The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-01-20
FOR FEMININE READERS
A COMPLAINT AGAINST MEN WHICH
Is OFTEN UNREASONABLE.
What Is TO Come of So Much Educa-
ton of irIs:-Harmonies i'm
Dress-A Division of Income.

On many sides you hear wives complain
ing of loneliness, says writer In the phil
adelphia Telegraph. They rarely see their
husbands, they say, and when the men DO
come home they are so tired they do little
else than eat and sleep. The whole stu
alton was well covered by one young wife
who said almost in tears: when Tom
comes home he is so dead tired he can
hardly say a word. He doesn't want to
do anything, and as soon as dinner Is
over he throws himself on the lounge and
actually goes to sleep while 1 am talking
to him.
And her listener sympathetically Joined
in: ED always goes to sleep before ne
finishes reading the paper. They never
seem TO think how lonely and dull IL Is
for us in the evening with them sound
asleep by o'clock. AS for getting them
to go anywhere with you at night, 1t is
almost impossible"
A dreary programme, truly. But does 1t
ever strike the woman of the house that
IL is her own fault? What, in nine cases
out of ten, is this man working for who
tolls so fast and furiously during the day
that he is utterly worn out at night and
good for nothing but 10 sleep? To pro-
vide the luxury that this self-same wife
demands and is not happy without. Inc
necessity for keeping up appearances which
his wife dins continually in his ears, the
love of finery which is growing with
gourd-like growth in the feminine nature
of to-day, the fine furnishing for the
home, the long summer outings-all make
drains upon the ordinary business mans
purse which can only be recouped by the
hardest and most constant toll. The
feverish pace at which we live sweeps
him onward without time to think whittier.
He only knows that the main thing TO
get is money, and goodly lot of it. and
all his waking moments are given to the
effort The short time away from his
desk, If he be a man of sense, he knows
must be given to rest or he will be unfit
for work Tomorrow. And so the ceaseless
grind goes on, and man becomes merely
nloney-making machine.
Some Belgian scientist said the other
day that the American woman would be
the ruination of the nation. Sounds start
ling, doesn't it? But the love of extrava-
gance that is growing, the measures
adopted by some women to get into the
swim and TO stay there, and the ceaseless
toll which they compel from those over
whom they can tyrannize, are surely a
menace to the highest and best family life,
Without winch no nation can Sldnu.
If the women who are complaining of
their husbands and those who do not even
complain of the lack of their society, so
rushed are they with social engagements.
would only pause to see that life is so
much more worth living, If lived simply
There is so much more in life than the
earning and spending of money. Surely
the companionship Of those she loves is
worth more to a woman than the drag
ging around of a lot of dry goods de-
nominated dresses. Beauty can be found
all around us in nature of quality much
superior to that of even the finest of
furnishings that money can put into our
houses, especially when it is put there by
the sweat and toll of those whom we pro-
fess to love.
Would not a little less money and lit
tie more love be wise readjustment of
life as it is lived to-day? We need to live
more simply, more genuinely. Life is not
a thing of dresses and furniture of stones
dug from the earth, and screeds in So
ciety journals. 1t is a matter of love, of
soul-communion, of developing the best
in our natures. and Of rising to that which
is as far above what is even now the
best as are the stars above the earth.