Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1903-01-03
THE CLUB HUSBAND.
The Making Of Homes and the Cherishing
OF Those in Them is Not Going
Out of Fashion.

OF course it may be taken for granted
that every club woman is in love with
this subject, at least specifically.
Not long ago Il little Boston girl. a
fesh-and-blood 10-year-old, alive at this
minute, was sitting at the family dinner
table while her father and his friends
carried on serious discussion as to the
child of nowadays. They were lament
lug the fact that the children today seem
SO blase, so little affected by things
grave or gay. Why said the father,
my children read without a tear books
that used to make me weep, Ii seems
rs II all emotion has gone out of them"
Nhereupon our little friend looked up
and remarked, with overpowering dig
NIFTY, oh, papa, it is Lot that erection
has. gone out, but seif-coutrol has come
in"
Wasn't the child right? This is an
age of self-control. 1t is the correct
thing to hide our emotions and, like most
correct things, it is Cften carried too far
| propose that for 4 lt,le while we
diYest ourselves of our usual self-control
ana indulge in candid recognition OF
one of the deep acts of our hearts.
How often we hear people, especially
public speakers, wax eloquent, even to
the point of tears, over the help they
have received from the mother. or some
friend who is no longer with them on
earth-some quiet, unseen personality,
whose power over their lives they now
fully realize. Are we net sometimes
tempted to wonder. in listening to such
tributes. how often i'll her lifetime that
mother received such devotion, such rec
ignition?
10 We hot catch ourselves hoping thai
ne use1 sometimes to put his arm around
her and say What a good mother you
ere TO me-. But how sadly true it is
that the glowing tribute, the costly
monument, the piled-up roses, are often
attempts to atone for lost opportunities.
No such sad fate need be ours. how
eyer fer we have with us quiet. I'M
obtrusive personality seldom or never
seen nj our meetings, but whose influence
ana helplulneSS among us it is our glad
privilege to recognze-and we NAV
proudly cast the roses of our apprecia-
club husband.
That was wise man who said. GIVE
me a little taffy now rather than a lot
OF epltaphy later on" Not "tafTv." INF
honest appreciation is due the man who
goes day after day to business or his pro-
33e;SSlohal duties, rejoicing to give us
leisure thereby for improving ourselves
and helping others. Who shan s,,y that
much OF the good, subjective and oh
Jectlye, done ny our clubs is nor hns full,,
shared by the club husband? He is in
deed orr silent partner.
WAT varied forms his usefulness
takes, Sometimes before we can 20 70
me club ne has to hook us into orr
gowns. and how deity he does it, some
times he has to pay our annual foc|and
II he forgets and carries it in his pocket
Tor while it is with the airy grace Of
one who knows that he can hide under
me broad mantle of our charity and
near us say, in the words of the anostIe
There hath no temptation taken Won but
such rs Is common to man" Sometimes
Qet me whisper it among ourselves) how
very useful he is in Strengthening ont the
tangled skein Of our ideas! When we
come home from the club, with Beers and
Cinnamon, FHipinos ana Cubans playing
-in-the-cornor in the recesscs of our
brain, tripping their feet in the meshes of
the Battenhurg we have been working rs
we listened, and befogged by a mist OF
economic problems and Twentieth cen
FURY conditions-how his magic touch re-
stores order and shows MS at once the
right relation Of things! His many
thoughtfulnesSes, his keenneSs of iudg-
ment, his cheerful attitude of sympathy
with club doings. we have ali expert
enced. | believe it would be an inspira-
ton if each club could place upon its wall
a genuine composite picture of its club
husband.
But let us turn to the other side of
the picture. and 10. we find that it is n
mirror in which we may catch a glimpse,
without undue cgotism, Of one reason
why the club husband is so satisfactory.
Amiel, in his famous journal, has said
that the test of any religious or educa-
tional institution is the man which it
forms. Surely one test of womcn's
club is the moral and physical condition
OF its club husband. The unwritten law
of the ideal women's club is. This club
exists for the happiness of the whole fam
lily. When that ceases, the clubs reason
for existence will cease SO long as we
are thus considerable, never allowing our
club life TO absorb the attention that be-
longs to our home life, just so long may
our club husband snap his fingers at the
people who try to pity him. Let the crit
les carp, They are like the young girl
who walked through her uncle's chair
factory, and eazcd at the rows upon rows
of chairs, saying, "Why, uncle. what can
you ever do with all these chairsY
Don't you fret, Maria, scttin' down
amt goin' out o fashion,"
The making Of homes and cherishing
those in them is not going out of fashion,
and the club husband would be the first
to agree to il. | believe that / am voic-
ing the thought Of every true-hcarted club
woman when | eXclaim; Ihe club hns-
band. God bless him Nellie Brakeman
Donagan in the Club Woman.