Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1906-11-17

choice: for thou didst select thy wife
ihyself, and she is even as she was
when thou didst pick her out
The third commandment of the mar
ried man is this:
Thou shalt choose the kind of mother
in-law thou likest, for 10. after thou art
married thy house shall be her house
aud her ways thy ways.
In the majority of divorce cases moi
Their side alleges any great and unfor-
gIyeable offense against the other. If is
simply condition of friction in the
household, of matrimonial bonds that
have CALLED and chafcd until things have
become unendurable
I2mpers have been worn to n frazzla
conversation has degenerated to a string
OF examinations and determinations Bit
Ter Things have been said The home has
become a purgatory of pickering and
strife and quarrels.
In these domestic cataclysms that
leave broken hearts and wrecked lives
III their trall, almost invariably the storm
center is the Wife's mother. If YOU will
take the trouble to read the reports of
such cases you Will see that in nearly
every one the husband SAYS. I'VE had IA
happy home until my mother-in-law
came to live with us, or I'VE got along
all right until my wife's mother began
to interfere"
Nor is this mere masculine prejudice
against the mother-in-law.
III you VIII look about you you will
scarcely see one harmonious couple in
which the wife's mother is "A member OF
the household, or one disgruntled mar
ried pair who live by themselves.
SO undenlable fact is this that we
might almost say that the way to do
away with the divorce evil would be to
Kill off the brides mother at the we'd
ding.
As this is impossible, and as IT is equal
~ impossible to cherish fne fond hope
that women will ever reach state of
grace III which they will have forbear-
ance enough to keep their fingers out of
their sons-in-law's pies, the only thing
that Is lett for a man to do is to pick out
mother-in-law whose society he enjoys,
whose housekeeping comedies with his
own taste, and whose views in regard to
latch keys, clubs, the temperance ques-
ton. and the higher life are his own.
For there is no earthly way that he can
escape the lady in question
Her daughters house. and exc her
daughters husbands house aud all it
contains are hers, 10 do with as she
pleaSes, and upset as much as she likes
1t is nothing that the poor. helpless
man pays the bills, and that his wife
came to him as empty handed as poor
Griselda.
Mother-In-law lets no such trivial Incl
dents as this swerye her from her pur-
pose of making over the Young people's
establishment on her own lines, aud run
ning it to suit what she conceves to be
for their good, irrespective Of their de
sreS.
If she happens to be a Prohibition fla
matte she sets her large foot down firmly
on son-in-law having wine with his
IG ND a % hill f,Ts rItf.,
If she disapproyes of his friends, out
tLey go.
If she is Il church-goer she chases him
TO the sanctuary at the point of her
tongue.
If she doesn't like his servants she
makes things so unpleasant for them
That they give notice and leave.
As for the mans expectations Of being
master III his own house. il coliapseS like
child painted toy.
lie is a mere figure head.
Mother-in-law runs the shop. and he
eats what she chooses for him to eat.
tmokes where she permits. aud tulillS
ms humble destiny 10y making the money
to crafty her wishes.
Naturally, since men are not angels.
tins state of affairs gives rise to endless
quarrelS
Tie and mother-in-law have it out, and
Le and wife have it out. but in the end,
because there are two against one, the
hoJler-in-law triumphS, and the man.
putting on his hat, slams the door behind
nm with remarks that aren't tit to print,
and drifts back to his old boon com
pamons, and in his heart. us in a shroud,
he all the sweet dead hopes of the home
Of which he has dreamed-the home that
the mother-in-law has made impossible
10y her intermeddliDg.
or course, there are Il few exceptions
to this rule.
There's are a few women who love their
daughters we'll enough to f0rgO the dear
delights of interfering between them and
their husbands. and who are heroic
enough TO concede to a son-in-law some
rights in his own house, but these are
lew and far between, and a man has no
more right TO expect that he will draw
one Of these prizes in the matrimonial
i2itery than he has to suppose that he
VII be struck by lightning.
The UrdInary man WHO marries may
count on n future that will be mostly
JMctured with nsother-in-law, and he is
foolish. indeed. if he does not select the
uaYor that will be most agreeable to his
palate
He need not think that he will escape
Il by taking his wife away, for there
Is no land 50 remote but to which excur-
son tickets are sold, and though he
should flee to the uttermost ends of the
earth. he would still find that what
mother says and mother thinks" ris-
iA2 up at every turn To confront him on
his own hearthstone.
ne only way around this large and
Soih obstacle to domestic happiness is
10 embrace il with such fervOr that il
ceases to be an obstacle aud becomes an
annex 70 ones pleasures.
For there is a choice in mothers-in-
Jaw as there is in everything else in life
ana 1t merely requi- discretion in the
selection.
There are mothe sin law of every con
Ieivahie shade Of O.. on. AMI any fair
intelligent man ought TO be able IA
match himself with one.
In this lies his only safety. for unless
ne marries an orphan he shall not es-
ape the mother-in-law or be able TO con-
tend against her
furthermore, as the mother-in-law is
S9 snail the girl he maTries be at forty
..l4 t.ls renders II ahsnlntalE in.lisnensn.