practicing gallantries.
Do not, after you are fifty years of age, in
ladies' society try to look young -manish.
Interfere not with your wife's religious
nature. Put her not in that awful dilemma
in which so many Christian wives are placed
by their husbands, who ask them to go to
places or do things which compel them to
decide between loyalty to God and loyalty
to the husband. Rather than ask her to
compromise her Christian character, en-
courage her to be more and more a Chris
tian, for there will be times in your life
when you viii want the help of all her
Christian resources, and certainly when
you remember how much influence your
mother had over you, you do not want the
mother of your children to set less
gracious example. 1t pleases me greatly
to hear the unconverted and worldly hus-
band say about his wife, with no idea that
it will get to her ears: "There is the most
godly woman alive. Her goodness is a per-
petual rebuke to my waywardness. Moth
ing on earth could ever induce her to do
wrong thing. hope the children will take
after her instead of after me. If there is
any Heaven at all, / am sure she will go
there"
Aye, my brother, do you not think il
would be wise and safe thing for you to
join her on the road to heaven?
You think you have a happy home
now, but what a home you would
have if you both were religious! What a
new sacredness it would give to your mar
ital relation, and what new light it would
throw on the forehead of your children. In
sickness, what a comfort. In reverses of
fortune, what wealth! In death, what a
triumph! God meant you to be the high
priest of your household. Go home to-day
and take the Bible on your lap, and gather
all your family yet living around you, and
those not living will hear of it in q fash,
and as ministering spirits will hover
father and mother and children gone, and
all your celestial kindred. Then kneel
down. and if you can't think OF. prayer to
offer, will give you a prayer, namely:
"Lord God, I surrender to thee myself
and my beloved wife, and these dear chill
dren. For Christ's sake forgive US all the
past and help US for all the future. We
have lived together here; may we live to-
gether forever. Amen and amenw Dear
me! what stir it would make among your
best friends on earth and in heaveni
Joseph H., the Emperor, was so kind
and SO philanthropic that he excited the
unbounded love of most of his subjects.
He abolished serfdom. established tolera-
ton and lived in the happiness of his peo-
pie. One day while on his way to Ostend
to declare it a free port, and while at the
head of great procession, he saw a wom-
an at the door OF her cottage in detection.
The Emperor dismounted and asked the
cause of her grief. She said that her hus-
band had gone to Ostend to see the EN-
peror and had declined to take her with
him, for, as he was an alien, he could not
understand her loyal enthusiasm, and that
it was the one great desire of her life to
see the ruler for whose kindness and good
ness and greatness she had an unspeak-
able admiratioa; and her disappointment
in not being able to go and see him was
simply unbearSble. The Emperor Joseph
- L 4