St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1892-01-14
A BUSY MANS SOLILOOUY.

According to tradition, usage and
theory | suppose l am the head of
my family. According to a growing
suspicion in my inmost soul l am
compelled to put an Interrogation
point into that phrase. True, Ihave
given my name to the wife who at
the marriage altar promised to obey
me, and am transmitting it to my
children, some Of whom may eventual
ly surrender it for another more to
their liking. l foot the bills for food
and clothes, for rent and coal, for
tuition and sundries. I do all the
voting for the entire establishment
and c~Omplacently receive whatever
credit accrues to it in the estimation
of my neighbors. Yet l read a story
the other day which did not directly
apply to my case, and still in some
strange n set me to thinking.
AS the narrative related, a business
man whose duties confined him all
day long in the city had occasion
one morning to chastise his young
son for a marked case Of insubOrdina-
ton, and was rather startled to hear
him exclaiming amid his Sob to his
mother in an adjoining room,
THAT man-boo-hoo-who stays
here nights-licked mel" 1 am
beginning to wonder if my children
are having reason to think of me
chiefly as "a man who stays here
nights" and by no means all the
nights of the week either.
Let me think for a moment; in
what way do l manifest my supreme
headship in the household? I rise
early in the morning, that is, as late
as [ can make connections" L
enjoy a leisurely toilet while my
wife laboriously superintends the
dressing of four children. At the
breakfast table the morning paper
rises between me and the other faces
surrounding the festive board, to
whose immediate festivities | am
contributing a very small amount.
| make a dash for my suburban train,
and as soon as the front door OF home
has closed behind ME l give about as
much thought to its routine as to
the White House and Mrs. Harrison's
kitchen. When the days work is done
l bethink myself of that establish
ment which has been running all dav
without its head" and unless there
is something special at my club, or
some business engagement reaching
into later hours, l go back to nv
home and, with dressing gown and
slippers, easy-chair and evening
paper, snOOze away until nv wife
announces the hour for retiring.
Verify. it is a glorious and response
BILE position, this headship of a house
hold!
In all seriousness l am somewhat
perplexed to justify to myself some
of the assumptions which lurk in this
fine phrase. 1t is, of course, very
easy to go back o the u%tterances of
Paul concerning the headship of the
man and the subordination of
woman, but l wonder what Paul
would say today about the way in
which genuine headship is distribut-
ed in my home and many others of
which [ know that are closely
similar. How much am l and other
fathers really accomplishing toward
the perfection of our homes? Are
we v~indicating or ~abdicating our
"headship?" We lodge at home and
take some of our meals there, but
this is no more than we frequently
do at some hotel. and we V claim
or imagine that such patronage
makes us the head of the establish
ment. We open our pocketbooks
and meet the expenses of kitchen and
wardrobe and our children's educa-