Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-03-30
A MASCULINE FAILING
MANS TROUBLES WITH HOME ANNl-
vERSARY DATES.
The Male Creatures Persistent Abil-
ity to Forget the Days Upon Which
Important Events, Including Even
His wedding, Took Place.

out difficulty the dates of his various
board meetings, the price of stocks. the
amount of money he loses at bridge,
the price of his wife's last bonnet but
two-everything, in fact, except the
day upon which he became engaged or
even, worse still, the one upon which
he married. And there is none of his
foibies which make him so unpopular
at home as this one.
A man is sometimes born unpopular,
and sometimes he has unpopularity
thrust upon him, but if he wants to
achieve unpopularity with bound just
let him forget the date of his wedding
day and allow his wife to find it out.
We know q man who is occasionally
greeted upon his return from business
by his wife dressed in her best gown,
with n rose in her hair and Il smile OH
her lips.
The man is always courteous, and so
he greets his better half kindly, even
while he asks in tone of distant dis
approval, Are we going anywhere to-
night, dear?'
Going anywhere" says that lady.
"No; don't you-is it possible you don't
remember what today is?"
The culprit makes valiant effort to
recollect. He runs his fingers through
his hair and assumes a thoughtful look
He knits his brows and bites his lips,
and he is painfully aware all the time
that his wife is growing more and more
rigid and more and more sorry that she
has assumed her best gown for an &C.
casion that is so little appreciated.
Il know it isn't our wedding ami
versary,' says the head of the house
presently and pleasantly, "for we were
married in the spring. l am sure we
We're, fer you wore some sort of white
thing 1t was very pretty" he adds
hastily, Immediately aware that the at
mosphcre has grown even cooler with
his remarks
Il wore gray going away gown"
says his wife Jelly, land nothing white
at ALL
ct isn't the anniversary of our en-
gagement," goes on the laundering
masculine. 'for you told me last year
that came some time in June
His wife absently takes the flower
out of her hair and brushes it.
Tell me what it is commands the
man impatiently. 'I'll never guess it
by myself
His wife leads the way into the IL
brary with an air. ITS not of the
slightest consequence of course" she
says bitterly. II was very foolish to
remember it myself, but somehow l
did. 1t has been four years today since
L met you at Mrs. Blanks theater
party. and you sat next TO me during
the performance of Romeo and Juliet
and said that so long as you lived you
would never forget that night nor the
privilege that had been yours on that
OCCASION
1t would be a very hardened criminal
who would not be bowled out by this
is properly contrite and writes the date
down in his pocketbook so that he will
have it for next year, but he never by
any chance remembers it then, and
about the same scene will be gone over
again.
The woman who cannot recollect that
Columbus discovered America in 1892
or that the civil war was begun in 1861
can remember without difficulty the
day and date upon which she met her
husband, the day he first brought her
a bunch of violets, the first time he
took her to the theater and the play
they saw, the moment when he began
to look upon her as something more
than an attractive girl, the time he
asked her to marry him, what he said,
what she said, what hour of the day it
was and what she had on. AS for the
wedding day, each detail of it is as
plain to her half Il century later as if
it had been yesterday.
Then she gets raging mad because
her beloved cannot follow her in her
flights of fancy.
Once there was a man who never re-
membered until he was reminded that
the anniversary of his wedding day
had rolled around again. He found
that his misconduct greatly hurt the
feelings of his wife, and so one year
he resolved to make a great mental
effort and be the first to speak of the
occasion.
He made the effort, he bought his
wife a superb purse, and she had it
marked with her initials in gold and
then inside the flap was the date-Oct
6, 1898.
And was his wife pleased at this
delicate compliment?
Not she.
Its lovely" she said, ''but what is it
for? The date, 1 mean"
''For?" asked the man mildly. "Why,
for our wedding day. Don't you re-
member we were married on Oct. 6,
1882"
His wife smiled a sad, soft smile.
"It was very sweet of you, dear
very sweet" she murmured and her
tone was the more sorrowful than
angry, ''but as it happens we were
married on Nov. 90 don't know the
date you have there at ALL
The man was awfully embarrassed,
and he never told his wife. for there
were limits to her patience. that he
finally recalled the fact that on Oct 6.