Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-09-17
THE HAsYERFUL EOyAE.
SHE WHO RULES EVERY PERSON
EXCEPT HERSELF
Unhappy Lot of Those Who Are Obliged
to Live With Her-The Slight Influence
She Leaves When She Dies.

Harpey's Baaar, but they must have hand
in ruling the affairs of every one else-the
outgoing and incoming of all within their
radius. the dress, the acquaintance, the
reading, the conversation, the whole con-
duct of life of all others-as far as they
can. These women rule their houses, they
rule their husbands, they rule their neigh
borhoods, but they have never learned to
rule their own spirits.
To these women it seems impossible that
the world should go right except on the
lines of their own direction; it would be
little wonderful that they could see the
starry system sweep by without sugges-
ton, or an endeavor to arrange to their
own convenience the hours of the rising
and the setting of the sun, if it we're not
that to every tide the mandate of nature
saws: "Thus far and no farther" and the
tide of self-will is subject to the laws that
govern all other tides.
Early in life these women succeed either
in bringing their husbands into subsection
or in alternating their affections; or else
they bring into the household an element
and atmosphere of perpetual strife. They
are women usually endowed with great Vi
tality, so that they live through every
thing; and although often fretful in
valids, they arrive at old age still admin
istering power. Perhaps, indeed. old age
is the happiest time of all their conquest,
for then they receive, on account of their
years and the probable approach of death,
an obedience and Difference of willing sub
jects, only a shadow of which was rem
dered previously, and that grudgingly and
by unwilling slaves.
1t does not matter to one of those
women that her husbands experience has
undoubtedly given him superior knowl-
edge of his own business; she directs there
as everywhere. If it would be for the ad-
vantage of his affairs to move to another
place, and she prefers to remain where she
is. then the business remains with her,
even to its extinction; if she prefers to
move, although the business be best where
it is, all is uprooted and put on wheels.
1t does not weigh with her that her chill
dren have this, that, or the other bent for
their walk in life; if it is not what she
likes, they must be bent differently and to
her will
Her children marry as they choose only
if they have inherited her own spirit, or if
by chance her selection and theirs coin
eide: and even then she interferes, controls
and restrains, or endeavors to do so; and
the wife who has her for a mother-in-law
knows that calamity is of long life. If any
of her children are unmarried and remain
at home, the life of the famous toad under
the harrow is no worse than theirs; the
food they eat, the dress they wear, the
book they read, the street they walk, the
hours they keep, are not matters of free
choice; and as such a mother is apt to
transmit her traits in more or less degree,
that house is seething volcano, and it is
well realized there that better is a dry
morsel and quietness Herewith than a
house full of luxuries with strife. Not
content with all her queening at home, she
administers her charities-of which there
are many, for they are part Of her SUBJ
iugating inhuences-with feudal mainten-
ance of her right of saying how those char
tiles shall be used. She gives the minister,
too, instructions as to the conduct of his
calling, and would fain tell the doctor
what treatment he had best pursue at the
sick-bed
When at last this mastertul person dies
the local prints, the neighborhood, her
little world in general, have great deal
to say ABOUT her marked character, her
keen intellect, the strength of her person
ality, the work that she accomplished and
the power for good that she was in the
community; but no one has much to say of
any love that was extended to her. As
soon as decency and self-respect allow after
her departure, all her practices are re-
versed If she detained the family at
home they are off to Europe; if in confu-
sion, now there is peace the emotions that
were kept under now show themselves,
those that were exaggerated are now de-
pressed; company is made welcome if it
was previously forbidden, is excluded if it
was previously enforced; there is extraya-
gance where there was economy; there is
restraint where there was profusion; the
whole action of the family resembles moth
ing so much as that of the imp in the
bottle when the pressure is removed; and
although usually, Of course, nothing of the
sort is intended, she is inst as distinctly set
at naught as if the fingers Of derision were
snapped in her face.
Certainly happiness is by no means all
there is to live for in this world, but vet
we all welcome it, desire it and strive for
it, more or less. 1t is hardly question if
this woman is SO happy as some other
woman who has pursued course almost
the reverse of hers, who has, as a prevail
ing rule, yielded her will when it came
into collision with that of others, except
in cases where plain and absolute right
and wrong were involved, and on whom
our masterful friend would be ever ready
to shower the arrows of her contempt ON
occasion, as poor weakling without
mind of her own, born only to deteriorate
the race. That weakling has not only
made others around her happy, but in do
ing so she has been happy herself.
Our masterful one expects her way to
give her the happiness she wants, and she
has her way, but she never has her happi-
ness. Our considerate woman is not look
ing for happiness, but she finds it, like a
jewel dropped upon her path out of heaven.
She has thwarted no purposes of individ-
uals, tried TO thwart none of fate's, with
any arrogant idea that she knows best; she
mas aSsisleu the uSfclOpueut VI CndrdCteI
and fortune by intruding nothing and
forcing nothing; she has not had the
cringing Of slavish subordinates, but the
love of worshipers; she has spoiled no
tempers, broken no wills, injured no tenn
peraments, but has by her course increased
the brightness and sweetness of the world
till the very reaction alone has been
enough TO give her the best of the bright
ness and sweetness. She has forgotten
herself, and has ended by having every
one else remember her. The one has
been dreaded, and her anger avoided; the
other has been adored, and her approval
solicited. Her presence has been the
cloud Of blessing; when she goes her loss
is felt like the loss of sunshine. And so
far as the purposes of fate have been con-
ceped, the masterful woman has been a
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