The herald., 1895-11-03
RQQI& avg E9. 14os5e HEM
~ -, M&1u kAIKE x1c7>'
EDITED BY EN0cn KNIGHT

A STUDY IN WIVES-The most inter-
dav is that which relates to marriage, and
this phase 10 being vigorously discussed.
The symposium iu the October North
American Review is worthy Of note in
this connection. Max O'Rell thus speaks
OF the French wife:
Her constant aim 10 to be interesting to
her husband. She multiplies herself.
in turn she is his friend, his confidante,
his partner in business, his chum, and,
if may use the word in its best and
most refined sense, his mistress. She
is forever changing her appearance. For
instance. you will seldom see a French
married woman wear her hair in the
same way longer than three or four
weeks. She knows that love feeds on
trifles, on illusion, on suggestion. She
knows that, when a man loves his wife,
o rose in her hai-,a new frock. a bon
net differently trimmed, will revive in
him the every emotion that he felt when
he held her in his aims for the first time.
She also knows that the very best dishes
may sometimes become inslpid If always
served with the same sauce.
Grant Allen gives this rather sad pic
ture of the English wife, as constrasted
Win ner SlSter across the Cnannel. 1T
must BIZ confessed that it is not pleas
ant picture as the other:
She manages to extract from him cher
husband) by dexterOus coaxing every Sat-
utday night the greater part of his wages,
rave only SO much as the oon mon feeling
of virile dignity compels him to retain
for expenditure at the public house. She
never grumbles about his pipe and to-
bacco. She sends him his vittles," hot
in can, to the place where he works, by
, one of the children. She spends her life
in hard toll, endless household drudgery !;
she washes and cooks and sews and makes
beds for her husband. herself and her
ten clean little ones; their faces are
almost as white al their pinafores yet she
believes in God in blind sort of way,
and attaches great Importance to religi-
Gus ceremonies. But she has no soul;
how could she ii nd time to attend to one"
She Is the material ideal OF a mater ializ-
cd, brntalized, soulless peasantrry.; she
does her duty in that state OF life to
which it has pleased God to call her.
with heroism that moves ones respect
full pity.
Very like the English wife did Karl
Blind portray the German helpmset, a
sincere believer in her husband and de-
voted sharer in all his sorrows. And he
told pretty story of the German women
OF Weinsberg, who, when the city capitu-
Jated after terrible siege, being told that
they could leave with all the valuab les
they could carry, went forth each one
carrying man on her back
Who will write or the American wife
and tx her place in these shifting times
Surely, whoever he be, must say of her
that she too, has nobly done her part in
the worlds work. She has been the CEN
ter around which the family assemblies
and Ievolves-the life Of homJ, and with
out whom there could be no home. Many
wives are compelled to go out from this
home to assume other relations to bust
ness, and not few go without being
compelled; but the great majority will
never misa oprenend what it means to
them as we'll as to husbands and child
IN. The lot OF many wives is hard. and
vof husbands; but on the whole the
eher destiny OF both so clearly lies in
lping and trusting each other that,
us believe, in spite of all the misun-
Itanding and mischief now existing.
true honor and glory OF womal as