Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1902-07-10

OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
THEY had been married five We,

THEY had been married five years
L and love had lasted-as it gem
orally does last if the first critical
six months of m~atrimony can be tided
over without disaster. He, Jack
Aston, was a fortunate young man
who stepped into his fathers bust
ness shoes shortly after being we'd
ded to Clara Fayworthy, the girl of
his choice. Prosperity and happiness
had waited on them from the COM
mencement of their married life.
There were no children; but Jack
did not want any to divide his wife's
attention, and he scarcely noticed
her deep disappointment as each
succeeding year brought no change.
Clara adored him, and he was one
of those men who like to be worship
ped. Her negative qualities suited
him exactly. He played upon her
sympathies and mental susceptible
ties as upon the responsive vibrations
of a musical instrument. If he were
glad, she must share his gladness;
if things had gone wrong with him
from the loss of a collar-stud to a
depression in the money market
his glrm humors must affect her al
so, If it pleased him to discourse in
tellectually, his wife sat at his feet,
as was expected of her, and listened
with proper reverence to the words
of wisdom.
AS for Jack, he was just the sort
of man to inspire a delicious kind of
idolatry in one of those simple, trust
ing natures that can only be found
among He was tall, gazed
~unspeakable things out of a pair of
limped brown eyes, ard concealed the
weakness of his mouth and chin by
a heavy dropping mustache. These
outward charms were considerably
heightened by a leaning toward arr
in general.
Jack sang sentimental songs in al
unframed tenor voice, leaving out
with marvellous resource, only the SUI
perfiuous harmonies in the accom-.
paniment. He sketched from nature
in water c%olors, putting in the sky
with a circular movement of the fore.
finger, and bestowing a painful at
tcntion on unnecessary detail. He
wrote obscurer poetry than Brown
ing, and was much addicted to finding
meanings in unintelligible passages
of minor poets that nobody else
nratan1a1 To 11n1n1cfanl
Can any person wonder that Jacks
wife looked upon him as a genius
and felt every day more grateful t.
the fate that had linked her to thu
destiny of so noble a specimen Of
mankind.
Of Clara little need be said, excep'
that she was pretty when he mar
ried her, and her uniformed charac
ter was captivatingly feminine ant
moldable. Such traits L the para
disc of the selfish man, and Jack wal
not mistaken-from his egotisti'
point of view--in believing that hi
had secured a treasure. Everything
that could make home life attractive
was combined ip Clara's lovable quail
ties and quiet domesticity. In thu
winter, when Jack came home coli
and tired from the city routine,
CHEEKY wife was sitting waiting TO
him by the tea table, the kettle sim
mering on the hob, ready to max
tea the minute he should appear
and down beside the fireside a warn
pair Of slippers rested against tn
fender.
Then-I blush to write it-Jacl
would fling himself down into tn
armchair that had been drawn Il,
for him close to the blaze, while tn
adoring little woman went down o.
her knees and undid the laces of hi
boots. If he was in good temper h
patted her fluffy head with amiabl
condescension, but if he happened t
be out of humor he flung his foot a
her in surly silence, or growled a
the world in general, and her clun
siness in particular, all the time tina
she was performing that humble Of
flee for him.
Jack belonged, in fact, to the typ
that men of finer material long t
kick, but which, for some inexplicabl
reason, possesses an enduring Ease
nation for the class of women VIII