The Savannah morning news., 1903-04-12
THE RIGHT OF A
MARRIED WOMAN.

In Toledo, o., the interesting ques-
.;on of whether a married woman has
d. right to have any pet except her
ashland is to be settled by law. In
+l,.i city a man has brought suit
ogainst his wife for divorce, alleging
.tst the cat had alienated her affec-
lions and that she devotes the time
n fondling pussy that she should spend
in petting and caressing him.
The outcome of TINS case, says Do
rotbv Dix in the New Orleans Plea
al, women, for if it be established that,
in addition to honoring and obeying her
husband, a wife is also legally bound
n make a pet of him, it generally COM
nltcates matrimony, which already had
@ sufficient number of snags in it.
heretofore, as hong as a woman's pet
was a quadruped, instead of biped
husbands have been content to regard
+he little beast as an innocuous safety
valve for a woman's desire to talk baby
talk TO something; but if it can be
shown that little Fido and tabby are
sufficient causes of jealousy, no wife
will be sure of her job.
BEFORE. however, it be decided that a
wife has no right to any pet except
her husband, justice demands that it be
ascertained that he is pettable crea-
+ure. Unfortunately, this is not the
case with all husbands. There are men
good upright men-who are admir-
able husb bands and providers, but whom
no one could pet without getting FROST
bitten and there are others who are
about as safe to pet as it would be to
net a sore-headed bear on the raw spot.
MANY a woman who marries with the
laudable intention of making her hus-
hand a pet, has to set up poodle or
q canary bird as a substitute, for it is
one of the jarring experiences of mat
rimonv to find out that the little ways
that your sweetheart considered cute,
vour husband brands as idiotic, and
that the man who, before marriage,
yearned to support your fairylike form
by the hour, after marriage complains
of your weight if you happen to lean
against him.
Moreover, if it be established that a
husband is entitled to be the sole
household pet, he should be required to
show that he keeps himself in a ca
ressab BILE attitude. Does he chirrup like
the canary whenever his wife approach
IS him? Does he kiss her hand and
follow her footsteps like her devoted
dog? Does he purr when she strokes
the hair upon his brow like her cat?
Or does he, when his wife attempts
10 tickle him under the chin, tell her
that she is mussing his collar; and
when she asks him, zoos duck is 'oo?'
discouragingly return: For heavens
sake shut up. I'm trying to read the
stock market" There must be the
reciprocity of appreciation at least, ir
petting, and if a man expects it, he
must, as our good Methodist friends
say, put himself in the spirit to re-
ceive the blessing.
No matter, though, whether a wife
is legally bound to make her husband
pet or not, there is practically nc
doubt about the expediency of her do
ing it. You couldn't drag the admis-
sion out of a man with wild horses
but it's just this desire to be petted
that lures more men into matrimony
than anything else in the world, and
explains why the little fool woman
with caressing ways can marry six
times to the strong minded woman's
one
No matter how intellectual a man is
1io HIcLbCI INV SlSdl Ills dCHlSNSlllCllle
in the world, no matter how stern and
dgnitied he is to the public, he wants
some woman to make a baby of him
TO pet and caress him, to talk nonsense
TO him-to much" him, as homely New
England people say. 1t is the eternal
child that exists far deeper in a mans
nature than it does in a womans, and
any wife who fails to take account OF
it in dealing with her husband makes
the mistake of her life
When the light of the honeymoon be-
gins to fade on the domestic horizon
the wife, like the husband, generally
settles down to the hard and prosaiC
facts of life. She cuts out the petting
and the 'muching," because she thinks
that John is too much occupied with
business to notice or care, and in this
she commits a deadly error. Nobody
who has been fed on pie can come
down to plain bread and butter with
out knowing the difference. We laugh
When we read in the account of a
breach of promise suit of some elderly,
fat bald, hard-headed man of affairs
signing himself Baby Runting," or
"Ducky Daddle," or Little Boy Blue, -
or something else equally insane and
silly but it is the woman who knows
enough to know that no man ever gets
too old to want to be petted who
WdIhS OH WIN the money. Inc chill
dren of this world could give good
many tips to the children of light, if
only the saints had gumption enough
TO take them.
The spectacle, anyway, of a woman
unduly fond of her dog, or cat, or ca
nary, is a pathetic one, for it tells of
lonely heart wasting it's affection in
a world that is hungry for love- and
any movement that would establish the
husband as the pet of the home would
make for universal happiness. Certain
~ there are few old maids who
wouldn't be glad to trade off their cat
Tor nice, kind, pettable husband.
and, if you don't believe this, just ask