Woman's chronicle. (Little Rock, Ark.) 1888-1???, 1890-09-20
The Woman About Town.

Inc woman About Town.
rom the N Y. SUM-
John and his wife live over in Staten Island
Now as they are both well-informed young per-
sons and hold their opinions very tenaciously, they
still find themselves after five years of married life
and the opportunity for frequent discussions
afforded thereby, no nearer agreement on certain
questions than they were at first On the question
of divorce reform, for instance, they hold views
Numerically opposed; they have never been able
to agree on woman suffrage, and as John is de-
voted Churchman and Mary an ardent Presbyte-
rian, the question of the apostolic succession is
likely to remain unsettled between them for years
to come. Now each is something of a propagan-
dist, and, during the first years of marriage, each
sought in every possible way to convert the other.
But with persons of mature years who have any
convictions at all, these convictions are apt to be-
come part of their very bone and fibre, and do
not thaw away at the first touch of counter-argu-
ment. And so neither John saw fit to change his
views on the apostolic succession, nor did Mary
find herself in an altered frame of mind concern.
ing the desrabty of uniform divorce laws, and
their frequent discussions only wasted time and
nervous energy, and sometimes brought them to
the very verge of grave misunderstanding And
so as they were wise young persons they began to
see the drift of matters, and TO feel that the mop
perfume and insistent indulgence in argument was
likely to result in mischief, rather than in convic
tion and so they sat down wisely to talk it over.
They proposed first wholly to Danish the contested
topics "No," said clear-headed Mary, after
pause, 'that won't do either. Forbidden sub
jects are the most tempting ones in all the world;
BESIDES it isn't fair to our intellectual life to deny
ourselves the right to any discussion"
John didn't quite know what she meant by this
latter proposition, but he was very sure it was a
very fine sentiment, and one that he would wholly
agree to if he wholly understood it, so he assented.
"Now have it," said Mary. s'Ihere are-let me
see-one two, three, four subjects that we get into
discussions over. That's one for each week in the
month. Now one discussion week of any of
these subjects is all we ought to allow ourselves.
Say we arrange it so. One day in each week we
allow ourselves to speak of certain one Of these
topcs-the first Tuesday in the month, for ex-
ample, we may talk about the woman question all
we want to. The next week on Wednesday, we
will let ourselves talk about the apostolic success
sion. On one day in the third week, we may talk
about divorce, and the last week we may speak for
one day upon the evolution theory. All the other
days in the month these topics are to be positively
interdicted, and even on the days set we needn't
talk about them unless we wish to. But we can
just have those days. so that if you have anything
new to say to me or to you on these topics we
may say them then, and so that we may not feel
that we are entirely shut away from the oppor-
tunity of discussion, like a pair of children"
And John agreed to that And now they have
four special days in their calendar one each week.
in which each has The opportunity to convert the
other if it can be done, or to indulge the propen-
sty for discussion, but on all other days these dis
puted subjects are, between these wise souls,
things that are never mentioned.
Where Bathing is Questionable.