The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-03-19

to so see his wife through the eye OF
| affection that she, VIII look as much
| like an angel to him in slouchy
dressing jacket as she does. in dainty
| chiffons.
Doubtless. he ought to be able to
eat leathery pie and watery potatoes
| and love her still, and bless heaven
| for having bestowed treasure uuon
him.
Doubtless he ought to look forward
i with joy 70 returning home at night
after his hard days work and help
get the dinner
Doubtless he ought to- find it en-
! chanting 10, spend his evenings listen
| ing to his wifes tales OF the domestic
mishaps of the day and of what u
martyr she is.
/ The only trouble is he doesn't.
| This isn't what he married her for.
It turns loves young dream into a
nightmare.
II changes what ought 20 be a pic
mic into dull. dreary, deadly level
grind.
! And this is ali that only too many
| men ever know of married life. for
there are plenty of men who never
cat q good meal or spend one peace
full and happy hour in their own
| homes.
| Every woman who marries faces
| the question of the kind of a home
she will make. and decides It.
She can always keep the glamour
| of poetry and romance about it. or
| she can make it as bald and prosaic
and monotonouS and undressing as
an alkali desert
She can make it place that is the
| most loved spot on earth to a man,
! or the one that fills him with the
greatest sense of WEAKNESS and repui-
| sion--a place to fly to, or c : to fly
away from
OF course to make a home that is
| always full of charm takes work and
thought, but It is worth the price.
For woman not to succeed in that
| is for her tn be a failure as q wo~
man.
| 1t may be a woman's misfortune
never to be loved and married. but
, once to have been loved and married
and then to lose her husbands affec-
| ton is her shame.
| A man does not love a woman pri-
marily because she is a good cook
and competent manager. but If he
keeps on loving her after he is mar
| ried to her it is because she is.
Show me a woman's housekeeping.
and | can tell to a mathematical
nicely how long she will keep her
husbands love.
The first great danger OF married
| life becoming dull consists in its being
! lived in unattractive and uncomfort-
! able environment. and this is a caras-
| trophe that every woman has it in her
power to prevent if she will
If the first snag that youns
couple strikes in married life, and that
! Jolts the romanc@ out of matrimony,
| is the WiGe'S totaI inability to wrestle
successfully with the household prob
lem, the second is the money cues
tioE.
The first disillusicns the man.
The second smashes the woman's
| ideals into smithereens.Gl
UNDERGRADUATES a matrimonial
| promoter-cnce announced the CHEEKY
theory that marriage was a real econv
| omy because two people can live
| cheaper than one. and most men arc
| taken in by this fallacy.
They even marry on it. and when
they find that 1t isn't true-that it
takes twice as much food for two as
one, and four times as much house
rent, and ten times as many clothes
when the other one is a woman. IL
gives the man a shock of surprise
from which he never RECEIVERS as Ions
as he lives.
He wasn't prepared for it.
He had expected sportive cupids to
play about his pathway. and instead
of that the bill collector camps upon
his trail, and it makes him grumpy
not so much because he is not will
ing to pay as because he did not ex-
pect to have to pay.
1t is sentiment with a price tag
on it, and he grumbles at the price.
For the woman the disiilusion-
ment is even more complete. Nobody
but a woman ever knows the agony
of the hour of enlightenment when
she gets the first intimatfon that she
and the household expenses she rep
resents are considered a burden.
This isn't what she married for,
either.
During the days of courtship the
lover lavished every luxury upon her.
The husband complains at supply
ing her with the necessities of life.
While he wooed her he swore that
he asked no greater privilege or
heaven than the pleasure of providing
| for her. As soon as they are mar
ried he talks of having to support her
Before they we're married he de-
lighted in hestowing gifts and treats
upon her.
After they are married he scrimps
her on street-car fare
| AS a girl she had thought CT ths
position of q wife as being one of hon
| ored independence.
When she is married she finds that
she is a dependent who has her de-
oendence continually thrown in her
| face.
| She had pictured matrimony as an
| elysium in which she would Sc taken
care of and protected from the world
| by a husband who would be a Prince
| Bountiful.
She finds it the only situation in
| life in which q woman has to beg for
the money she earns.
Practically every wife works hard
| er for a husband than she could be
| hired to work for any employer. but
not one wife in thousand gets any
thing for it but her board and
! clothes.
She has no separate allowance.
She has no money that she can
| spend on personal qualification
| Every cent must be accounted for.
and when the monthly bills come in
the average husband acts precisely
as If she had eaten every mouthful
Of the food charged on the grocery
and butcher bills. and had worn all
of the clothes on the dry goods bills,
and had absorbed every particle of
the heat and light for the coal and
gas bills.
Is it any wonder that married life
1 T.