The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-11-29
THE AMERICAN WIFE.

But the American wife? Henry
James has summed up the American
wife in just one sentence. He says:
"The American wife knows nothing
of her husbands affairs that
they are of not the slightest conse-
quence.
This is both epigrammatic and ex-
actly true. The American wife has
quite a genuine affection for her hus-
band. Even after years of marriage
have gone by, she thinks of him with
unaffected friendliness. He is so use
full. She credits him with almost all
the virtues, except perhaps the virtue
of being interesting and she overlooks
that one defect of his with charitable
federation. She sees him come and
go each day with clock-like regulari-
ty. She vaguely knows what his
plOfCooio1a or vocation io.-S She eLi.a1zs-
better of him if it is profession or
vocation that is generally regarded as
quite creditable; but this is practical
ly all she knows or cares about it.
She sees him rising early and hurry
ing to his office. She hears him sit
ting late into the night in the room
overhead; and she is probably aware
that he is immersed in great sea of
papers and documents of some kind
or other-tiresome and stupid things
that he will persist in bringing home
and fussing over.
She finds that he must sometimes
stay in town all through the summer
when the thermometer is in the
nineties and when the sickly heat
sweats on the very walls or sizzles on
the pavement. She thinks it very in
considerate of him to do this. She
would really rather have him go with
her to the cool, wind-swept nook that
she selects for her own summer out
ing. Just why he does not go, she
cannot possibly imagine.
1t is one of the curious, irrational
traits which he possesses and which
prevents her from taking him quite
seriously. Perhaps he will run up
there for day or two, and when he
does come she is very nice to him,
apart from scolding him little for
getting SO hideously thin and sallow.
But he is not particularly comfortable
there. He follows her meekly into
the dining room three times day for
a while, and then he has to go back
to whatever it is she doesn't know.
The household bills are paid the
checks come to her regularly. She
does the things she likes to do, and
sometimes dimly recognizes the fact
that it is pleasant to have somebody
to see that her various projects and
arrangements all come out so nicely.
Her husband is really quite what a
husband ought to be. He does his
duty perfectly, and she has very ac-
curate notion of what that duty is.
To provide whatever she requires, to
fetch and carry out her bidding, to
leave her absolutely free from care,
responsibility or worry-such IS the
whole duty of the American husband
And then, she is so very sure oi
him 1t never enters her head that
he has anything to wish for, that be
can possibly be conscious of a void
somewhere in life, or experience ever
the faintest stirring Of dissatisfaction
that he could ever imagine anything
different from what he has; that he
might ever dream of an existence
where he should be something better
than the household banker, a glori6ec
butler, a superior maitre d'hotel. She
is absolutely sure of him. She doe
not want another kind of husband, Sc
why should he desire different sor
of wife ?-AinSlee'S.