The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-08-26
THE GOLF-MADE WIDOW
A Matron of Today Must Play or
Give Up Her Husband.
She Is the Victim of n Mate Who, in
Turn, Is a Victim of the Fashion
muter Has a Specially Hard Time.
Only Hope of the Deserted Wife.


For several years now the golf widows
situation has been most pathetic. but she
gets very little sympathy from anyone
save the other golf widows. and they are
too busy sympathizing with themselves 10
feel anothers woes. The attitude OF the
general public toward the stricken one Is,
Serves her right. Anyone who Is fool
enough to play the game deserves any
hard luck she gets" Your true zealot il
proverbially hard-hearted.
A married woman Of today must play
golf or give up her husband. Even when
she plays she has the melancholy salts
faction of seeing the fiutter of his golf
coat across a far bunker. but that is some
thing It's a devoted and self-sacrifcing
man who plays golf with his own wife,
save at rare intervals. when no man
friend is in sight. or when he feels in
clined to show his proud superiority by
little valuable instruction. Flattery judi
ciously administered will also bring the
family together on the links occasionally.
If wife can only bring herself to con-
dition Of awe-stuck appreciation, and
knows Just enough about the game to
wonder and adore In technical sporting
terms. she may be allowed to trail around
the links with her husband, but it takes
tact to achieve this proud distinction.
The most she can hope for under ordinary
circumstances is to lunch or dine with her
golf-smitten husband. and hear him fight
his battles over again; but that is better
than dining and lunching alone. and she
,r1%1 I'll nGrr
ment.
The wife Of commuter has an espe-
cially hard time, says the Inter Ocean,
He Is so hurried. and he really doesn't
have time to go home at all save for the
purposes of sleep. Yet, after all, the city
man does the same thing, and 1t is harder
for his wife to follow him to the links than
it is for the wife of the commuter to fol-
low him, so perhaps honors are easy. The
business man doesn't go home from the Of
fee 20 change his clothes. Not he. He
keeps haIf his golf toys in his locker at the
club. AS early as he can possibly cut
business he leaves the office. races for a
train, goes straight TO the links, pays un-
til dark, and dimes at the clubhouse, where
he and the other men tell what happened.
Later he goes home so tired and sleepy
that he doesn't stand upon the order OF
his going to bed. but goes at once. unless
about a phenomenal drive from the sixth
tee and the spectacular long put by which
he halved the seventh hole. II she do.n't
know the tee from lemonade. so much the
worse for her.
The golfer goes to the office early, 50
that he can get away early. and in the
grey dawn he talks across the breakfast
table about the virtues Of his new brassy
and the approach he has learned from
Vardon. Then he goes off, wondering
whether the weather will be too heavy for
good work a3ross the green. and calling
back over his shoulder that ne viii not be
at home for dinner unless it rains hard
Countless golf widows are praying for
rain as ardently a Texas farmer in
time of drought. wet season is their only
hope. and the wetness must be OF the
wettest variety. No ordinary drizzle will
stop a golf game. No thunder shower
will daunt a golf fiend-
Over at home" says Willie tevery
well-reguiated and warranted professional
is Willie,- though there is some slight
variety in our names), mo one wad think
O. stopping for a Scotch mist. and any
Scotch mist is a deal worse than this bit
of drizZle.'
And the American devotees of the an
Gent royal game turn up their coat col
lars, take a gtp upon their clubs and
their stoicism, and paddle around the links,
warmed by the thought that they are liv-
ing up to Scotch tradition. and that the
quality of the clubhouse Scotch" is be-
yond reproach.
So only a summer OF continuous and pour
ing rain can restore the golfing husband to
the arms OF a non-golfing wife, and, if
there is anything in prayer, it's lucky
thing for the general public that the golf
ers are praying for fair weather as earn
estly as the golf widows are praying for
foul. and that the former class outnumbef
the latter.
Saturday and Sunday used to be the daya
for domestic Joys, with the tired business
man. They are field days now, and the
insidious thing about the game is that
there's no agc limit immunity from at
tacks OF the disease Anything from the
infant to the octogenarian is fair prey for
the golf germ. and only paralysis or blind
neess can make masculinity immune. Lo-
cal attacks OF morality have stopped Sun
day playing in certain clubs, and there has
been a good deal of eloquent arguing for
and against it. There's no denying that a
day OF the links is tremendous physical
invigorator for a man confined to an office
during the week and when one gets into
the morals Of the problem. the issues are
sadly complicated, but there's the golf
widow. Some concession ought to be made
to her. but, UP to date no silver-tongued
orator has pleaded her cause
On the whole. the best thing the de-
serted wives can do is to get into the
game. whether they like it or not. They
may hate violent exercise. and the sun may
give them headaches and ruin their COM
lexions. and they may find golfng so ia
tiguing and time-consuming that it leaves
no time or energy for social duties or care
Of home and children; but if they are 60
ing to leave all things and cleave to their
husbands, they Will have to 90 their cleav-
ing on the golf links. II health or home
cares absolutely prevent their playing the
game, they will have to q mon their
feminine fortitude and resign themselves
% the role of golf widow.
WOman's Seven Ages.
1t is held by recent writer on woman