The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-10-08
Tao. More Necessary Than Love TO
Retain the Devotion Of
a Man.
Therefore Wives Should Have
Tact, They Should Evsrmore
Have Tact.
Fortunately Tact Can He Aoquised-Want
u Appreciation Of tho sansitive-
ness Of Chiidren.

A wife may combine tho personal up
pearance OF the lamented Helen of Troy,
the intellectual attainments Of the ex-
tremely intellectual Minerva and the wife
ly devotion OF the renowned Penelope, but
unless she adds to these unfailing tact they
will profit her nothing, or, us Nine. dc
stael tersely put it, sit is the woman who
possesses more tact than love who retains
the devotion of a man." Fortunately tact
can be acquired. One woman whose school
was an unhappy, ''nagging'' first marriage,
and who is putting what she learned there
into practice in q gloriously successful sec
ond one, tells how she manages.
First, above all things" she says, II
have interested myself in those things
which interest my husband. Tint does not
mean that / ply him with questions, but /
nave always been a good listener. I learned
years ago that when a man wants to tell
anything he will do so without question
ing, and that nothing anroys him more
than to bo urged to tell when he doesn't
want to. Another important thing Is that
| never contradict him. Isimply acquiesce,
and then afterward use my own Judgment
in the matter and do as l think best. Then
I regard it as a positive duty to make my
self as attractive in his eyes MS I possibly
can. 1t is a comparatively easy thing to
catch u husband, but an entirely different
matter to keep him, and nothing disgusts a
man sooner than to learn that the girl who
charmed him by her daintiness and attract
iveness has developed into a wife who af-
fects wrappers and curl papers. And
lastly, l do not let a simple division Of
opinion increase to such proportions that a
divorce looms up in the distance"
Tact is SO strong in this woman that she
can, although possessed of exquisite taste,
smile approval upon her husbands car
buncle cuff buttons rather than destroy the
pleasure he takes in them. Her expression
of fond pride would undergo no change
should her spouse appear in an orange and
pink tie. To keep him satisfied with him
self is the first step toward making him
satiied with his wife, she has discovered.
There was as much tact as love in the
| method one little woman took to bring her
| clubman of a husband back to her. 1t was
| his cheerful custom to 60 off to his club,
sending her a bunch of flowers and a note
by way of peace offering. By and by this
grew m]onotonous to her. One night she
felt that, tears and reproaches having all
proved futile, she would try another way.
Impulsively she wrote on the back of his
note, "All your flowers for a sight of your
dear face" and sent it to him. That bit OF
tactful f1attery accomplished what all the
tears of Niobe and all the curtain lectures
of Mrs. Caudle would have failed to do.
Flattery is the food OF men. The women
who can show appreciation Of their society,
their Judgment and their tastes, and who
can be serenely obvious of their whims AND
crotchets, will succeed in managing" thci,
husbands.--New York World.