The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-11-29

The union of many couples would ap-
pear TO be rather a disunion. rarely
are they seen together, so little have
they to show in common. Such of their
neighbors and acquaintances as take
il on themselves to criticise their rela-
ton are apt to blame the husband for
negiecting his wife, for seeking recrea-
tions and pleasures in which she cannot
share While the blame may in such
cases be generally deserved, it is not
always. There are women, and not
few, so absorbed In their own homes, in
their children, and all household details,
as to leave small space for any large
consideration OF their husbands. They
are the women known as entirely strict
ly domestic. No man, however exacting
fundamentally, could ask for more ply
steal comfort, for ampler supervision of
his material concerns, than they pro-
vide.
The husband and father is inseparable
from the home, is part of the house
hold and is included therefore in their
idea as well as their ideal of domestic
ity. But their idea does not embrace
petite for variety, his reminiscent love
of his early married days. In regard to
their ideal, though they may talk of it,
they really have none. Their minds are
surcharged with solemn sense of duty,
and duty lies, as they think, in a narrow
round of probabilities. They are
supreme housewives and most devoted
mothers. They look after everything
themselves so far as possible, leaving
the drudgery 10 servants, but acting as
constant supervisors. Having no eXecu-
tive power, they are without faith in
subordinates. and as a result they are
overwhelmed with tasks that they might
better have delegated to others. They
are acquainted with the exact condition
of the larier and their sons and daugh-
ters' wardrobes and they plume them
selves immensely on such knowledge. 1t
belongs TO their domesticity. about
which they are easily flattered, and of
which they are ever prating.
The virtue Of domesticity indeed, as
they practice 1T, acquires a strong sea-
soning of vice-at least in the eyes Of
their husbands. who can seldom draw
them away from its contemplation. How
ever domestic a husband may be, he
can hardly be so severely. so superla-
lively domestic as a wife will become
after following and stimulating her
bent for years. He usually wants some
distraction some hint of novelty, some
Whit of the outer world. He cannot al
ways listen with interest To the daily
epic Of uXOrial cares and trials The re-
cital of discords i'm the kitchen, of
tradesmen's eXorbitant bills, Of the
children's ailments, have their limit of
fascination. If he is not impelled In
self defense to seek the sofa and brief
oblivion. which is a negative solace, he
goes TO a neighbours, to an adjacent hotel
where his professional or business assoc
ciates resort, or TO the club, for COM
pany or entertainment. But he does
not generally adopt such remedies for
reief-men who marry intelligently are
not easily weary Of their homes-until he
has tried to begltie his wife out Of her
settled moods and occupations.
Day after day, week after week
month after month, he has probably Ia
bored &c give a new direction TO her
thoughts, a fresh purpose to her life
Believing that there is an outdoor world
not less than an indoor world, that do
mesticity in contracted sense does not
embrace the universe, he Is pretty likely
TO attempt to wean her from its en-
grossment by various devices He may
have offered to read her new volume
of poems or essays, the last clever novel
or record of travel i'm strange lands.
He may have urged her to read to him
some OF the delightful things they pored
over, head TO heart. In their wooing
time or their honeymoon. He may have
invited her to short evening strolls they
were once so fond Of, to hear music, to
see PLAYS to take Journeys endeared by
association. She has not, by any
means, invariably declined. In truth,
she has often accepted with warmth,
but her warmth lessened as she full
filled her ecceptances.
When read to, she grows drowsy.
When she read herself, she was soon
tired After one or two strolls she
found that she had neglected some
household duty. Music made her nerv-
GUS The theater wearied her. Journeys
interfered with the maternal plans she
had formed. After all" she sighed,
there's no place like home and her
husband, fully realizing the literal truth
of her citation. and seeing that he only
bores her by his laudabe efforts to en-
large her sphere, relinquishes his OBJ
ject with sorrow and modification.
why strive for the impossible?' he
mentally asks.
There are aggravations of domesticity
that refuse to be cured And to pre-
vent himself from inVolution in them he
feels that he must pursue his own
course. He hesitates; he delays for
awhile Being wholly loyal and consci-
entious, pursuit Of his own course seems
at first like partial desertion. He re-
news his oyertures to alleviate the
sameness Of his wife's existence, but
they are politely, perhaps tenderly, de-
clined: yet still declined. He quickly
and clearly perceiyes that she is more
contented in her self-imposed bondage
than I'm the comparative freedom he has
vainly sought to press upon her.
1t may be true that man can never
secure liberty enough, and that woman
may readily have too much for her own
comfort.
The mass of husbands, it may be con-
ceded, are not afflictively domestic, but
many, reasonably, BEAUTIFULLY domestic
at the outset. have certainly been healed
by the excessive domesticity of their