Morning journal and courier., 1889-03-19

but also one of the most unbeautiful lands imaginable. Nobody. either rich or poor, has time to idle; and nobody seems to req lze that it is only in idleness and leisure, or at least in cessation from the pursuit of wealth, that anything beautiful will be evolved out of either brain or hand.
 There is another point to be considered. Matthew Arnold said that America was the paradise of the working man. England is certainly the paradise of the married wo- man, and it would scarcely be an exagger- ation to say that America, by comparison, is her purgatory. The freedom and hap- piness enjoyed by the American girl pre- pares her badly for the drudgery of married life. And this is not because our men are cruel or bad husbands; far from 1t, but sim- ply because the conditions of married life in
 America are averse to happiness. That American marriages are very often unhappy is notoriously the case, as is shown by the list of divorces that fills the papers. One of the main causes of this is the defective do nestle arrangements, which has thrown an overwhelming burden upon the shoulders of the American wife. She has to work SC hard, even though she may be delicate, that she has no time 60 be happy. Her nerves are soon worn out, her health gives way, misery ensues and relief is sought in the di. vorce court. The trouble was not that she
 married the wrong man, as she foolishly im- agines, but that she had no servants. Eng. fish women don't realize the blessings they enjoy in being able to obtain the services of capable servants. When, as is frequently the case, hear them bemoaning the trou. blesomeness of their servants, wishing in their folly that they had none, and saying they would be better off without them, feel inclined to arise like prophecies and say: Hold Speak not thus. When the time comes that you have no domestic ser wants you will have seen the sun set upon your last happy day.
 Let me give an example from typical American family of the well-to-do middle class. It is type of thousands which may be seen anywhere in the eastern States. There was the father, business man, who left home at a. m. during six days in the week, to return twelve and half hours later too tired and weary to dream of recrea- tion or amusement; there was the mother, a delicate woman with two children, one an infant; the grandmother, vigorous lady of ffty-hve, and 8 cousin of twenty. The house was entirely self-supporting; there was not servant in it. Every contrivance that brains could devise or money provide was there to tighten the labor; but the wo- men were always overworked, and never had leisure to read or paint or enjoy life in any of the thousand ways that are open to Eng fish ladies. They were not poor people, as the father, who has since become very rich, was then making between ten and fifteen thousand dollars year; but no money could buy the services of good and faithful domes- tics, and rather than resort to that last re- fuge of despair, the family boarding house," they chose to be their own servants. The yiaitors in this family were expected to "pull their own weight" in the household. It was an amusement for European visitor to do so but one could see that such 8 sys- tenn deprived the women of all chance of social happiness and pleasure. In fact, when they wanted rest they came to Europe for two years.
 we like England. We are more thought of here when married than in our own country. In America the girl, it is true, is paramount. There she is the center of social life, while over here the girl is only graceful and pleasing figure of the background. But marriage distinguishes the English woman; it extinguishes the American. To be girl in America and matron in England is to obtain the maximum of deference and hom- age. We are not averse to receiving both. Some people find in our supposed toadyism a reason for our appearance here in England. But that is ridiculous reason to advance, since the number of British nobles who take their titles into the American markets is ex- ceedingly small No doubt Americans do admire titled persons to a certain extent, but merely because they ara rare, and also be- cause they like to see a man distinguished by something besides his mere cash value. Hereditary nobles possess this distinction apart from their wealth, and therefore they receive a certain limited amount of notice and admiration. These, then, are some oi the reasons why, in spite of our somewhat aggressive patriotism, we are content to be, come English wives. The old country has SO much that is beautiful to offer us, and here, without being very rich, we can still realize our womsn's ideal of a refined, ele- gant and leisurely home, where the chief figure is not always conspicuous by his ab- sence. In these respects we American wives have much to gain by coming to England, and we lose very little. Perhaps some Eng fish husband will tell us the motives that 11road him to his axogamous alliance.