Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-09-02
AMlABiE AND HELPFUL
A Lady Authors View of What Wife
Should he.


Lady Authors View Of What Wife
Should he.
Some one has said that all women
should pe oeautiful-of course We all
woulG be beautiful if we could have
hand in tn. making of our faces. There
are few women who have perfect feat
ures, or perfect compilations, and SO
there are not many beautiful woman.
But almost all women have one attrac-
tive feature, and are pretty: or. at
least. they can make themselves at
tractive. 1t is not always beauty OF
face and form that wins the day; let u.s.
cultivate then the graces of the mind
and heart.
1t is true, pretty face attracts at
tentiOn, but it does not always win re-
gard, or retain affection. But though
girls may not think so, most men look
for something more than pretty face
in the woman they desire to marry, or
why is it that so many very plain wom-
en- marry such very nice men.
/ have met men and women so
charming in manner and conversation.
that did not think of their looks at
all. But being asked afterwards if
such or such person was handsome. l
was obliged to stop and think, and re-
calling their features, decide that such
a one was very handsome. and such q
one was very plain.
But because a woman is plain, and
her face does not Immediately attract
notice from every passer-by let her
make herself, her inmost self, mean,
not her outward dress, all the more at
tractive. Let her cultivate amiability.
I once heard man. who was not hap
py in his married life, say: II think it
must be Heaven en- earth to be mar
ried to an amiable woman!" Amia-
bility can be cultivated just as well as
music, or painting, or embroidery, or
any thing else. But do you know what
it is to be amiable?
1t is to be unselfish-and to be unset
fish one must be Indifferent to self. To
be unselfish, to think more of anoth-
er's comforts than of our own; give up
our little whims and fancies to please
others, and to give them up amiably.
That is it. to give up amiably. But to
be amiable is to have sweet smile and
a pleasant word for every one. Sweet
smiles and pleasant words cost but lit
tie, onlya slight effort to ourselves,
perhaps, and habit will prevent their
being an effort.
But wife should not only be unself-
ish and amiable, but she should be
helpful; and this she can not fail 10 be
if she is in sympathy with her husband.
A wife should help her husband in
his business or profession, and amuse-
ments as well, in so far as she can. But
if man declines help in his business,
she can help him in moments of bust
ness depression by her cheerfulness
and amiability.
know man who has been driven
to drink, because when he comes home
after hard days work, the house is in
disorder, the lamp chimney is smoked
and the children are noisy. He is a
cultivated and refined gentleman. and
his wife is amiable, but she is not q
help to him.
Iknow charming lady, who was
an only child, and somewhat of a
spoiled one. She married early in life
and having been spoiled child she
expected to be spoiled woman"
She was neither unselfish nor amiable,
and her husband took to drink. She
got divorce from him, and he married
again and is a devoted husband and
father, having reformed entirely.
Women are naturally more unselfish
and more amiable than men, and they
need to be. They are also more
patient and more religious. If every
woman would stop and think, and try
to realize how much power for good or
evil she yields, she would be more
careful in her words and actions.
What is more pathetic than one SEN
tence in "Middlemarch, by George
Eliot: HE married care, not help. ~
EHe LaUton, in Woman's Magazine.