The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-14
 MAKING A WIFE TO ORDER.
The Unsatisfactory Experiences of an
 OId-time Author.

l To most men-and most women, too matrimony comes rather suddenly. They meet, and presto! After that they gradually accustom themselves to each others eccentricities Not so with Thomas Day, the author of that school boy classic "Sandford and Merton" Day had ideas of his own, says John Fyvie in his volume of Literary Ec- centricities," and proposed to have a wife to suit him. He was determined 1 that she must be simply neat, with none of the deceitful glare of town nymph, but with healthy bloom on her cheeks, and lustrous eyes, which spoke the genuine feelings of her soul"
 She must be needless of the praise or blame of all mankind, save only her husband. She must despise dress and fashion, and must come with him to | live in simplicity and retirement, where nothing should be sacrificed to fashion or vanity. She must have taste for literature and science, for moral and patriotic philosophy, be fearless and iri- trepid as Spartan wives or Roman l heroines, and simple as d mountain girl in her dress, diet and manners.
 Failing to find all these charms in general circulation, Day determined to i have a wife made to order to his own plan. Accordingly he adopted two lit- tie orphan girls from asylums, and had them bound out to one of his friends who was married. He gave bond him- self to have one placed with some good trade woman and to marry the other; of if he did not marry her. then to give her an ample dowry and see her we'll married. And the matter thus ar ranged, he set about educating Lucre- tia and Sabrina to develop woman with the necessary virtues.
 Unfortunately, like all other little girls, Sabrina and Lucretia were very feminine. They did not take kindly to the simple diet and the plain clothes, and philosophy did not appeal to them in any way. Lueretia proved hopelessly stupid, and was soon apprenticed to 6 milliner; and on Sabrlna, the selected one, was centered the whole fierce of the education.
 Days methods, however, did not seem to be entirely suited to the needs of the case. To make her Spartan he dropped melted sealing-wax on her arms, and was much pained when she did not "endure 1t heroically.' When he fired pistols at her petticoats she could not refrain from screaming or jumping aside-which in Days eyes was a sign of fatal weakness She was a general favorite in the neighborhood, jolly little red-headed girl who loved flnery, and wore it,-when Day was ab- sent-and who would not keep the se- crets Day told her.
 He persisted for year. but at last gave up the task as too great for one man, and cast about for a ready-rnade lwife. The one whom he selected seem- ed, however, no more amenable than Sabrina to h.s schemes. She insisted that he must shape himself to her no- tions; and he was forced to win her to go to Paris and spend eight hours 8 day learning fencing, dancing and horsemanship, and to spend other hours in stocks, to straighten his legs.
 The legs would not straighten, and when he came home in his new finery and danced for her, the young woman would have none of the made-ovel Day, and he was compelled to return again to futile courtship of Sabrina From the Youths Companion.