The Washington herald., 1911-11-08
IT ISN'T THE HARDSHIPS OF
MARRIED LIFE WE RESENT
The Sacrifices Demanded by Poverty Would be Robbed
of All Their Bitterness and Made Worth While by
Just Word of Love and Appreciation.

couldn't give her the clothes and the jew
els and the automobiles that richer wom-
en- had.
1 said that I believed that most Of the
morbid, unhappy, dissatisfied wives that
we knew would find homemaking the
most interesting and thrilling occupation
In the world instead OF the dreariest and
duIlest business extant, If only their hus-
bands had the human intelligence to real
ize how disheartening it is to labor for
boss who always bats you when you
make a mistake and never praises you
for triumph.
The Reason why.
I said that women found marriage a
failure because their husbands did not
think it worth while to pay them COM
pill ,nts or to tell them that they loved
them or that they ever perceived that
their wives were bearing burdens cheer
fully under which a hero might have
tainted and fallen.
I said that it was one thing for a
woman to slave ana work eighteen hours
a day, for her TO wear shabby clothes,
and live in a cheap little home, for a
man who told her every day how It hurt
him that he could not give her every
pretty jewel he saw. and dress her like
a princess, and save her dear hands from
any labor, and it was another thing TO be
poor, and shabby. and hardworked for
the sake of a man who grunted and grum-
bled every time he was asked for a penny,
and who never noticed that his wife was
offering up her youth and beauty as a
sacrifice before him.
|. In a word, my contention was that 1t
isn't the hardships OF married life that
men and women resent. 1t is the fact
that husbands and wives do not appre-
ciate the sacrifices that are made for
them, and that it Is only Iove-love that
expresses itself in words and deeds-that
robs these sacrifices OF their bitterness
and makes them worth while.
1t is always pleasant to have our the
ories oDnfirmed by actual experience, and
so am going to quote a part Of letter
that have just received. bearing upon
this article to which I have referred.
The letter is from a poor woman who
works in a muslin underwear factory,
where she runs a power machine for fifty
long hours a week for the wage Of S.
Married a Teamster.
fellow. a teamster, who gets so a week.
and they got married. Having a lot OF
common sense the girl did not give up
her place at the factory when she mar
ried. but continued to work, and the two
OF them are boarding in a comfortable
place, and saving every cent possible OF
their combined earnings to start a little
home. as they did not want to begin
housekeeping overwhelmed with debt to
the instaIlment furniture man. This
woman, whose husband has been able to
give her nothing but love, and who still
has to slave over her sewing machine,
writes me this:
I'VE have been married over a year
now, and we have never had a cross
word, and I did not know that any one
in this world could be so happy as I am
We have nothing that rich people
have, but my husband does not go tu
saloons or places OF that sort, and he
| never goes out without me.
He makes very little money, but he
gives me every cent he gets.
HE can't give me fine clothes, but he
loves me with a love that few men ever
give a woman. Every day he tells me
that he never had anything but me, and
that I am the best thing that God ever
gave him.
Every night when we come home
from our work he kisses my hands that
have toiled so hard all day.
DO you think that I mind working
| for a man like that? Do you think that
| 1t hurts me that he can't give me fine
clothes when he gives me a love like
I1dJ. NO. q InOuSdnO times no. f1lB love
makes everything worth while"
This is a bona fide letter. In It the
writer says that her husband was left
an orphan when a little child, and that
he never had any opportunity to get
an education, or even learn a trade.
Perhaps he is ignorant IN books, but
he had the supreme wisdom to solve the
great matrimonial problem that has
stumped the wisest- philosophers and So
biologists when he kissed the work-hard-
ened hands OF his wife. That kiss made
| her willing to work them to the bone
| for him. And the same thing would
have the same effect on any other
| living woman.
Let all the unhappily married follow
| the example Of this couple, for it's love,
and only love, that makes the domestic
wheel go round without creaking.