The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1905-01-21
The TOO Good Wife.

Every now and then a world weary
and folly weary man marr1es an lnno.
cent unworldly and good woman.
He wants the sweet home HE ne mas
not found in the paths of pleasure. ne
wants the unmercenary devotion OF q
loving womoan. 1t is the 1nevltaoie
coal of every worth while man. Inc
woman feels that she Is filling Wom-
ans highest mission in retaining d
lost sheep. But how few sucn women
know the wise middle course TO walk
with such a man.
It is all very we'll to listen and De-
lieye when he tells you he Is happier
than he has ever been in MS HE De-
fore and that his home Is dearer 10
him than any club on earth. But 1t IS
far from very well If you fall upon
his neck and weep the first tlme ne
intimates that he would like to drop
in at the club and talk with the OLD
chums for an hour. This Is the poor
est method you could adopt to convince
him of the greater joys Of home. The
fact that he should want to visit the
old scene now and then is not an 1nd1-
cation that he is sick Of home or that
he is wandering from the fold again.
If you have married man who has
been overload of the fair sex, and II he
is kind and true and loving, do not be
forever upon the alert lest he stray
from you. Constant surveillance never
vet kept man true. 1t has made
many a man unfaithful.
Although your husband may have
told you over and over again that you
are tenfold more pleasing to him than
any woman he ever knew before he
met you, that does not signify that he
might not like to sit by some other at
dinner party. 1t does not signify
that he would not enjoy talking with
others whom he regards less highly
than you. In the association with the
women he does not love man often
most appreciates the woman he does
love. Should he take seat by some
other woman and converse with her In
your presence, do not act sulky, dis
trait or injured. That only makes you
ridiculous and unlovable.
Although your innocence and un-
worldliness won your husband from
the paths Of folly, those qualities will
not keep him at your side unless you
mingle common sense and tact with
them. It Is easy for many women to
be brilliant. and it is easy for others
to be good. But it seems the most
difficult thing in the world for a wom-
an to be sensible.
Be satisfied if your husband gives
up the liberties which the world al
lows a bachelor, but do not ask him
to relinquish the courtesies and recre-
atoms which are every mans privi-
lege. Drive suspicion from your door.
and install confidence In its place. Gull
tivate self esteem and self confidence,
and think, act, talk and live so sweetly
and lovingly that rivalry is impossi-
BILE.
The best Of his devotion and the
larger portion Of his leisure should be
given her voluntarily. But to make
him a willing captive should be wom-
ans art, not to make him life prison
er, and the home reformatory, and
the wife a suspicious warden, always
imagining that the prisoner is plan
ming escape. The good wife must pos
sess other qualities besides goodness
to make her marriage with a mere
man successful.
Common sense and tact must be two
strands Of the rope to make it strong
enough to act as an anchor for the do
nestle ship. The too good wife relies
wholly upon one strand and the ship
breaks anchor.-Ella Wheeler Wilcox
in Spokane Spokesman Review.