The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1890-07-23
A wIFE's DUTY.
BY ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.


The wife should be the first mate of
The ship of matrimony. She should
lot only assist In steering the craft
through financial gales but she should
oe ever on the watch TO avert danger,
and her fine instincts should tell her
when TO tack or lower sails without
waiting for orders from the captain.
The petty tyrant or nagging wife is
perhaps the most hopeless case OF all.
The most trivial courtesy or attention
ne shows another woman arouses a
nasty phase of jealousy in her nature,
and she renders herself ridiculous, and
her husband is Inundated constantly.
She is forever referring TO the time
when he was lover, and treated her
different" forgetting that in those
lays she studied to attract him and
now she studies to distract him. She
complains that he never makes calls"
with her, and she finds fault with all
his friends, and is never suited with
anything he brings home to her. She
wants to go ont when he wants to stay
home, and vice versa, and entertains
her company by talking of his faults
and shortcomings in his presence, and
vet she wonders that he does not seem
TO love her as once he did She is
never satisfied with her seat in the rail
road car when they travel, or with her
apartments at the hotel, and if she
ever yields TO his tastes or wishes in
anything she Is forever telling him af-
terward that her way would have been
better, and that his way has caused
her endless annoyance. Such women
need the iron hand of a veri able mas
ter who would control them by force.
They crush out all tenderness or re-
spect for the sex in a mans heart, and
render home about as attractive as a
swarm of mosquitoes do
Tact is a necessary element in mar
ried life. 1t may seem very cunning
to n lover if YOU dash book or news
paper out of his hand and ask him to
talk to you. But it Will only serve TO
annoy or anger a husband. Do not in
trude yourself upon husband and ask
10 be petted when he wants to read his
paper, or when he is worrying over his
account book. or when he is talking
business with some friend. Do not
complain to your husband that he is
cold and changed if he is not in state
of fervent loyemalling every hour of the
twentyfour. Remember that love is
ike the sun-it has its dawn, its after
noon, its cool evening hours, as well as
its high noon. Do not demand high
noon the whole twenty-four hours. BE
patient and cheerful through its seem
ingly cool evening and even chilly
night hours and believe the glorious
sun of true love is shining sill, though
yelled from you, and wait till the noon
hour comes again, as 1t surely will.
Respond TO the first look or tone of love
in your husband and do not act cold
and show resentment of the hours or
days when he has seemed to be occu-
pied with other thoughts than YOU
Praise him freely for every kind act
or word he gives you. Do not act as if
they were your right, but take them as
precious gifts, to be received with
gratitude Praise for attention is the
most delicate reproof for neglect. Try
and never render yourself disagreeable
in your manner or actions in presence
of your husband. No matter If he does
not seem TO notice it, he will remember
it when absent from you, and it will
make him eager to return to you.
Let him find nowhere outside his home
a woman so agreeable and courteous
as the one he left in it.
Study his moods as YOU would study
the most difficult piece of music, the
deepest mathematical problem, or the
most intricate stitches in needlework,
and make it the aim of your life to lend
Yourself to his varying needs, as water
shapes itself to any vessel into which
it is poured