Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-04-06
A HUSBANDS APPRECIATION.
He Must Not Only Feel 10, But Express IL to
Make the Wife Happy.

MIKE the WHO happys
WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATcH.1
The following syllogism will bear the test
of logical analysis:
Appreciation is conducive to the happiness
of woman.
The majority of women are not Appreciated
or are not made to feel the genial effects of ap-
probation.
Therefore the majority of women are not
happy.
This syllogism will be equally logical if
we substitute men for women, though the
statement would not be so correct, as men on
account of more robust training are not as
a rule so dependent upon the words Of
endearment and praise as their wives and
sisters.
The girl who has been tenderly trained
by loving mother, who never failed to give
her full credit for every duty well per-
formed, suddenly finds herself in another
home with totally different surroundings.
To this new abode she brings her trained
talents, her conscientiousness and her desire
for instant and constant appreciation. Did
Mary make lemon meringue in her faith
er's house, every member of the family was
called to admire it before it was cut, and
not one ever failed to say while eating it
that it was the best pie ever put into mortal
mouth. But Mary's meringue fares differ
emily in her new home.
1t is not enough that her husband abso-
lutely gobbles the first piece and passes his
plate for another almost before the last
mouthful is swallowed. He doesn't say
anything. The fact that he liked the pie
we'll enosgh to eat half of it makes no favor
able impression upon the little wife who
had thought lovingly of all that John would
say and do as she squeezed her lemons and
whipped her eggs to frothiuess. Then how
many times she opened and shut that oven
door to be sure that the most delicate shade
of brown should be attained, and how rosy
were her cheeks, how bright her eyes as she
set the perfect pie away to cool and danced
off to array herself in her prettiest dress and
wait for her husbands coming.
Now, Johns failure 10 do more than eat
the pie dampens Mary's enthusiasm, and
her feelings are wounded. The question
which his wife is hoping and praying that
ne will ask does not leave his lips, and she,
ashamed of her hurt and yet not strong
enough to rally and be her own sweet self,
broods over this apparent indifference until
time and more intimate acquaintance with
her husbands peculiarities changes the sore
spot into a scar. If these conditions con-
tinue, though Mary may afterward make
numberless pies, she will never make another
with the same loving pleasure, the same
beautiful enthusiasm.
True, John may not find fault with her
cooking, but he never praises it, and so that
subtle something, that most necessary and
most vital spiritual spring and impulse
which causes an affectionate nature to do its
best in anticipation of more love, is killed
and buried on the very threshold of life.
Such funeral as this turns a woman into
an automaton or a machine, and there are
many such machines in the world.
1t seems to the writer that the proper
course for Mary to have taken concerning
that meringue pie would have been after
the meal was over to have seated herself
on her husbands knee-provided be was
willing, and all good fellows are-and, with
her arms about his neck, to have asked him
why he did not say that her pie was good
and used this first opportunity of assuring
dear and absolutely necessary to her happi-
cacy made by her hands could never quite
satisfy her craving for appreciation. Such
a proceeding, so frank a confession, in the
start would be sufficient to insure the pres
ervation and proper fostering of wifely en-
thusiasm in the future.
The dying words of a woman who had
sinned and repented brings the tears to nv
eyes every time L think Of them.
But why did you forsake your hus-
band?" the broken-hearted mother in
quired.
"God forgive me-" was the tragic answer:
'that man praised me and Tom never did,"
ELEANOR KIRK.