The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1910-09-30

At dinner party the other night
the conversation turned on what
moralists call the divorce evil, and
the various remedies suggested for
1t. The subject was threshed round
and round, until finally a man turned
to the placid old faced woman at his
side and said:
"An ounce of practice ic worth a
ton Of theory.
Mrs. Blank, you appear to have come
nearer to having solved this modern
riddle of the Sphinx than any one
else Of whom l know. oh. daughter
Of wisdom. tell us your secret?"
The woman thus addressed smiled
an enigmatical little smile, and then
replied:
"Oh. like all other great discov-
cries, it's very simple. The secret of
domestic happiness lies in following
the line Of least resistance. and in
husbands and wives accepting each
other as they are, and making the
best of the good that is in them. in
stead of trying to- fashion the party
Of the other part over into something
he or she can never be-"
THAT sounds very complicated to
me. Also that one must have passed
into the sanctified state before one
could put your theory into operation"
protested another woman.
"Not at ALL" replied Mrs. Blank.
ION the contrary, you will never know
what peace, and rest, and tranquility
of spirit are until you have tried it.
You remember what the Bible says
about 1t being hard to kick against
the pricks?' Well, that's just what we
do as long as We try to correct the
faults and weaknesses of our husbands
or wives.
1--WE are kicking against the pricks.
We are striving to do the impossible,
we are fighting battle in which we
lose every skirmish, and we are keep
ing ourselves stirred up, aggravated.
exasperated all the time, and putting
ourselves in the most unlovable posi-
BILE attitude before the one whose af-
lection means most to us. Really, We
are killing love, for devotion can sur
vive death, or absence, or sacrifice,
any thing but perpetual daily nagging
and fault finding"
From the critic on the hearthstone,
good Lord deliver U.S." murmured
man fervently.
Amen" responded a woman.
II speak by the book" went on
Mrs. Blank, "for my panacea for do
nestle misery was the result of my
own experience. When was a young
woman married a man--God rest his
soul-who was one of Natures noble
men. There never was a man who
was more true and honorable. more
generous and tender, more of a man
in every way than he. 1 was devoted
to him, and our life together would
have been idyllic except that he was
So untidy about his clothes.
81 had been brought up to put great
stress upon the way one dressed, and
ones appearance. My husband lit
SioAiy tOOh III IAOuSuS VI hh<bt hC
wore, not even to see that it was
clean. His linen was always mussed
and rumpled, his ties were strings,
his coat looked as if he had slept
in 1t. and If there was any possibil-
ity of his getting on the wrong COM
bination of garments, and showing up
at breakfast in his dress clothes and
at a ball in a khaki shooting suit,
you could count on him doing it.
GAIL of this distressed me very much
before we were married, but with the
fatuous egotism of a young girl was
sure that the minute l married him
could change all of that and turn him
into Beau Brummel. OF course, the
minute the marriage ceremony was
over / started blithely in to reform
him, and for the first five years of our
marriage l made the poor mans life
perfectly miserable to him about his
clothes.
81 went out and bought him. my
he should wear, and made him wear
them, in spite of his protest that they
choked him. Every time he got a
spot on his clothes he was due for a
lecture from me. He couldn't even lie
down, or sit down, without my re-
minding him that he was spelling the
crease in his trousers, or running the
shape of his coat. simply bounded
him about his appearance, and the re-
suit was that 1 was in a temper three
fourths Of the time, and he was sulky,
or hurt, or offended, and We were both
so nervous and irritable that we were
literally ready to fight at the drop of
hat.
Finally, one day I had enough
sense to perceive that / was running
my whole married life without get
ting any results, because / could no
more have turned my husband into a
fashion plate dude than l could have
converted him into grand piano, SO
just determined to give 1t up and
to call off the reforming business.
And / did.
II did what could privately in the