Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-29

turned silk handkerchiefs returned as cotton,
stockings came odd, jerseys in holes. sheets in
rags, and shirt fronts enameled with iron
mold; after marriage, everything returns in
good condition and in proper number.
But to the woman matrimony is by no means
relief from cares. On the contrary, the vo-
man passes through the ring into an arena OF
battle. We are told by anthropologists that in
the primitive condition of society subdivision
of tasks took place; one set of men undertook
to till the earth and manage the domestic ami
mails, while another girded on their arms and
defended the infant community. These latter,
for their services. were fed by the tlers housed,
and clothed, with food they had not grown,
houses they had not builded. clothing they had
not woven. The same subdivision of labor con-
tinues still in the family where the man is the
tiller and toiler, and the woman is the military
element. She marches round the confines of
his house. fights daily battles with those foes
of domestic felicity-the servants When they
oversleep themselves, she routs them out of
their beds; when they neglect the busting, she
flies in pursuit to bring them to their duties;
when they are impudent, she drives them out
iof the house.
With what unfagging zeal does she maintain
her daily conflicts How she countermines,
discovers ambushes, circumvents, throws open
the gates, and charges the foe
NOW COnSluer W0aL was Lno llIe OIL bu0 BiIl uc-
fore she married. She had no worries, no war
fare; she was petted, admired; she enjoyed
herself, indulged her caprices unrestrained,
gave way to her humors unrebuked. Her bon
nets, her dresses were given to her, she had no
care what she might eat, any more than the
lilies of the field, only, unlike them, devoting
herself to the thoughts of her clothing for
which. however, she had not to pay. Unmar-
ried girls were anciently termed spinsters, and
are so derisively still in the banns, for they
formerly spun the linen for their future homes;
now they toll not neither do they spin.
Then comes marriage, and all is changed.
They enter into world OF discords and disa-
greement. They have to grow long nails and to
sharpen their teeth; they have to haggle with
shopkeepers, fight their servants; whereas the
husbands those sluggard kings of creation,
smack their lips over their dinners and lounge
in their easy chairs and talk politics with
their friends, and smile, and smile, unconscious
of the struggles and passions that rage down.
stairs.
The eyes that, in the girl, looked at the beau
ties of creation in the married woman search
out delinquencies in their domestics and de-
fects in the household furniture. The eyes
that looked for violets now peer for eobwebs;
that fingered lovingly on the sunset glow, now
examine the coal bill; and the ear that listed to
male voice in the kitchen. The nose that of
old inhaled the perfume of the rose, now pokes
into pots and pans in quest of dripping.
From what has been said above, the reader
may conclude that the position of the wife,
though belligerent one. is at all events regal.
She is queen of the house, and If she has
trouble with servants it is as sovereign who
has to resist revolutionary movements among
her subjects.
No more mistaken idea can well be enter
tanned. AS the Pope writes himself, Servant
of the servants of Heaven" so does the lady
of the house subscribe herself servant of the
servants of the establishment. If she searches
into their shortcomings, demonstrates, and re-
sents them, it is as the subject criticising, muir
muring at and revolving personally against
the tyranny of her oppressors. So far from
being the head of the house she is the door
mat, trampled on, kicked, set at nought,
Obliged to swallow all the dirt that is brought
into the house.
Marriage had produced change in Philip.
1t had made him less stony, angular, formal.
Matrimony often has a remarkable effect on
those who enter into it, reducing their pecu-
liarities, softening their harshnesses, and ac-
centuating those points of similarity which are
to be found in the two brought into close asso-
citation, so that in course of time singular re-
semblance in character and features is observ-
able in married folk. In an old couple there is
to be seen occasionally likeness as that of
brother and sister. This is caused by there be-
ing exposed to the same caresses and the same
strokes of fortune; they are weathered by the
same breezes; moistened by the same rains. In
addition to the exterior forces moulding a