Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1886-09-09
AMiABlE AND HELPFUL.
A Lady Authors View of What Wife
Should BE.

Should BE.
Some one has said that all women
should be beautiful-of course we all
vould be beautiful if we could have
hand in the 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 us
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 l 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 a
one was very plain.
But because 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 amiabiity.
| once heard a man, who was not hap
py in his married life, say: II think it
must be Heaven ON earth to be mar
ried to an amiable woman!" Amia-
bility can be cultivated just as well as
music, or painting, or embroidery, OF
any thing else. But do you know what
it is to be amiablep
1t is to be unselfish-and to be unset.
fish one must be indifferent to self. Tc
be unselfish, to think more of anoth'
er's comforts than of our own; give NJ
our little whims and fancies to please
others, and to give them up amiably
That is it, to give up amiably. But tC
be amiable is to have sweet smile ant
a pleasant word for every one. Swee
smiles and pleasant words cost but lit
tie, only slight effort to ourselves
perhaps, and habit will prevent theil
being an effort.
! But wife should not only be unself
ish and amiable, but she should b,
helpful; and this she can not fail TO b'
if she is in sympathy with her husband
A wife should help her husband il
his business or profession, and amuse
ments as well, in so far as she can. Blu
if man declines help in his business
she can help him in moments of bust
ness depression by her cheerfulnes
and amiability.
/ know a man who has been driver
to drink, because when he comes hom
after hard days work, the house is il
disorder, the lamp chimney is smokes
and the children are noisy. He is
cultivated and refined gentleman, ant
his wife is amiable, but she is not
help to him.
l know charming lady, who wa
an only child, and somewhat of
spoiled one. She married early in lif
J and having been spoiled child sh
expected to be spoiled woman.
She was neither unselfish nor amiable
and her husband took to drink. Sh
got divorce from him, and he marrie
! again and is devoted husband an
I father, having reformed entirely.
} Women are naturally more unselfis
! and more amiable than men, and the
2 need to be. They are also MOI
E patient and more religious. If ever
woman would stop and think, and tt
D to realize how much power for good
, evil she wields, she would be mol
/ careful in her words and actions.
What is more pathetic than one sci
] tence in "Middlemarch," by Geors
e Eliot: "He married care, not help"
1 E6ie Las0ton, in Woman's Maya zine.