Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-07-24
.SHREWISH WIVES.
G0ADS TO SUCCESS
MANY GREAT MEN HAVE ENDURED
ABUSE OF SCOLDS AND WON
FAME.
SOME FAMOUS VICTIMS.
Job, Socrates and Wesley Among Illus
trious Characters of History Tor
tured by Feminine Tongues.
WARRIORS TERRIBLE
WIFE

Dictionaries ascribe the attributes of
'scold,' ''shrew," ''termagant'' and
vixen to women. Men, however, com
piled dictionaries, and Justice is person
lhed by woman. not man. Indeed, so
perfectly is the quality of justice de-
veloped in woman that she is represented
as being able to administer it even blind
folded, says the New York Tribune,
Those who give women credit for being
scolds. ShreWs, termagants and yiragoes
cannot deny such women due praise for
the notable achievements of certain men
urged up the path of glory and toward
the pinnacle of renown by the free eyer
else OF their wives talent for scoldng
Under the influence of emphatic and
unbrldled feminine tongues some of the
WIseSt sages, greatest rulers, scientists
artists and scholars that the world has
ever known have developed, and shall the
beauteous image refuse to give due credit
to the instrument which shaped it?
Who may guess how much of the
temperng of that fine metal which went
into the makeup of George Washington
was occasloned by the ability of Dame
Mary and Lady Martha to speak their
minds, for the diatribes of the scold. the
shreW and the termagant are like blows
upon red hot metal, to temper it to great
wonderful qualities, and often to endow
1t with something of the qualities of a
Damascus blade. 1t takes blows delivered
with no uncertain and no gentle hand to
produce such an instrument. Humanely
speaking, only woman sufficiently has
the courage of ner convictions to deliver
them.
Ducking as punishment for scoIds
was instituted by Noah. and not by his
English or New England grandchildren.
Chaucer tells us that Mrs. Noah was a
veritable termagant. History does not re-
late just how she was soused into submits
siveness before embarking upon the ark
but leaves to painful co1jecture what
Noah's life may have been while afioat
But consider how useful Noah proved
to be to the human race.
How many who dwell upon the SANITY
and proverbial patience of Job realize
that Mrs. Noah is to be thanked for it
Few give her credit for schooling Job
to a spirit of subsection and detection
which made every calamity appear as
slight i'll comparison with the ratings of
his tempestuouS wife, who when he was
bereft of everything else on earth was
spared to distract his mind from a sense
of his sufferings and enable him to bear
them with proper meekneSS.
Socrates in Jobs Boat.
Scolding has seemed to be a soil in
which philosophy thrived, as witness
Socrates, than whom no living man was
probably ever more cruelty berated
Speaking of the wife of that great phil
osophical divine, John Wesley, who at the
age of 4S married a widow with four
children, Southey says:
by her outrageous jealousy and abom-
Unable temper she deserves to be classed
inta triad with Xantippe and the wife of
job"
The first husband of this vixen had
quickly succumbed to her tyranny, but
the good John Wesley patiently endured
it for twenty years when, no longer hav-
ing youthful encumbrances to burden
her, she abandoned her victim, taking
with her his papers and journals, the lat
ter of which he never recovered. Wesley
is probably in heaven now He had his
nell on earth.
Another of the worlds most eminent
preachers-Rey. George Whitefeld-
doubtless agreed with declaration OF
the afflicted Scaliger, made centuries
before:
"a wife is hectic fever and not to be
cured but by DEATH
A chronicier. referring to Whitefeld,
says of his wife: ''Her death in 100
set his mind much at rest" Gould he
have enjoyed this mental rest II he had
not experienced the opposite!
Scarcely a man capable of ever deliv-
ering lecture but has his name imprint
ed npon the back of book, and some
have lectured so we'll that their names
are craven even upon the public mlnd,
and to them the public hand has raised
up monuments IN marple dnu III uloIlIe
in token of appreciation. But VINO ever
saw a monument erected to that vast
multitude of lecturers whose eloquence
NAV have done more to shape the destl-
MES of the world than all the thunders
of the Roman Forum. the Athenaeum,
The Hague and Carnegie hall rolled INTO
one colossal synchronism of sound-Who
ever witnessed the unwilling OF a statue
to the Curtain Lecturer.
Lectures Not Sought.
And vet can any prejudiced man
ro;nt out class of lecturers whose
words have produced more powerful Ell
facts. more visible results or more last
ing impressions! /. ,oo
Trup men do not hasten to engage
front seats to hear these lecturers, out
it cannot be said that they near mem
without price. Sometimes II cos cosus hard anei
a good deal, and many have neen 1 Heatu
to remark that they ''felt like thlrty
cents after listening to one.
Most lecturers of public prominence
are philosophers as well-or ann TO oe'
Hegel gave the intellectual mlnds Oh del
many a twist IN elgnteeI thn univ
philosophical lectures, in when Tue olllS
thing clearly demonstrated TO MARY peo,
Mo was that he didn't know what he was
tpaiking about. Acurtain lecturer can prove roy,
in eighteen words that she thorough
IN IN understands Understand her thesis and, incide I1
tally. her audience, and no counter pf the
osophy has been known to sldet tr;r ere
cnrrent of her thoughts-and thelr eA-
nression-until she has completely elucl,
dotod her theme, Whether her eloquellee
no brief or far otherwise. her remains
are always to the point ana are ae ~
e cred ike grapeshot. with a view b to mrs
ting not only tie visible target, naa 4 to
many invisible ones as mlgnt n "a p1p,araiy
be around and whose presence - me- -
suspected.
A Fiendish Duchess.
A striking contrast exists pelM sns 'n Of
p WerIhoroush and Sarah, wife Of the 3ts
M Neat so1dierduke of that title, VINO IN IN
Satr. &c tba wrefched existence which she