The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1893-02-28
NO. S8.
Somebody's Husband .

Very many of the magazines and
newspapers nowadays are so clogg-
ed up with 'tadvice to women that
expert readers learn to skip all such
paragraphs with the same agility
developed in skipping the advertise
ments of patent medicines. In TAX
ing notice of the needs of humanity,
however, have discovered one lit
tie plot of ground hitherto uncnIti-
waited 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 motherhood. would like to
suggest to those having charge of
children that they train up the boys
for husbandhood and fatherhood.
1 have heard parents without
number talk over the future of their
boys as doctors, lawyers and mer-
chants; but 1 have heard few de-
vote much time or thought to the
question of what kind of husband
or father their 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
training of the children, at least
during the early and most Impress
i've years. tits 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 patient forbearance and
gentle, loving sympathy of the head
of the household would tide over
the difficulty, should not teach their
sons, as IA very first lesson, the prin-
ciples of good husbandship.
Some people seem to think that
good husbands, like blackberries
down South, grow wild and 'thout
any raisin';" but tell you it takes
good deal of "raisin'" to bring up
husband in the way he should go,
and too often the bloom and sweet
ness of married life is lost in the
process.
Some people, again, consider that
all that is necessary to the make
ing ola good husband is that he
shall be sober and industrious. But
there are a good many little things
besides which go to the making ofa
good husband, and the women
which gets hold of a bad one soon
discovers this fact.
The greater part of domestic un-
happiness hinges on the small things
of life. This is not a new thought
by any means, but it is more COM
mon to suppose that these little
things are the small omissions and
commissions of the wife. Women
are are advised not to seold, not to
fret, not to sulk, not to forget to put
on a clean collar in the morning,
not to forget to bang their hair, not
to forget the buttons, and to be
sure that the coffee is not muddy;
but how about the dos and don'ts
on the other side2 Wouldn't it be
just as we'll to say to the husband:
"Don't go home with your brow all
twisted in Gordian knot and your
voice like rasping saw; don't for
get that woman, even though she
be your wife, does not want an un-
kempt sloven hanging around the
house at odd hours; don't forget
that woman, even though she be
wife does not like to have her ears
polluted by language which the die
tates of polite society forbid a man
to use in public; don't forget that a
woman, even though she be wife,
does not admire stinginess, gluttony
or vulgarity in the man whom she
has promised to honor and obey"
Too often men forget that the
mere assumption of wifely duties
does not destroy single womanly
trait. Wifehood and motherhood
develop all that is sweet and wo-
manly; 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 mocks their sight2
If girl needs to be well trained
that she may nobIy fulfill her
duty as somebody's wife some day,
does not boy need yet more to be
trained and disciplined that he may
worthiIy fulfill the responsible du-
ties which some day devoIve on him
as somebody's husband2
An Essay on Pants.
A boy in Wichita CKan.) school