The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1897-09-05

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The man who thinks a parlor carpet
ought TO last Rfteen years.
The man has SIG worth of fishing
tackle and ant AFFORD IA new set. OF
curtains for the dining room.
The man who always leaves his wife
at home when he takee his summer va
cation.
The man who doesn't know what on
earth n woman wants with money
when she has q. bill at. the dry. goods
store -,
The man who thinks n, sick wife
would feel better IL she would just get
UP and stir around.
The man, who forgets his as
soon as he crosses his own threshold.
The man who thinks he can keep
house better than his wife can.
The man who thinks there Is no
place like home"-for grumbline and
growing.
The man who quotes the Apostle Paul
on the Woman Question:" and who
firmly believes that the mantle OF the
Apostle has fallen on him.
IT the man who considers q bunch
OIL mowers n useless extravaganza will
contriVe TO marry n woman who does
not care for FLYERS, there Will be no
marital CUB on that score. If the
man VINO objects to paying millIners'
" SNtNN ~ III NDC KNOW!
now to make her hats, they Will live In
peace all their lives, and 50 OH through
the whole list,
but an evil genius seems to preside
over the marriage lottery, and the
chanccs arc that the sensitive. beautv-
owing woman falls a prey to the course
unhesthetic man., and invariable that
nairihSe becomes sooner or later q
failure. The intellectual woman Is
thrown into the hands Of the man who
is marrying just to get a maid Of all
work. ana divorce OR separation be-
comes more than n remote possibility.
Conversely, the frivolous society wo-
man makes a victim of the earnest,
home-lovins man: the slovenly, care
less woman who cannot keep house
manages to attract a man who loves
cleanliness and happiness is never
round at that heartl.stone. All this
misery could easily be avoided.
How long have you known your hus-
ba:d! said one woman to another.
Twelve years" was the reply.
NhH. l thought you were engaged
for several years before your nIarri-
age
Sc I was" said the married oma
with n sigh. but | never knew John mi
/ got married to him."
NO matter how long the courtshlp,
people generally are total strangers to
each other when they stand up before
a minister and promise to live together
as man and wife until death parts
them. They ave discussed Shake
speare and Browning. and II married
life was a Shakespeare club or a Brown
Ing society all would be well with
them. But he has a certain ideal OF
wifehood and home life, and of this
Ideal she Is as ignorant Ms she Is of San
skirt or Hottentot. SHE, too. has her
idea OF what n husband and n home
should be, but she never talks to her
betrothed OH such commonplace
themes as this.
They take the leap In the da:k at a
hower-deckei altar, and, In nine out OF
ten cases, add another figure to the
sum total of unhappy marriages. Mar
riage In the latter a of the next CEN
tury will have far less Of the element
of uncertainty than It now mas. This
Will be brought about mainly by having
the conventions of society so amended
as to permit perinl, people 10 get ac-
uuainted with each other before marri-
age.
Everybody has two personalities; one
is an elegant, cultured individual of
easy manner and philosophy In the
drawing room; the other is n plain or
binary man or woman, full of whims
and fancles and habits, who growls. at
breakfast II 1t Is FIVE minutes late ana
reproves the servant If the coffee iEn't
st!ong enough. II Is this latter indi-
vidual who Ia responsible for the fail
ures or SO many marriages, and there
should be some legal or SOCIAL writ OF
habeas corpus or that would
bring his hidden self to light during
the days of couttship.
1t would be an uEcanny intrusion. But
the NIB of inharmonious MARRIAGE,
would be immensely reduced.
ECCENTRIC ALABAMIAN DEAD