The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1910-01-11
on the lips of a woman speaking of a
mani. "evermore tattling.'
The Silent Husband.


He has no notion of playing converse
tional parlor tricks to amuse his FAM
ilv. he has a mind above the little
tittle-tattle Of domestic gossip; 1T IS
ukeIv that he will not even be in
clined for conversation on equal terms.
At best, if he is in mood of speclal
amiability. he will find it restful to
let his wife chatter amusingly, pro-
vided that she tells him only the
cheerful things of the day, and keeps
her grievances to herself unless she Is
CAV enough and clever enough to let
| them evaporate in kind of humorous
essence in the telling.
With such a wife the hours pass
pleasantly at times, though, as he says,
she is such a chatterbox that he can't
get a word in edgeways. But II she
is tired or cross or out of sorts there
is no reciprocity; if she cannot enter
tain she will not be entertained-the
husband will subside into that silent
tranquility that is to him the ideal OF
happiness at, home.
| We see them at home like this, and
we hear them inveighing against the
talking sex, and the odd thing is that
we never question their attitude. 1t
never occurs to us to set side by slde
the picture of our daily life and theirs
Is man so silent in his business life!
The doctor, the lawyer, the minister,
the banker, the merchandise they 40
their business without words; are they
not continually thrown into intercourse
| with their fellow men, and when man
kind is gregarious, does it not md
itself composed of talking animals!
In the stock exchange the talking OF
mon is like the sullen roar of a great
sea: on the doors Of business ofnces
where petticoats never penetrate
there are pathetic appeals for silence.
is it not the experience of many
woman who goes to consult man as
TO her affairs that he meets her with
| a preconceived idea of her case, that
he will not listen to her. but piods
along in conversational burrows OF
dreary platitudes while she waits and
watches the speeding clock, vainly
trying to find an opportunity or ex-
plaining to him things as they really
are? She is lucky if at the end he
docs not bow her out unheard, and
she can imagine the fervent eXclawa-
ton: THANK Heaven, that woman's
gone at last! What creatures they are
to talk"
"Strone Silent Men,"
But if in his business he Is really
one of the strong, silent men, that
the woman novelist, following tradition
and not her own observations, loves to
describe, what of his leisure? DO men
snend their hours of pastime alone,
and if they are together do they never
/ talk? Business men in trains and
trans. business men in restaurants anc
smoke rooms, business men yearning
bv the hour in their own den, do they
really expect us to know anything OF
their habits there and to believe that
thew forgather just for the sake OF
following their precious cult of 81
lence?
Why, men talk Of everything, every
6no hn a nm
and navy public events, cricket and
horse-racing, art and literature-they
don't have views for the sake of keep
ing silent about them. Their lives are
full and varied; they skim from the
surface of one interest to another,
their chums are chosen instinctively
from among those who can best dis
cuss the world and it's affairs from
their own point of view or have a
healthy tussle with them from another
Since the Stone Age men have been
going about talking in pulpits, on ros-
trums, in market places, and in quiet
corners. and whenever they have been
in want of subject of conversation
they have remembered their women
folk at home, and that there is no
peace there at all because women are
such creatures to talk" If they have
had pens as well as tongues they have
very likely set down their views in lit
erature, and the funny thing is not
that they have believed what they say,
but that they have got women to agree
with them.
Meantime. the women folk have stay
ed at home for the most part They
went to church, of course (and there
they had the privilege of hearing a
man TALK, and sometimes, if they were
emancipated, they were taken to lee
tures-by men-or if they were of high
social rank they were permitted to