The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1904-11-09

vi HlS WIG popularity.
Still another question tha. a wife
may ask herself IS. sm ] help or
hindrance to my husband spiritually?
DO | keep him buoyed up with
hope, or do dampen his ardor and
throw wet blanket on his cnthus-
iasm. Without going into all Of the
intricacies Of the new thought philoso-
ply, which is bit too nebulous for
most of US. it is still true that man
can only do what he thinks he can do,
aud if a woman discourages his every
project, if she deals, Cassandra-like,
in prophcsics of woe, she becomes an
evil influence that literally summons
disaster. The man who feels that his
wife believes in him, that she expects
him to succeed and is trying to help
him to succeed, has moral power
back of him that almost lifts him past
the goal. He will return again aud
again to the fight long after the man
with the croaking wife has thrown
down his sword and surrendered.
Am | giving my husband the right
atmosphere in which to work, is an
other question that the woman who
wants to be help instead of hind
rance to her husband must ask her
self. Nothing is more pathetic than
to think of what the world has lost
through women not understanding
their husbands temperament. Gen
orally speaking no man can do good
work unless he goes ont Of happy
and peaceful home It takes rest and
| quiet for the poor nerves, worn and
torn with the struggle Of the world to
knit themselves up again, aud many
woman whose home is always full of
pickering and strife and complaints
against servants, is literally the cause
of her husband s bankruptcy, simply
because she has worn out at home the
mental strength and ability that
ought to have been given to his busi-
ness.
Nor is this all. Men who engage in
literary and artistic careers must have
a certain atmosphere if they would do
their best work, they must be freed
from certain little bondages and du
ties, aud a woman who is married to
man Of this kind, if she would be a
help and not hindrancc, must stand
like buffer between him and the out
side world. There is no doubt that
many great poem that might have
been written has never been written
because the poet had to walk colicky
baby instead of wooing the muses.,
and that the fine fervor of many a
novel has evaporated between the
drudgery of having to do household
fchorcs. Women seldom sympathizc
with the impracticability of genius,
and that is the reason that geniuses
ought never to marry.
| In this question as to whether q
woman is help or hindrance to her
husband there comes in the very prac
tical matter of housekeeping. In the
end, no matter what his talents, no
matter what his ability, no matter
what his opportunity, mans power
to accomplish anything depends upon
his health, and that lies to an enor-
NOUS extent in his wife's hands. She
can give him dyspepsia that will make
him cross and grumpy, and ready to
quarrel with his best customer by Civ
ing him bad cooking, or she can do
much to induce Sunny Jim amiabil-
ity By feeding him on good food. Few
men ever consider dietetics them.
selves. They generally eat what is
set before them, and it is the wiee's
fault If the food is not wholesome and
noarishing. 1 know a woman who
married delicate, nervous, anemic
man, and who literally built him up
into splendid physique, by her in
telligent care. The husbands bust
ness was strenuous one, in which at
times he would be subjected to an
enormous physical aud mental strain.
At suoh times she surrounded him
with care that made his achieve.
ments possible. The table was sup.
piled with only the most easily digest
ed and nourishing things, no sound
was allowed to wake his slumber.
Everything that could possibly dis.
turb him mentally or physically was
kept from him religiously, and thus
he was enabled to perform an amount
Of work that would have been impos.
sible under any other conditions.
Many Of the dutias of life are thrust
upon US, and If we perform them in