The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-09-18
MANAGING A WIFE.

1t often occurs to me, as it must tc
every careful reader of the daily pa
pers, that women are rather getting
the best of things so far as the press
is concerned. In every modern up-to-
date paper pages are given to ex-
plotting the pictures of gowns in
which even a homely woman must look
like a fashion plate houri that no man
could resist. Columns are devoted to
minute instruction in the art of beau
tifying, so that if every woman in the
land does not possess the figure of a
sylph and the complexion of "A Venus
just rising from the foam, the fault
cannot be laid at the door of the pa
pers of the country, but most signifi-
cant of all is the fact that almost un-
limited space and attention is given
TO expert theories about the best way
to manage husbands.
Nothing of this kind is ever done for
man He, poor thing, is left to buy just
whatever his tailor and haberdasher
choose to palm off on him, with no
DAILY Hint from Paris" to guide his
wavering choice. He, too, may yearn
IOT beauty anu grace DuI llo l9Pli VI
articles on How to be Beautiful,
Though Ugly" cheer him along the
thorny road of banting and ging.
Above all no matter how tried he may
be in his domestic relations, no prophet
in Israel arises to tell him the best
way-or any way-to manage a. Wife
The press is deeply, darkly and omi-
nously silent on the subject, and he
may search his paper through from
end to end, without getting single
hint for his guidance.
When we consider that the daily
press is the greatest and most power
ful educator in the world, the injustice
Of this invidious distinction becomes
apparent. Leaving out of the discus
sion the matters of clothes and looks -
two important subjects that do not
deserve to be sidetracked-we confront
the appalling fact that millions of
women are being Systematically edu-
Gated in the art of managing husbands,
while not a single man is getting a
particle of information on the counter
proposition of how to manage wife.
In a word, all the women of the coun-
try are being converted into highly
skilled professionals while the men re-
main merely bungling amateurs in the
art of managing, and we all know
what happens to the amateur when he
enga ges in friendly game with an
agreeable and innocent looking
stranger 1t doesn't take prophet,
or the daughter of a prophet, to see
his finish.
OF course, the claim is made. in ex-
tenuation of this state of affairs, that
It is all done I'm the interest of making
home happy Go to! The excuse is a
specious one. Isn't a man just as much
concerned in making home happy as
a woman is? Nay more so, for in
the eyes of the law he Is the official
and responsible head. He founded IL,
and If it isn't his business to make
It happy I'd just like to know whose
1t is, that's all More than that I con-
tend that if there's any knowledge
about how to manage and make things
happy floating about, he is justly en-
titled to a share of 1t. Women have
no right to a monopoly in that line.
If men are more backward in the
knowledge of how to manage than
women 1t is because that is one branch
of information they have never eX-
pected TO need to study. A woman
knows from the time she is born she
has got to manage some man to get
what she wants She begins on her
father: she practices on her brothers;
she graduates on her beauX, and she
brings the skill of an adept to deal
with her husband. 1t never dawns on
q man beforehand that he Is going to
have any trouble managing his wife.
He expects that to come dead easy.
He thinks she will be so grateful to
him for having saved her from being
an old maid that she will adopt all
his opinions and fall into his ways
without a question. His dearest illu-
sion is that he will form her, and he
gets the jar of his life when he finds
out that her character was settled
some twenty years before he ever met
her, and that she is just as set in her
ways and as tenacious of her views as
he Is. 1t is precisely here, when he
confronts the conditions of life. and not
the theory, and is looking for some
peaceabe way of managing his wife,
that the injustice of the press is so
manifest. For women under such cir
cumstances the papers TEEN with adj
vice, but never word is offered to
guide the poor man who is setting out
to explore the terra incognito OF his
new wife's disposition.
Any suggestions along this line must
of necessity be tentative and expert
mental, but for my part l could never
see that there was much difference be-
tween men and women. They are
much of a muchness when we get down
to real human nature, open to the
same arguments, and l should "ad-
mire," as our New England cousins
say, to see men apply some of the arts
to which their own sex have proven
amenable, to the diplomatic manage
ment of their wives. It's a poor the
ory that won't work both ways.
Among the tenetS most strenuously
insisted upon as efficacious i'm manag-
ing a husband is the hidden hand poll
cy. Women are adjured to use diplo-
macy and not force. and to get their
way without appearing to do so. They
are told never TO arouse opposition or
appear arbitrary, and that victory
perches on the banner of the woman
who knows how to yield gracefully in
little matters. Any woman who has
ever tried these wise percepts knows
that they come pretty near being all
OF the law and the prophets on the
subject. but what is the matter with
men applying them with equally good
result to their wives? Everybody with
a grain of spirit in them, objects TO
being bossed. There's something in
the contrariness of human nature that
prompts us to rebel against the person
who asserts authority over us, particu-
larly II we happen to be married to
'em. The man who announces in a
loud tone of voice that he is the head
of the house, and proposes TO manage
St, Is always outwitted In the end, and
finds a stubborn resistance at every
turn that balks him. The wise man
Mann g