The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-10-25
A SCHOOL FOR WIVES.

avn family circle, intend to start
sr:ool TOR Wives.
The need for such an institution may
nat seem very insistent. There are
colleges galore for women where near
~ every ism and ology known to hui
nan kind is to be studied. There ara
cooking schools, where women are
trained in the chemistry of the kitchen.
There are even educational establish
,rents where the Christian virtues and
the social graces are, professedly at
least. included in the curriculum of
studies. But while all of these enter,
more or less. into the training of the
ideal wife, they all leave something to
he desired. 1t is to sup9ly that miss
ing desideratum that my School for
Wives would be founded.
take it for granted that every wom-
an has, avowedly or not, the desire to
he. some day, the wife of a good man.
There is no nobler ambition than that
Women may amuse themselves with
stenography and typewriting, club life
and charities but they all know that
their real mission in life is to preside
over the home and bring up a family.
The woman who has not realized this
fact is one who stands in great need of
the instruction which she might OBJ
tain at my School for Wives. The
curious thing about woman is, that
along with this open, or secret. ambi-
+ion to have home of her own is
Joined a perfect confidence in her own
competence. Nobody ever heard of
girl declining proposal of marriage
from an eligible man on the ground
4 70 to iGoI,
the business of being a wife. Some
how the feminine mind cherishes the
idea that women are divinely endowed
at birth with all the qualities that go
10 make a successful wife. All that is
requisite is the opportunity to put these
faculties in operation, and-hey! Pres
to-your little butterfly of fashion,
YOUR little mouse of a seminary stu
dent straightway becomes your re-
sourceful, energetic, capable manager
and executive.
one would think that the error would
soon yield to the logic of experience,
and yet every day shows us married
women who struggle on. hampered by
their own futility, but utterly unaware
of their own incapacity.
OF course, there are wonderland.
happily, this type is by no means rare
who have a genius for housekeeping
and take to it like ducks to water. But
my School for Wives is not intended
for these exceptionally endowed per-
sons. 1t is intended to acquaint the
inexpert with their limitations, and to
show them the way to overcome the
defects.
When a man marries woman he
takes it for granted that she knows
how to keep a. house. He has a right
to do so. She takes it for granted
that he can earn a decent income and
provide for her comfort. She has a
right to do so. If he cannot. then she
can-and usually does-complain that
she has been deceived into matrimony.
But on the other hand. man has as
much right to resent having been mar
ried under false pretenses, when he
wakes from loves young dream, to
find himself yoked to an inexpert, in
adept housekeeper.
But as things stand now, there is no
means outside of marriage by which
a man can get any reliable information
regarding the accomplishments in this
particular line of the woman he pro-
poses to wed.
1t is true he might institute inQui-
res. But is mamma likely to expose
her daughters shortcomings, and thus
frighten away an eligible parti? 1t is
not likely. Now the School of Wives
might provide its graduates with a di-
her engagement beyond all peradven-
ture by exhibiting it to the eyes of
her adoring swain. Not a day passes
that we do not hear of engagements
made and broken, but can anyone i'm
agine man willfulIy breaking his en-
gagement to a Gordon bleu?"
But the School of Wives would fail
to accomplish it's chief object if it did
no more than teach women how to
cook, or nurse, or keep house. These
things are essential to marital haDpi-
ness, no doubt: but there are larger
things at stake in marriage than tha
creature comforts of the home.
would have a Chair of Cheerfulness,
and teach the pupils, by precept and
example, that, in the profession of
witehood, a merry face and a light
heart are among womens most valua-
Bile assets.
There are women who achieve cheer
runess in welded life at the expense
OF everything else. Does the cook leave
IN huff with the dinner half cooked?
such women merely laugh and put on
the table the half-baked mess left be-
nlnd by the indignant mental in her
ll-tlmed flight. Does the laundress
Ial to keep her weekly appointment?
ouch women preserve their equanimity,
put there is a dearth of clean linen for
fortnight thereafter. They remain
04illlll5 ana good-natured, Dut tney are
Wasteful and neglectfuI. That sort of
woman needs course at the School of
wives, and needs it bad.
But there is a cheerfulness which
meets these little tragedies of home life
with a smiling courage, which gathers
up the loose ends after the cooks or
the laundress' departure, and issues I'M
impaired from a strenuous dav Life
1oes not always go smoothly, but that
IS no reason why it's tribulations should
De exaggerated out of their due pro
portion and made the theme of inter-
mlnable jeremads.
Then, too, 1 would teach the marvel
Gus art of letting other people alone.
most wives need Years of sad expert
ehce to learn when to keep off the
grass marked out by other members
Vi the family. The fault of many
women who are clever housekeepars is
uat they will not recognize anybody's
personality in the nome but their own.
40 'hem the little reserves and priva-
cles Which refinement suggests as the
natural right of every individual do not
eASt. They are privileged by their
PoSluon as head of the household to in