Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1889-10-24
I Neglected Wives.
a sTmRiNG PAPER ON AN 1MpoR-
Is. TANT SUBJECT. :,

,ifnat u record OF SelhshneSS ana
indifference some of our greatest men
have left in their domestic life.
Though ignorant no doubt of the far
reaching consequences Of every word
s5or action, yet the penalty is as swift
and sure as if the law were know
ing, violated.
DR.. Franklin, the far famed utilita.
rian kite flyer, went to Europe, lcav-
ing his wife behind him, and never
saw her face for eleven years. But
she shared his poverty, practiccd his
poor Richard maxims, pinchcd and
economical, patched and darned,
bred children and nursed them
through chicken pox, whooping
cough, measles, scarlet fever, and fits,
while Benjamin .aioyed the splcn-
doris of a court velvet couchcs, good
dinners and choice society. When
no returned the poor drudge was no
match for the great philosopher.
That her heart rebellcd in her soli-
tude and neglect is manifest in the
headstrong acts of her children.
Franklin quarrcllcd with his sons
and disinhcritcd one of them. Thus
were the mothers wrongs avenged.
Henry Clay, too, thought he could
safely leave his wife at Ashland to
bear children and make butter for
the Lexington market, while he
made laws for the nation and made
love to lovely momcn in Washing
ton. There his heart stood always
open, as boarding house door, but
shut against her, who was playing
Solomon's wise woman on 4 farm in
Kentucky, cutting out lindscys and
jeans for the negroes. His dream of
ambition over, sick and sad he re-
turned to Ashland, to find that the
domestic drudge, called by the holy
name of wife, had reared him a race
nf degenerate children. lie was
filed with disappointment, but his
sorrow only measured the depth of
the mothers humiliation. The ans
gels of evidence and retaliation were
but equal. Was it the unhappy
mother that made one son crazy with
hopeless love, another sour, dis
contentcd man, overcome through
life with sense of iniirmity, and
Jockeys and gamblers of the rest?
Truly wisdom is justified of her
children. We do not gather grapes
of thorns or figs of thistlcs. We
cannot qucnch our thirst at sweet
and peasants streams whose foun-
tains we have poisoned. Henry
Clay, the great paciiicator, the
staunch protcctionist, is dead +; his
compromise measures are scattered
to the winds, but his misdce,ls lived
long after him. His son, Theodore,
fingered in an insane asylum upward
of fifty years, q long weary life Of
hopeless dcspondcncy.
One son was IN influential mem
Der of Congress, Governor of Con-
necticut and judge of the supreme
court. Another was one of the
largest land owners in the West and
commissioner of patents in WASH
ington. One daughter married the
chief justice of the supreme court
of Connecticut, etc, all alike taking
first rank in society. Late in life,
reviewing her course and its results,
she used to say she had made one
grave error. She had thought it her
= constant duty to stay with her family
on the farm, as thus she could best
help her husband. lie went to
Washington always without her, to
France without her, and though
their affection was not lost, their
knowledge Of each other became I'M
satisfactory. She used to say to her
daughters, "Keep with your hus-
bands, go for few weeks every
winter to Washington; never mind
the long, tedious, hard stage ride ;
keep with him at any sacrifice.
Read, think, study the questions of
the hour, the literature of the day,
keep pace with them in knowledge
and attainment. Thus only can You
be companions suited to each other.
My husband grew away from me,
not in affection wholly, but in attain
mcnt. We started together as
equals had seen as much of life,
books and good society as he had.
We were alike capable Of spiritual
and intellectual companionship, but
!, forgctful of my first duty, sclf-dc-
velopment, gave up all advantages
and opportunities for Improvement,
and lived wholly with children and
servants. I took no note Of the