, 1891-06-20

AAHH ~ AAAAHA u.s. 49, 49, 80 ~ ~
thrown aside; that it is n duty as well
as a pleasure not only to love their lords
but to give constant evidence of their
affection. They rush at him as he comes
into the house, tired, cold, wet, irritated
and travel stained, seize him around the
neck. kiss and cling while he feebly
gropes for a place to deposit his um-
brella, bag, hat and the parcel she has
sent down to the office for him to bring
home.
Ny mother used to tell a story of one
Of her girl friends who invited her 10
come and witness the perfection Of her
married bliss. She went, never having
seen the husband, and the first evening
saw a very tired. rather cross looking
and much laden man plod up the door
steps in a rain. Her friend saw him, too,
and shrieking, "Oh, there's my honey
potr' she rushed into the hall and went
through the exercises mentioned above;
but in the midst Of her exclamations
came another voice, low and growly in
its tones, yet quite audible in the parlor;
Love me a lot, don't you, Bessie?"
'Oh, yes, yes, yes my own, own dear
est love! And You love your Bessie, don't
you, dRrlingy'
yes; but if she didn't love me quite
50 much, perhaps l should love her more"
WIS the reply; whereat Bessie laughed
as at a good joke.
OF course the man was a brute to say
such a thing; but, OH, lean me, how
many men think it, and don't say It'll
Men are predatory animals, loving to
hunt, TO pursue, to capture, and to hold
by main force, and the the
prey ceases to resist, the interest Of the
conquest is over. All the hunters Of big
game tell us that the only chance Of
safety for the victim of a lion, tiger,
bear, or other beast Of prey, is to remain
perfectly passive and inert beneath his
claws; the least resistance rouses his en-
orgies, and he soon enforces a quiet never
TO be disturbed. The same instinct in
a modified form is to be traced in the
lord Of creation; he only pursues while
the dear creature runs away, and dis
dams a victim that is only too glad to re
main in his grasp.
Any man constantly assured that his
wife lives, moves, breathes and has her
being solely in him; that she has q fnnd
Of caresses and honeyed words always at
high water mark and eager for an out.
let, becomes first calmly confident, then
careless, and at the last bored and sur
feited by sweets for which he never is
allowed TO get up an appetite by fasting.
l once Travelled in company with a
somewhat cynical, but very delightful
man, who, as we neared the shores of
our native land, remarked;
Il wish the first twenty-four hours
after my arrival were well Overt 1t is
so hard to come up to the expected mark
Of enthusiastic Affection
And yet this man had wooed his wife
with the ardor and perseverance of a
hero Of romance. The trouble was that,
whereas she had been a coy and coquet-
fish maiden, she was a very demonstra-
80 ! II .choked out her hus-
her own.
But often enough the dIsillusionment
comes from the other side, and results
from a perverted idea of marital obliga.
tons.
A man who is paying his addresses to
a young girl, or even TO an older woman,
holds himself under constant restraint
in all conversation bordering upon sub
jects unfit for an innocent and delicate
minded woman's ears. The stories, the
jests, the songs, the Conundrums which
alleviate the tolls Of the Office, the count
ing room, the lunch counter, the club,
the bachelor dinner or the little supper,
are most vigorously ruled out from the
conversation with which the man enter
tains his betrothed or any other respect
able woman. But the betrothed becomes
the wife, and all in a minute the new
made husband emancipates his tongue
from all reserves, throws aside all care
as to whether what he has to say is fit
for the ears Of a carefully educated girl,
brings home the story, the jest, the CON
versation that only last week he would
have felt it an insult to repeat in her
presence, astonishes, shocks, repels her
in all her finer nature, and excuses him
self, IL she demonstrates, by saying:
You know we're all one person now,
so l needn't mind what | say"
But the girl il the same girl from
whom all c-oarseness or indelicacy has
been carefully kept, and she has never
realized that such matters could be
spoken of, far less that they are the
habitul conversation of a large class Of
men, including her own especial man.
Probably, poor little soul, she has ideal
lied this man into one of those hGrOs de
roman never met with outside of ro-
nance or a young girls imagination;
she has fancied that he is so much bet
ter, wiser and stronger than she; that
her one great effort must be to keep up
with him, to climb to his level. They
marry-his pursuit is over, and he throws
aside the fine costume of the chase, puts
on his soiled workaday clothes, lights
] hfu pfpa aud .hr.,VgyFr lgr,..1E 49,. Al.
couch with his heels higher than his
head, amuses his wife with two or three
Of the new stories and delicate tests
with which "the fellows greeted his re-
turn among them. She, during this, his
first day of absence from her, has been
arranging the little souvenirs they have
brought home from the wedding jour
ney, putting away his clothes in the
c~hiffonier, not without some shy bushes
and smiles that such matters should now
become her recognized duty, and in look
ing out two or three poems she means TO
read to him this evening.
Just fancy the disillusionmentl Just
fancy how the hero de roman becomes a
fading phantom; how the feet Of clay all
at once become more conspicuous thar
the head Of gold; how she feels insulted
and frightened and bewildered, and then
blaInes herself that she should feel so,
and tries to believe that she is a poor, ig-
norant little fool, and that whatever her
husband thinks right to say to her must
be right.
And so begins in that wuman's heart a
The following item. clipped from the
Fl. Madison, Iowa. Democrat, contains
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