The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-03-09
QUESTION OF AMUSEMENT.
In Most Cases the Man Desires Rest
and the Woman Prefers
Excitement.

One of the problems that develops
out of that trying first year of married
existence is the equal adjustment of the
amusement question. To the average
man, worn out with the work and
worry of the day, tired of the babel of
voices and confusion in which he has
toiled and weary of trying to make
himself agreeable to those he must
please for business purposes, there
seems nothing else on earth so desirable
as the quiet and peace of his own fire
side. He doesn't want to talk or be
talked to. He doesn't want to have to
force himself to smile or to think, and
least of all does he want to forsake his
slippers for his dress suit.
The woman, on the, other hand, has
been shut up all day in the walls of her
house, going through the deadly dull
round of domestic duties without the
distraction of seeing a fresh face or
hearing new idea. She has toiled in
her way just as hard as her husband
and when night comes she, too, feels
the need of a change to rest and refresh
herself. She is also worn out in body
and mind and tired-tired of the serv-
ants incompetence and the children's
fretting and nagging and perpetual de-
mands and of turning and twisting and
patching and mending and thinking
while she is swallowing one meal what
she will have to provide for the next
Shn 10 10 oil H..
putting on a pretty frock and going
to the theater or party, or even to
make a call on the people next door
10 even suggest such a thing to her
husband, however, is to bring on a
growing diatribe on women's gadding,
with the self-righteous assertion from
her lord and master that you don't
see me forever wanting to run around
somewhere" Having delivered his
homily, the man stretches his feet out
again to the fire and absorbs himself
i'll his paper and never once thinks he
is not an entertaining companion for
woman who is pining for a little
brightness and innocent amusement.
From their own points of view the
husband and wife are both right, and
inasmuch as we can't change the condi-
tons of life it is good deal better to
adapt ourselves to them than to try
to adapt them to US. An old proverb
sets forth the fact in natural history
that you can take an OK to water, but
you can't make him drink. In like
manner you can take your husband to
party, but you can't make him enjoy
himself, as every woman knows who
has ever tried it. SO the part of good
sense and good feeling seems to be to
let him alone. Let him be happy in his
own way and devise your own scheme
for relaxation and enjoyment. There
is no woman, unless she is miserable
manager, who can't get out of her own
house for a few hours every day. In
that time she may meet bright people,
go to club meetings, see the best plays
at the matinees, and if she tires of
home cooking treat herself to unusual
dishes at the restaurants. In these days
of women's independence there is no
reason why she should not find for her
self plenty of rational enjoyment that
would in no way interfere with her
home duties or interests. And in find
ing these outside interests she better
fits herself for dealing with the COM
pick duties every woman confronts
who has husband and children.-Chi-
caUO Chronicle