The Irish standard., 1906-10-13
Women Who Make Failure. Of Men.

responsible for her husbands failure?
asks Deborah, clever writer in the
Detroit Journal. We hear this ques-
ton asked as often as any Of the So
cial questions which come up for dis
cussion whenever our thoughts take a
serious turn. Some rashly take the
ground that the wife is entirely re-
sponsible for her husbands life; that
woman either makes or breaks man."
and that if man is failure his wife
is to blame. Albeit those same peo-
pie do not always give the wife the
glory if her husband is success.
Other people, equally rash, relieve
the woman Of all responsibility. They
maintain that if a man is really worth
while, really has it in him to succeed,
he will succeed in spite Of everything.
That his wife can not hold him down
for all time. though she may make
progress slow.
AS usual in extreme Views, both are
partly right. The wife does have a
large influence over her husbands for
tunes, though it would be hardly fair
to charge her with the sole RESPONSE
bility. Just how she can help or him
der is costly shown.
For instance, every business in
which many men are employed has
one or two who never seem to get
beyond a certain rut. They never
have money. to invest in any scheme
into which the rest are going; their
minds often wander from their work,
and everything they do is done in a
listless, perfunctory manner. If you
look into their affairs you will usually
find their minds are absorbed with
financial troubles.
Every cent they rnake goes to sup
port a home. Instead Of living so as
to have a margin of their income left,
the wife lives up to every cent. She
must have an up-to-date house in a
smart neighborhood; help to do a
much smaller amount of work than
her mother did alone; new clothes
with every change of season: money
for matinees and pleasure trips, and
everything else she thinks she wants.
She knows her husbands income to a
cent and by hook or by crook she gets
every cent of it for their daily ex-
penses. Money grows on bushes for
all she knows or cares, so that she
gets it to spend. L1tius Lydgate in
"Middlemarch'' is a splendid example
of man practically wrecked by such
wife, but there are many Lydgates
in every ONCE in Detroit.
Another wife who binders her hus-
band, though she does not realize It.,
Is the one who insists on having him
help her in her housework at nights
or in the morning. "He is a great
deal stronger than I am" she argues.
HE can just as we'll take care Of the
babies. sweep, wash dishes or get
AiC1ASs anu give 11lc d ClldIlC0 10 rest.
But this wife should stop to think
that all day long her husband has been
hard at work for her without one of
the dozen chances of rest that she
has had. She has had half-dozen
little breathing spells, while with him
it has been constant strain and hus-
tie. His nerves need rest if his mus
cles do not. and he should be free to
rest. The business woman who has
been asked to do housework after
hours will realize the truth of this, as
the home-trained woman never can.
Trivial things these may seem to
make or mar a mans future. But it
is the constant succession of little
things that make lite. Any man can
stand bankruptcy, fire or sudden
death, but 1t takes q hero to stand the
petty things Of every day.
Church At Davitt's 6rave