The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-02-27
AUTHORS AND MARRIAGE.
THE MATING OF CUPID AND PEGASUS.
Can the Authoress Be a Good wife p
Marriage stimulant to Literary Work
"A Sensible Article BY the Author
OF ''The Leavenworth Case"
Copyrighted, 1889. !

that was made at the time of my mar
rage by an old-fashioned neighbor of
mine who, am happy to say, knew more
of my writings than of myself, that he
had rather a son of his should die than
marry an author. For, while not flatter-
ing to myself as a woman, it showed that
the old prejudice against the typical blue
stocking was not by any means a thing of
the past. And, indeed, he but voiced in
a somewhat extravagant manner the
secret feelings of many good men and
women on this subject. A woman who
writes cannot do anything else-or 80 GER
sain practical persons seem to think; the
literary art appearing in their eyes to Gre
ate an impossible barrier between its prac-
ice and the everyday duties of life by
which the family is nourished, supported
and and made comfortable.
Now, to what degree are they right?
Can a woman without detriment to her
husbands comfort and the welfare of the
children that have been given her to rear,
occupy herself with task which is not
only in opposition to these demands, but
is of nature so absorbing that it carries
her for the time being not only out of her
self, but out OF the region in which her
we'll beloved ones think. move and have
their being. Yes, but in her case even
more than in that OF most wives and
mothers, there should be certain qualIti-
cations of judgment and self-restraint, as
well as great love for her home and its in
mates, lest the charm OF her intellectual
labors should prevail too much above the
Ill
place duties, which, as woman, she must
equally engage in, or her house will be-
come wilderness and her children like
the weeds that Overgrow it.
For to first make home and then to
maintain it the ideal spot, where not only
comfort reigns but Joy takes up its abode,
requires many and various faculties put to
constant use, while the writing of books
destined to live beyond the year which
gave them birth demands concentration
81 purpose and an amount OF labor, which
when expended by man, is thought sui
6cient to constitute his LIES work.
1t is therefore evident that in matter OF
quantity there should not be as much ex-
pected from the pen of woman thus cir
cumstanced as that from a man. To full
fill all her duties she will be obliged to
portion out her time with discretion, re-
serving much for her home, her children
and society, and giving but a few precious
hours-in some cases not more than one
or two dav-to the work, which, if she
is born writer, has been as the breath OF
her body before these other interests came
into her life.
But those hours or that hour, as the
case may be- Taken from the best of the
day, or when the mind and faculties are
the freshest, they can be made to yield a
plentiful harvest. If the authoz possesses
a quick brain and fluent pen, she will
have many pages of manuscript to show
at the end OF the year; and if she is not
If her effects are wrought out with much
labor and careful culling of words, she
will still produce enough TO whet the
public taste and keep it alive till her time
Is more her own and her opportunities
for thought and continued labor greater.
And here a point suggests itself To
sustain fame and TO make one are two
different things. y young mother cum
bered by cares and filled with the emo
tons and anxieties incident upon new
life amid strange surroundings, would find
it difficult to obtain the time and mental
freedom necessary 10 produce piece OF
work of beauty and vigor sufficient to
force itself upon the attention of natu-
rally incledulous and preoccupied public.
Let the aspiring writer wait, then, till the
first hard battle has been fought and the
first grievOus disappointment lived down
before she sets her foot across the charmed
circle of marriage; otherwise some OF the
interests dear to her heart must suffer.
But once having earned the full or even
the partial recognition that her talents
crave, then let her be bold TO assume the
new responsibilities TO which her nature
as a woman calls her.
For she will find in them not only in
finite satisfaction but actual rest. The
mind which has hitherto been bent forci-
bly, IN one direction will now have a
chance 10 expand in the full circle which
the faculties demand. Life, with It's activ-
tiles, as well as life in its imaginations, is
revealed as by a magician's wand, and the
soul which often became weary Of itself
and the crowding fancies begot by soil
tude and the midnight oil, now shares its
being with others and takes where once
II gave, and is helped where once il only
aspired to bestOw assistance.
And her writings will be improved like
wise. The genial glow of a coy home
lamp shining on a husbands smile and
bringing out the golden threads in the
clustering curls of little children has a
strange power to exercise the morbid ele-
ment which Is apt to creep into the work
Of a solitary woman writer.
For women have not the advantages
possessed by men of mingling with the
world, and unless she is of a rarely un-
selfish nature she will unconsciously i'm
bue her writings with the tinge of that
somber mist ever rising betw cen the long
ing soul and their unattained pleasures
which as vet are but as a dream 10 her.
She must feel the world beat against her
breast in the heart of little child before
she can do it justice or see it with clear
and understanding eyes. 1t must be her
world and not merely the spot in
which her chatting soul consents
to hnger, for her to give it
the impartial consideration which
its strangely discordant elements
demand. Healthy breathing, healthy liv-
ing, healthy sympathy with the men and
women around you-men and women
who, like yourself, own homes and possess
children, together with all the hopes and
pleasures TO which this possession gives
rise-these are the elements from which
spring, not these daring flights of magma
ton which startle US sometimes, from the
pen OF the young, nor yet those fervid
stories of unnatural sacrifices and folly
that eat into the heart of the reader and
leaves a burning pain behind them, but
those matured, deep and commanding
revelations of life that sink at once into
the soul and become part of its struc-
fura hopcoforfh and foravar