The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-02-08


they flow to the sea together. Wheth-
er both are Of the same volume or
one is large enough to swallow the,
other whole, their direction is always
Identical. Hand in hand. heart to
heart, they move amicably between
the same banks toward the same goal.
But it is not often so with two
human lives. At rare intervals 1t
happens that their aims and hopes are
so nearly Identical that they melt into
a single stream Of tendencies and glide
along like meadow brook among the
grasses. More often they suddenly
discover that their motives, habits
and purposes are dissimilar if not an
tagonistic. One tries to flow this way
and the other that, and so the waters
rave and fret.
1t Is at this critical point of the mar
ried life that the stern lesson of this
brief essay needs to be brought home.
Two people who do not pull together
will soon begin to pull apart. and 1t is
necessary for them to learn how to
make concessions.
Take, for example. their tastes"
How seldom you find two people in
read and the other to play games,
One is fond Of the seashore and the
other Of the mountains. One likes
to go to parties and the other to stay
at home. These differences seem the
interest trifles before marriage, and are
subjects of gOOd-humored jests. But
if wife insists on dragging her hus-
band out to receptions and card
parties when he is tired out with bust
ness. soon enough there will be trouble
in the camp. Or if a woman likes to
read good books, and her husband
will never listen to anything but the
suicides, murders and embellishments
~ "a breach
spring up that will widen till their
death. More homes than the stat
isticians have ever counted have been
broken up or rendered permanently
wretched by differences of taste as
triflng as these.
What a selfish thing it is in a man
not to conform to his wife's love for
little things which do not interest him.
OF course, you don't like fancy work,
but is that any reason why you should
not learn to? Lay down your paper or
your book and take up that pretty tidy
or napkin that your Mary is embroid-
ering. Show your appreciation Of her
right to be interested in whatever
strikes her fancy. Come out Of your
self and see things from a woman's
point of view! She is woman-and
this basal fact must be reckoned1 with.
Or, perhaps the shoe is on the other
footsand it is the man who has an in
durable love for hunting and fishing.
Both pastimes are distasteful to his
wife. and with the imperious will of a
little tyrant she tries to uproot his nat
ural instincts. But who gave her the
right to dictate in such matters? He
is a man and has the privileges of his
sex for the rough life of the out of
door world. How much better it
would be for her to don her short
; ; But there are more serious differ
ences than those of tastes There
are differences of principle. They do
not reveal themselves before the mar
riage vows are taken. Each Of the in
fatuated lovers has softened or con-
cealed those traits and ideas that ex-
cited the antagonism Of another. It
was easy to put them out Of sight dur
ing courtship. But now that the
honeymoon is over and they have set
tied down to the daily grind of life,
pears that the man has a deep-seated
antipathy to religion, while the
woman is a devoted Christian. She
begs him to go to church, but he re-
fuses and insists on her taking rides
Into the country or visiting beer gar
dens. First come the sharp surprises;
then the deep heart sorrows, and fin
ally the open quarrels. Two Wills
have set themselves In violent antag-
onism. Two lives are pulling apart
1T IS the rift within the lutte that by
and by will make the music mute and
ever widening slowly silence ALL
Somebody must give, way! Can any.
one tell us who? My answer is this
sharp, sincere and earnest-the one
with whom the question is not mat.
ter Of conscience. This present cues.
ton is not that fundamental one oil
truth or fa1sity of religion. 1t is sim
ply the question as to whether a mar