San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-04-07
A DOMESTIC STORY.
How Wives Make or Mar Their
Husbands.

of Memphis, and was uneXcelled
as a salesman. He was polite and
affable in his manner She was
constitutionally cheerful and
pleasant-there was really some
thing CHEEKY in the very tones Of
his voice, and he never manifest
ed WEAKNESS nor exhibited the
least bit of ill-temper. Ladies
might make him litter the counter
with goods of all descriptions and
patterns, which they had neither
the inclination, nor the means
to buy, yet John Rutherford was
polite, pleasant and accommodate
ing, through the entire ordeal. In
1887, Mr.. Rutherford married Het-
tie Mcdowell, sweet, sensible and
even tempered girl, who was
neither nervous nor hysterical.
Hettie was a fortune within her.
self, though she was destitute of
anything in the shape of property,
for she was helpmeet to her hus-
band. When they began house
keeping, month after they were
married, John wished to purchase
costly furniture and to hire a cook,
but Hettie gently and firmly OBJ
jected, and said, in soft, pleading
tone, "Dear John, you wish to buy
costly furniture, because you
thin'y it will please me,
and you wish to hire cook to
save me the drudgery. but, | don't
care a fig for fine furniture, and as
l know how to cook, have made
up my mind to cook. 1t will not be
much of task to cook for you and
|, John. We must avoid running
in debt, and practice economy at
| the start. You need not shake your
head and raise any objection to my
ideas, dear John, for | am resolved
to be helpmate to you, as wife
should be, and not be leech or a
burthen."
DWELL, little woman" answered
John Rutherford, EMBEDDING her in
his arms and giving her a hearts
kiss, 81 suppose you will have to
have your way in the matter"
They kept out of debt. Hettie
cooked and did her own house.
work. She was never ill-tempered
and snappish, nor untidy in her
dress, and never failed to meet her
husband, when he came home,
with a beaming and loving smile.
She made it rule never to regale
her husband with recital of her
worries, VeXatiOns and trials, nor
did she complain continually of
being tired out by her work.
Mr.. Rutherford's most intimate
friend-Lucius SimOntOn-a we'll
informed and brilliant young law
yer, married the Same week that
Rutherford was married. His
wife, Lena Lewis, was a fashion
able girl and a society belle. Her
father was fond Of show and parade
and spent far more than his in
come in his effort to keep in the
front rank of "good society,"" what
over that ambiguous phrase may
signify. Lena herself was fond of
show and parade, and wanted to
live in the same expensive style
that rich people lived in. "What
will society sayw was an express
sion she used daily. She looked
upon economy as vulgar and low;
she would have tainted at sug-
gestion that she should cook and
do house work. No, that was vul-
gar and unladylike. Lena was in
telligent, elegant and beautiful, but
she was devout worshipper at the
shrine of fashion and the slave of
"good society" Debt possessed
no terrors for Lena Lewis.
Credit was all she wanted,
and she would buy anything
on a credit. Yet Lena was not nat
urally an ill-dispOsed, or unamia-
BILE woman, and she imagined she
was perfectly right in sacrificing
everything,-even her husbands
prospects of worldly success to the
ukase of "good society" When she
begun housekeeping after marri-
age, she bought the most costly car
pets, window curtains and furni-
ture, on credit, hired a cook and a
house servant, and gave elegant
parties. Her husband said some
thing about economy and about its
being a bad plan to go in debt;
but Lena contemptuously an
swered: "Why, Lucius, did you
marry me merely to obtain cook
and household drudge. l detest
the word economy, and 1 beg you
will never again utter it in my hear
ing. The word is vulgar and is
never used in "good society,"" ex-
cept in accentuating a vulgar,
stingy curmudgeon, whose only