The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-04-28
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= HER POINT OF VIEW ::
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@e,NaG.o!ss ~ NMSS:

wv the type of minister's wife seen
in the city are not prepared to
recognize those found in the rural dis
trictS. We see the graceful, elegant lady
with her pretty hats, her dainty gloves
and correct gowns. We see her placid,
gentle face. her Garefully arranged
hair, and in a sense we unconsciously
realize that she does us credit Just
as the minister. the choir, the organ
or the sermon is a reflection of our
good taste. She is always soft-voiced,
always faultlessly arrayed. She has
read the best litera ture, has leisure for
keeping up-to-date in her feelings, as
we'll as her appearance, and no one
thinks Of critic!sing her attitude on
any question. What a contrast there
is in the case of her country sister
the one. for instance, who must be
the main factor in making $369.70 take
care Of the entire family for a year.
Now this is quite a problem, par
ticuarly when there are children to
be educated as befits the children Of
clergyman. 1t is she who must
manage all things. Thh minister
doesn't have the hardest time of it
by any means. He is always certain
deccncv and a white tie which. even
if h. does fastun it with q hook at
the back of his collar. is reasonably
immaculate. His hat may not be all
that society man would consider
imperative. but it does pretty WE'LL
and if his shoes happen TO be congress
CATERS or perhaps even the boots of
a past generation, they do not dis
grace his calling.
But it is the little wife who must
cOntrivc and plan and make her last
years coat do for this sasOn until
the memory of man goeth not back TO
the first year of its existence. If she
is a Methodist minister's wife, she
recognizes a certain compensation in
her peripatCtic career in that she is
sure to move every two or three years
among now people who are unac-
quainted with that coat and to whom
the latest turning of little Annie's
! frock does not call up reCollections of
garment which, under various
guses. has passed in succession down
| a line of ancestry from a great aunt
| through the whole family to the baby
| of the fCck.
| Then there is a reasonable certainty
| that the new parsonage into which
| she fits may have some furniture Of
! its own which she lacks. This. in
| itself is a harmless sort of excite
ment in anticipation and appeals to a
| woman Just as "A second hand shop,
where antique furniture may be picked
| up, or an auction sale appeals to her
| feminine mind.
! But generally speaking, there isn't
| q vast amount of sunshine in her life,
aside from that afforded by her re-
| ligion. No wonder she grows smaller
! and more faded year by year; no won-
| der she doesn't take much interest
| in hats, How can you take interest
in a hat you've worn every summer
! for seven years and every strand OF
, whose braid, every fold of ribbon and
bit of rusty lace are as familiar as
the form of prayer which Ueacon
! Green offers every Thursday night at
meeting She knows that the women
of the church criticize her queer old,
shabby gowns, but she also knows
they would criticize very much more
! if she wore fashionable ones. She
knows they comment on her state of
| grace and the way she leads the mis-
| sionary meeting. She knows they
sniff at her way of housekeeping, and
! sometimes when they come unan-
nounced and visit the parsonage in
squads of six or eight and stay to
the midday meal. it is small wonder
that she grows so weary long before
| the days come when her husband gets
better appointments and finally lands
in a fine city church, that one morning
she quietly turns her face towards
the window and closes her eyes
meekly-but opens them not again
for all the insistant demands of those
| who feel that somehow she has taken
sort of unfair advantage, and sc
| it happens that ii is a second wife
who enjoys the better appointments
and the fine city churches.
One of the few comforts of ths
country Methodist minister's wife Is
that after death some preacher whom
she probably didn't admire in life, will
say sweet and lovely things about her
in memoir read at the memorial
service of the annual conference. She
is sure of this much, no matter how
hard has been her life or few kind
words she had while it lasted. There
have been occasions when the seq
ond wife of her husband sat in tho
congregation and listened to the con-
ventional tribute 10 the dead woman
This contingency the subject of th6
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