Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1897-02-03
"a Model Wife,"
An eminent divine, speaking on this sub.
ect, offers the following thoughts:

jject, offers the following thoughts:
Young man, choose for wife the daugh.
ter of good mother. The young lady is
on dress parade it is hard to discover a
fault or point criticism. Let your eye
sometimes steal by her face to her mother,
who is not in uniform. If she is loud,
flashy, untidy, her daughter may be like
her. Heredity will tell Some daughters
are an Improvement on their mothers, but
the resemblance is so often as to make
risks dangerous.
Choose wife with some beauty OF face
and form Every woman has some beauty.
She must be the Columbus to discover, i'm
prove and reveal it, 1t may be her hair,
her eyes. her teeth, her complexion, her
voice, her manner A woman may be
beautiful in neatness of person and dress.
There is one beauty that every woman can
take on-beauty of expression, the highest
beauty. 1t comes from pure heart,
bright thoughts, cheerful disposition, the
desire to make others happy. A homely
face brightens under this soul glow, as a
soft light through translucent vase, and
features ugly in repose become positively
beautiful when irradiated by the happy
spirit within.
Choose wife of an amiable disposition.
Amiability is not soitness or weakness
Quarrelsomeness is no sign of strength.
One does not want namby-pamby, soft,
simpering wife whose chief consolation is
smelling salts. A woman should have tenn
per enough to keep warm when the Their
mometer is falling, to bear the ills of matri-
mony with cheeriulness, family misfortunes
with fortitude and trouble with resignation.
This is different from the temper OF i'm
patience, fretfuness, unreasonableness,
iault-finding, nagging, which drives man,
if he is not of the right fiber, to club house,
saloon and divorce court, and if he is of
the right fiber makes him long for cosy
bachelor quarters where he can enjoy his
ease without having complaints stuck into
him like pins. A woman with frmness of
temper may become the mother of heroes.
A woman with simply a high temper, unless
she controls it, may become Xantippe
scourging herself and her husband to ruin
unless he has the patience and philosophy
of Socrates.
Choose an industrious wife. An indo-
lent girl will make a lazy housekeeper.
The miss who Tolls in curl papers and
French novels leaving her mother to do all
the work or supe intendence will not make
reputation for fine housekeeping when she
becomes mistress of home. Dirt and
laziness generally go together. The care
of even an humble household requires wis
dom and industry of the most exacting
kind. Sweeping, busting, cooking, dish
washing, bedmaking. mending, over and
over, no cessation, little variety. A woman
takes enough steps to be letter carrier
sweeps enough to be carpet cleaner; uses
her muscles enough to be coal HEAVIER;
expends energy enough to be locomotive.
No wonder she sometimes gets out Of
patience, runs off the track and blows up
everybody. A man would be out OF sorts
all the time with half the provocation.
Choose wife Of consistency Of character.
Some think it tribute to their power to
have many offers of marriage and success
sive engagements. No woman should lead
man to declaration Of love intending to
reject him. Every time woman entangles
man just to play with his sensibilities and
to enjoy the temporary Righteousness Of
power that comes from his homage, she
wounds her own self respect, hardens her
affections and becomes less worthy to be-
come an honest mans wife. Few circum-
stances will justify breach of promise Of
marriage. A man firt is worse than
woman tlirt. He should be kicked out Of
the community.
A woman's example or words may wound
man more seriousl y in his moral nature
than anywhere else. He may hold fortune
notwithstanding her extravaganza, put up
with her laziness and untidiness, endure
her vixenish tongue and have comparative
happiness, but if she leads him from God
and faith in Christ, his finer qualities will
be chilled, his coarser warmed into activity
and he will suffer irreparable damage at
the hands of her who ought to have been
his good angel, leading him from the
the heights Of love to the mount of God
and from the halls Of Cupid to the cour is
of Zion.
l have set the mark high, but there are
many young women who reach it. Think
of Frances Folsom, just out of school, not
twenty-one, becoming the wife of the pres
ident of the United States, and filling her
high position to the respect of the world,
her head not turned by adulation nor her
heart corrupted by pleasure, keeping state
secrets, and winning friends for her hus-
band and his party by her friendliness to
all who come to the White house.