The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-22
WHAT TO GIVE YOUR WIFE.
Hints to the Husband Who Has Wait
ed Till the Eleventh Hour.

childhood, something to redeem us from the
bondage of the commonplace-this IS what
we all want at Christmas time, and 1t is
only the beautiful and the superhuous that
can answer such longings.
If we should accuse John of giving his
wife an unsatisfactory present he would in
all probability retort that he gave Mary
exactly what she asked for"
OF course he did. Mary has been needing
a rug for the parlor for six years past.
She has to borrow spoons from her mother
and chairs from her Eext-door neighbor
every time John entertains his club. She
knows John would remark on the useless
expense" if she bought these things and
had the bills sent to him, and so, like the
self-sacrificing woman she is, she stiles her
personal longings and surrenders her
Christmas rights in order to give her home
its necessary appointments; and John never
dreams that the rugs he walks over, the
spoons that everybody uses, and the chair
that stands in the parlor are not the very
gifts his wife wanted. AS for Johns wife,
she thanks John dutifully and tries to for
get the jeweled ,hairpin or the copy Of Stew
ensons poems or the topaz ring she wants
as earnestly and pathetically as she used
to want dolls and candy in her far-off child
hood.
If John selects his wife's present without
asking her advice he is likely to go just
as wide of the mark in his zeal for giving
something useful. 1 once knew man who
gave his wife a case of scissors on Christ
mas morning. He bestowed it with the air
of one who knows the proper thing to do
and who always does it, and the poor little
wife accepted it with the resignation sborn
Of a long experience with this mans ways.
If she had been a different sort of woman
she would have thrown it at Johns head
ana had good cry. case of scissors!
There was large pair for cutting out the
spring and fall sewing, a small pair for
cutting the three or four hundred button
holes she worked every season in the chill
dren.S clothes, still smaller pair for en-
Droldery-and she never embrOidered-and
lastly, pair of nail scissors. In purpose
and In suggestion the gift was the very es-
sence Of the commonplace. Johns wife
took out the largest pair and tried them on
piece of cloth. oh, joy. they would not
as dull as a small boys jacknife. She went
to John and explained the case with an
air or deep regret, and John berated the
merchant who had sold them to him, and
took them back, promising to get some
thing else" The days went by, as the nov
elists say; winter melted into spring, spring
slipped into summer, but the something
else never made it's appearance. And this
IS how useful present spoiled one womans
Christmas.
knew another John who gave his wife
silver sugar spoon with his own monogram
engraved on it, and l believe he really
thought he was doing. a very handsome,
generous, delicate thing in presenting his
wife with a piece of family silver marked
with somebody else's name What his wife
thought will probably remain forever a
mystery.
Then, there was once man who gave his
wife on Christmas day a shawl of the va
riety known as beaver-a great, heavy,
SUN, brown beaver shawl such as market
woman wears when she goes around on
cold, frosty mornings with her wagonload
of vegetables. The wife was a tiny woman,
and when she put the thing on and looked
in the mirror she likened herself to very
small squaw in huge Indian blanket John
benevolently explained that he knew she
when she went out at night to the opera
house for concert or a lecture. The
brown beaver shawl, you see, was his idea
Of an opera cloak. This woman was small,
but she had the courage of her convictions,
and, without stopping to consider Johns
feelings or the extra expense, she went
down town and exchanged the hideOus
thing for cream white India Chucana,
softer than silk, and suggestive of ham,
mocks and moon-lighted porches and all the
Oriental beauty and luxury of the land
If you must give me shawl, john" she
explained, this is the kind to give" And
heart that women were very hard to please.
There are two simple rules which John
ought ,g to memorize before he goes out to
First: Get something that is simply beau
tiful or that combines both beauty and util-
ity
Second: Get something that is for her per-
sonal use alone, not something that the
whole family will share with her.
Then sit down and consider what your
wife's individual tastes are. Ten to one
you have not the vaguest idea of the things
she really likes, for it is a singular tact
that the longer the average man lives with
his wife the less he really knows about her.
Call up a mental image of her as she was
in the days of her girlhood. She was fond
buy her three or four long, slender bottles
of Farina cologne-cOlogne, mind you, not
some coarse perfume.
She used to wear pretty slippers with be-
Wildering bows on them. Go to her closet
now and look at those cheap, dingy, slip
shod things. Then go out and buy a pair
that will be a fitting tribute to your wifes
foot. While you are about 1t get six pairs
of silk stockings and a pair of silver mount
ed garters. She probably likes silver toilet
articles. Suppose you strew her dressing
table on Christmas eve with such things
as a 81 ver-mounted comb, a nail file, shoe
buttoner, pretty stickpin or two hat
pin, belt buckle, a silver-mounted cologne
bottle
Remember that there is no law, social or
political, state or national, to prevent you
from giving your wife more than one
Christmas gift. You have probably been
forgetting her birthdays for the last ten.
en or n Twenty i you atone
might get a pretty etching to hang on the
wall of her room, an opal ring for her
Woodworking fingers.
For mercy's sake, don't make mistake
and get her thimble; / said an opal ring,
not gold thTnble, or a silver one, either.
You might throw in box of fine candy
and be sure to see that the children do not
eat 1t ell up before she has chance to
look at it. And whatever you do, don't for
get a bunch of violets and tiny crystal
bowl to put them in.
After you have bought the merely beauti-
ful and superfuouS, there will be no harm
in giving her the useful along with it. If
the house needs rugs silver china, get
something of this sort, too, and Mary
will have no disappointment in her cup of
Christmas memories this year.
Then, if your soul still yearns after the
useful remember that you have. always
with you thar Pit, pfditeous class to whom the
you may bestow the useful present and be
sure of only grateful appreciation in return.
''Siny.' said a Southern matrOn, what
would you like to have for Christmas
Siny rolled her eyes upward and ponde-ed
for a moment. She was the washerwoman
and the. long-suffering mother Of eight or
ten "trifing" children. .'Well. Mis- Mag
she drawed Il believe I'd like to have an
old shirt to patch with
So poor that she did not have material TO
patch her childrens clothes with. So poor
that an old shirt was boon to be desired
at Christmas time! Think of that o wom-
en-, whose desires are centered on diamonds
and pearls, and cut glass and rare china
where it rightfully belongs. A. blanket
shawl, a piece of unbleached domestic, a
dark calico dress. or a dozen yards of fan-
mel will be as lovely in the eyes of your
laundress or eharwoman as all the bric-a-
brac and treasures of art that wealth pOurs
at the feet of the rich.
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The Protected BOstOnian.