The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-07-22
Somebody's Husband.

newspapers of nowadays are so clogged
up with "advice to women" that ex-
pert readers learn to skip all such par
agraphs with the same agility devel-
opepcd in skipping the advertisements
OF patent medicines. In taking note
of the needs of humanity, however,
have discovered one little plot of
ground hitherto uncultivated by the
moral adviser. We hear enough
about the training that ought to be
given our girls so that they may be
prepared for wifehood and mother
hood. | would like to suggest to those
having charge of children that they
train up the boys for husbandhood and
fatherhood.
I have heard parents without num-
ber talk over the future OF their boys
as doctors, lawyers, and merchants; !;
but have heard very few devote
much time or thought to the question
Of what kind of husband or father
ther boy would be likely to make.
1t is certainly strange that there are
so many bad husbands when the
mother is supposed to have the train
ing of children, at least during the
early and most impressive years. 1t
is strange that women, who know
often by sad experience just how many
and great trials come to every home
circle, and know also how the pa
tient forbearance and gentle, loving
sympathy of the head of the house.
hold would tide over the difficulty,
should not teach their sons, as very
first lesson the principles of good hus-
bandship.
Some people seem to think that good
husbands, like blackberries down
South, grow wild, and "thout any
raisin'; :" but I tell you it takes good
deal of "raisin'" to bring up hus-
band in the way he should go, and
too often the bloom and sweetness of
married life is lost in the process.
Some people, again, consider that
all that is necessary to the making of
good husband is that he shall be
sober and industrious. But there are
a good many little things beside
which go to the making of good hus-
band, and the woman who gets hold
of a bad one soon discovers this fact.
The greater part of domestic unhap.
piness hinges on the small things of
life. This is not a new thought by
any means, but it is more common to
suppose that these little things are the
small commissions of the wife. Wo-
men are advised not to scold, not to
fret, not to sulk, not to forget to put
on clean collar in the morning, not
to forget to bang their hair, not to. for
get the buttons, and to be sure that
the coffee is not muddy but how
about the dos and dont's on the other
side? Wouldn't it be just as well to
say to the husband: Don't 60 home
with your brow all twisted into a Cor
dian knot and your voice like a rasp-
ing saw don't forget that a woman,
even though she be your wife, does
not want an unkept sloven hanging
around the house at odd hours don't
forget that woman, even though she
be q wife, does not like to have her
ears pulluted by language which the
dictates of polite society forbid a man
to use in public don't forget that a
woman, even though she be a wife,
does not admire stinginess, gluttony,
or yulgarity in the man whom she has
promised to honor and obey"
Too often men forget that the mere
assumption of widely duties does not
destroy a single womaply trait. Wife
hood and motherhood develop all that
is sweet and womanly; they destroy
nothing. How many white souled
women do you suppose hide in their
hearts the dead ideals which they
loved, while day by day the empty
semblance of those ideals mock their
sight?
If O girl needs to be we'll trained that
she may nobly fulfill her duty as
somebody's wife some day, does not a
boy need yet more to be trained and
disciplined that he may worthily full
fill the responsible duties which some
day devolve on him as somebody's
husband ?-Union Signal.