The state republican. (Jefferson City, Mo.) 1871-1896, 1895-10-03
ABOUT THE NEW MAN.

From the New York Sun.
"The New Man" said Mrs. E. B.
Grannis, "has the moral courage to
let his wife work. Now that remark
sounds paradoxicsl, I know, but let
us look into the matter little. The
particular New Man I call to mind
now gets a salary of 81 500 year.
His wife was q teacher previous to
her marriage. Were the couple
entirely dependent on that $1,000
they would be decidedly in straitened
circumstances. The wife takes a
place which pays her an assured
sum each month, and the problem
of ways and means for these two
people is satisfactorily solved.
"This New Mans idea, when he
married, was to support his wife, 10
be the breadwinner, while she took
care Of the home. They selected a
pretty apartment up town, and
every one knows what rents are in
New York. The husband was at
n1DU 0fPOs0s ~ --.- -t.-s-------t-s
outside money. 1t was all right for
her to work as hard as ever she
chose indoors, but what would his
friends think IL she went outside to
replelish their exchequer? Thus he
argued, but he had married help
meet, a woman who had sound
common sense, and she convinced
him that it was much better for her
to use her mental ability to gain
money than to waste her time over
the drudgery Of housework, for
which she had no special aptitude.
It went against the grain, this new
departure, but the wife had her way,
and now they are the happiest, most
comfortable of conjugal lovers.
"sI went to call on B. the other
evening, and what do you suppose l
found him doing?' young man said
to me last week, in reference to this
New Man.
81 inquired what, and learned that
B. was discovered with big white
apron pinued about his neck, wiping
the dinner dishes, while his wife
washed them.
He didn't seem one whit dis
concerted,' explained the invader of
this domestic scene. He simply
said that the hired girl had not
shown up and he was helping Jessie
get through with the work.
"Now am quite convinced" Mrs.
Grannis went on, "that the Old Man
would have taken himself off into
the sitting room, where the noise of
the clattering dishes could not reach
him, and there would have read and
smoked while his wife performed
the irksome task of cleaning up.
Ten chances to one he might even
have gone off to club or theatre and
left her altogether in the lurch.
"T am not any more fond of that
kind of thing than other men, this
New Man told me once, 'but il
there's any sweeping to be done,
and it lies between me and Jessie as
to which shall do it, I think am
much more able to sweep than she
Is. Sweeping is hard work.
"In justice to the N1w Man in this
case, / must state that he is likely
young fellow, six feet tall, and that
he is possessed of more than the
average amount Of brains and mental
requirements.
SNOW consider the other side oil
the question. A minister, lawyer OF
physician narries a we'll educated
country girl, and they start out or
an even footing. AS time goes or
he spends the major part of his time
In his study, deep in books and
absorbed in every thing that tends tc
broaden his ideas and elevate hin
mentally, and she looks after tn,
house and the servants, il they hav,
any; makes the children's clothes
which mean, unremitting labor
worries and contrives to make small
8 income fit a large demand, and daily
gets further and further away from
0 him in ideas and sentiments. TIL,
age of forty or fifty finds him seek
q ing intellectual companionshiI
Q among other women, and finds he
old before her time, still grovellini
j. in the commonplace, making thu
y boys' trousers, which a seamstres
of no particular mental ability coul'
: as easily do, planning for the girl'
8 winter jackets, and otherwise pur
suing the unrelieved monotony o
her way. The children of a womal
80 cramped and sordid are not over
Q bright, one may have a harelip
b' another a defective palate. TIL
10 New Man would, in this husband
n place, have thought occasionally
n that his wife needed recreation
10 change of ideas, and, last but no
least, some money in her pocket
g There is always an attitude Q
n embarrassment between husban
u and wife when the husband is tn
70 exclusive guardian of the excheque
II and the wife petitioner. II tn
% husbands salary is not sufficient t
. comfortably supply his wife wit