Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-16

The woman had been a teacher for more
than ten years. and she was one of the best
L ever kneW-intenSely fond of children and
thoroughly in love with her work 1t SEEM
ed to be all She lived for, and I was much
surprised when she married. Her husband
had good income, and she decided that
she ought to give up her work and devote
herself to looking after his home.
They were deeply in love with ore
another. and for three years they seemed
to be very happy, She was a perfect house
keeper and most devoted wife, and he
was certainly greatly devoted to her.
Before she married she had a great
variety OF intellectual pursuits; she read
widely and deeply. went 10 the best lee
lures and art galleries and was u woman of
all-round learning and culture. The man
was good fellow, but he never read about
anything except the stock market. In
time, she dropped all her studies, until at
last she told me that she had only opened
book once in three weeks. and that was
when she wanted cooking recipe.
But the rebound came at last. In the
fourth year she became subject to fits of
melancholia. They had only one child,
which died soon after birth. She told her
husband that her heart was starving-that
she must go back to teaching If she was
to be happy again. He refused to let her
do So and few months later she ran away
from home. After long search, he found
her teaching a class In another city under
her maiden name. He persuaded her to re-
turn to him, but year later they were
divorced, and she is now teaching again.
Most married women who teach do so
because they need the money badly-they
generally get husbands who are of no ac-
count and live off their wives earnings
but l know of two whose husbands are
wealthy men. They love the work better
than their homes and families Both have
children who are being very badly brought
up while their mothers are devoting time
and thought to other peoples youngsters
Whenever married woman teaches, either
the home or the school SufferS-Sometime
both. 1t is inevitable.
When a man weds a teacher and takes
her away from her school, he ought to be
more than ordinarily sure of his ability to
support her comfortably. She will probably
be most critical wife. She is used to
earning fairly good living for herself,
and if he fails to hold down his job or
strikes run of bad luck, she is likely to
think him "A pretty poor sort of stick and
tell him that she could provide for the
family better. This of course. applies to
all women who were wage-earners before
marriage; but Think the schoolma'am is
the worst She often has a biting tongue,
and she is apt to lecture her husband as
formerly she lectured the children in her
class.
Il read in one of the educational papers,
the other day, of a man who got a di-
vorce in Wyoming because his wife,
former teacher, continually tainted him
for not earning enough money. The court
ruled that this came under the heading of
ton intolerable,' which is reason for di-
vorce under the Wyoming law. l don't
like to say 1t. but from what | know about
school teachers. there must be many hus-
bands who have had this mans experience
Champion Marriage.
SHOULD the schoolma am marry? Ger
tainly she should, for her own sake and
then she should leave off teaching" said
forceful, experienced woman who Is at the
head of an elementary school of nearly two
thousand children. II have been teaching
for more than thirty years. and have al
ways loved the work but I'm an exception
So far as my experience goes. few teachers
do like it, and very few fitted for it by
temperament And these are the very
teachers, as rule. who marry and leave
the work. 1t is natural that il should be
so The same human qualities, the same
gift of sympathy which made them succeed
with the children, attract men to them and
also make them anxious to become wives
and mothers.
THE great majority of women teachers
do not marry, and this is the more strange
when you consider that most of them hate
their work ! know girls who would agree
with Israel Iangwill that teaching is hell
ish torture, and yet they will not marry
although they receive good offers Most
women whom | have met in the schools are
idealists, and they expect too much in a
man. They are very particular whom they
pick out for life partner-and then they
usually end by picking out the wrong man.
Il don't hold that teaching units wom-
for domestic duties more than any other
form of wage-earning. If a woman has
earned her living in the schools for con-
siderable time-Say, ten yearS-the chances
are that she will not make a good wife or
me Their. But 1T would be the same If she
had worked in an office or a store for that
length of time.
ION the other hand, two or three years
work a teacher is likely to increase a
girls fitness for marriage. That limited
experience broadens her. but more of IT is
apt to be narrowing. l know of many ex-
teachers who are the mothers of very hap
ply families and who could hardly be i'm
proved upon as wives, but, of course par
ticular cases prove nothing. The truth of
| distinct sex. She's a woman, and like
other women, sometimes makes a good wife
and sometimes doesn't.
II never knew of a marriage between
teachers that resulted happily I have
known of many that were most unha my
But that Is equally true I suppose of mar
riages between artists and writer's"
Marry, but Quit Teaching.
$50 long as she is willing to leave the
school can see no possible objection to the
schoolma am marrying" said prominent
member of New York's board of education.
"Its the best thing for her. No woma n
ought to be a teacher all her life. It's bad
for her and worse for the children. AS for
her work uniting her for domestic life.
that's all nonsense Most of the teachers
know would make excellent wives. but they
don't seem to want to marry.
THE training in psychology which q