Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1896-01-18
WRITER'S AS WIVES.
The Subject Considered in View of q Re-
cent Divorce Case.

Inc SUBJECT COnBtdered IN View OF he-
cent Divorce Case.
Whether woman is any the less ELI
gible for the domestic circle by being
intellectually developed to the extent
OF her capacity is a question that has
veXed many debating societies and
many thinkers from the time of st.
Paul to that of DIR. Dix. 1t is first
rate question for debating societies, be-
cause there is no answer to it. A great
number of examples may be adduced on
both sides and the debate may be con
tinued interminably and never arrive
at conclusion. The excellent DR..
johnson summed up what may be
called the masculine, or negative, side
by remarking: "Sir, man is better
pleased when there is good dinner on
the table than when his wife knows
Creek" but this dictum overloolSs sew
eral other important points. For one
thing, woman does not as a rule learn
Greek in her capacity of man-pleaser,
but on her own individual account. In
another, the assumption of incompati-
bility between Greek and good dinners
is pure assumption.
A divorce that has just been an
nounced puts the venerable question
in an aspect of some novelty. A lady
novelist" has just secured a divorce
from her husband for ''incompati-
bility." The ordinary male comment
will be that he is served right, and that
he ought to have known what to ex-
pect. 1t is fact that she was al
ready a somewhat hardened novelist
| IL. H., l~,,.l Al.A
groom could not plead ignorance of her
previous literary character. Also, it is
a fact, if not that she wrote naughty
novels, that she thought she did. In
truth, her more lurid attempts of that
kind were, to the mature and discern
ing, tributes to her own innocence.
The works in question showed a COM
plete inaptitude for the attractive pre-
sentiment of depravity, though it may
have been question whether the in
aptitude was intellectual or moral
The intention of these articles was evil
IDENTIFY to make the reader "sit up" and
they actually had that effect upon some
readers of tender years, who were un-
affectedly shocked by them, and the
works gained in adolescent circles
shuddering admiration, as books that
girl could not put into the hands of
her mother"
But, after all, this proves nothing
1t is upon record that not only writer's
of risky novels, but the most absurd
poetesses of passion have settled down
into exemplary spouses. Miss Braddon,
the veteran of the sensational novel, is
reputed to be, in her private capacity,
and when she has scrubbed the ink off
her thumbs, British matron of the
straightest sect. 1t is true that the
crimes Miss Braddon deals with are
battle, murder and sudden death, and
that she mostly abstains from bringing
bushes to the cheeks of young per-
sons. Moreover, while the lady novel
list Immediately in question has proved
to be incompatible" with one hus-
band, it is not clear that she would
have been or that she would be incom-
patable with another. There is moth
irg in the case that justifies generali-
zation upon either aide, either upon the
side of the majority of male persons
who maintain the incompatibility Of
literature and the domestic affections
or upon the side of the minority who
maintain that reformed literary women
make the best wives-St. Louis Globe
Democrat