The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1897-12-19
MANEIND'S GREATEST WOE
Miseries of Life With a Nag
ging Woman
MAKE HOME A REAL HE'LL
Narrow Lives Breed Tendency to FauIt-Finding
Has Done More to Destroy Homes
Than All immortality.
'rom the London Spectator.

From the London Spectator.
| IF we could compare notes with one
! another as TO our life experiences we
should probably find that it is not the
| tragedies. the great SORROWS, which are
! hardest to bear. A young man is de-
| spoiled of his first love, and he thinks
he cannot endure life. But he does en-
dure, gets over it and is probably 50
much consciously the better for the
heart-lore he has learned. Men who have
at one stroke been reduced from af1u-
ence to poverty have in time become
used to their new condition and have al
most fallen in love with it. No. 1t is
not the tragedies, it is not the crush
| ing load of grief, which rob life OF IT'S
interest, 1T is something much p-u-4er
| than that. Many a man would sd1fer
] far less from the loss of his fortune or
the death of his dearest friend than he
would from some daily triiing irrlta-
ton. such as being within hearing OF a
! noisy sleeper or having TODD with some
| STUPID person who entailed hourly worry.
Perhaps The most bupdeng3me and tor
turing of these minor trials OF lie Is
| to be compelled to live permanently with
a. nagging person. We nave Almost
written a "nagging woman, for In the
great ma joI'ity of cases 1t Is women VINO
are guilty of this exasperatng acuon'
| which has probably done more 10 pIeak
| UP homes than all the immortality from
| the earliest times onward to our DAY.
There are nagging men, but tney are
comparatively rare. 1t is manly upon
the nagefng woman that our eyes must
be fastened and surveying her ana
the undoubted mischief she has cone
and will do, we naturally ask why TINS
d.sagreeable trait of conduct should be
more general amony women than men.
VIOLENT TEMPER IN WOMEN.
On the surface 1T would seem both
that violent temper was more frequent
in men than in women and that the lie
of man was more of "a kind to aggra-
waite the temper than that of women.
Undeniably, nagging is a. fault Oh tenn
per, yet it is far mora common among
women than men. How is the parao9%
to be explained? In a domestic dispute
1T is usually the lady wC1o VIII have Une
"last word" The poor woman who APP
pears in a police court with her mead
lords affection is asked to explain the
facts. How, often it turns out that the
man man was as he would say, ag-
gravated' by lorg course of irIptacang
comments on his charact7r and benaVlor,
such as those which Mrs. Raddle, BOD
Sawyers land ady bestowed on Raddle
in vigorous tones for the benefit or MI.
Pickwick and his friends. Isolated in
stances of this could be easily bone,
but that would not be nagging. in its
proper sense.
If is the daily. hourly infic.ion of
rough. irritable tongue from whose per
petual wal aging es-ape seems hopelosS
which constitutes real nagging IL ms
the effect after a time CT driving tne
meexest man to something like dsspera-
ton, and he goes out ITO tlne public house
or walks in the rain or mends hfs fence
to get away from that wea4iful curse.
The public houses of London are prop
ably full of the victims of nagging wo-
men. and one night, when the victim
has imbied more freely than usual. he re-
turns TO the partner OF his joys and in
ficts those physical Injuries which lead
to his appearance in the ponce COURT
Now why should nature have, nineteen
times out of twenty, so contrived things
that 1t is THE woman rather than the
man who causes this distressing expert
enea? Tt is not an acc.dsnt. There is
some definite reason for it, and the rea-
son lies. we think. in the physical diff
ference of the sexes and the different
life exp erience of each sex.
| LOCATING PROBABLE CAUSES.
Women are born with different nsrv-
Gus organization from that of men.
While they are probably less suscep fbie
to severe pain of many kinds than are
men. and therefore give an appearances
aft times of greater courage Gas in the
dentists cFlair), their nerves are essf a.
TALLY weaker, and Their fore less capable
Of prolonged strain than those of men.
If there were no other reason THIS ai9ne
would prevent them from effective COM
petition with nasn in such careers as
those of the military commander the
statesman. the great financier. the ex-
plorer. Now the daily ives of many, If
not most, women do demand no little
strain on the nervous system A fsw
women are rich, scheduled with no oc-
cupation and with a legion of attendants
to minister on every. want. The poor
sometimes envy them, but they are not
to be envied, for they are the victims OF
settled ennui, which shows itself in all
kinds of nervous disorders. A fashion-
able doctors records would furnish me
| strange stories as to the means adopted
by women of this kind to give some zest
and interest ITO their faded afmless ives.
Probably the prescription said to have
been given to the Queen of Sweden-a
little household work every day-would
be their salvation did they but know 4.
Disordered nerves and vacant life
bring out latent infi-mities of temper.
and woman who might have been
| bright eager affectionate, becomes
| peevish, fretful fauht-finding, disturbed
! by a zephyr, agitated by a crumpled
rose leaf. Such woman will soon de-
| generate into a confirmed adept in the
| please her, to live with her is purgatory,
| to serve her is worse even than that.
| The best thing that could happen to her
| would be, to be stripped of her riches, 10
be obliged to share lin the daily common
life of mankind, with its joys and sor-
rows. its tasks and simple pleasures
For poor, burdened woman OF work
VINO exhibits faults Of temper much al
lowance can easily be made, but we find
it hard to make any for peevish nag
! glng woman surrounded by every object
| of luxurious desire. And yet probably
| the one needs the charitable pardon of
her exasperatsd fellow creatures no less
| than the other So far as we trace
human faults to- environment rather
! than to personality, we cannot help see
/ ing that the life of the idle, rich wo-
| man with an ingfaIly fre.fnl temper is
| about as unfavarable medium for the
| growth of beautiful human qualities rs
| can well be conceived.
DRUDGERY OF HOME LIFE.
! BY far the commoner case of the nag
! ging woman is thst of the mother of the