Evening journal., 1912-02-24
SPOILED HUSBANDS
BY The REV. r. L. JACKSON

For a long time I have been trying
70 get up enough courage to write
couple of articles; one on spoiled hus-
bands, and the other on spoiled wives.
The requisite courage has at last come
to handle the husbands. Just when /
shall be sufficiently emboldened to
do justice to their better halves,
cannot say. Perhaps Immediately be-
fore starting on my summer vacation,
may feel equal TO the undertaking.
Robert Louis Stevenson does not
speak very encouragingly Of the met
amorphosis a man undergoes when he
passes from bachelor to a Benedict
In his Virginibus Puerisque, he says:
I'm marriage, a man becomes slack
and selfish, and undergoes fatty de-
generation of his moral being. The air
Of the fireside withers out all the fine
wildipgs of his heart He is 50 com.
Portable and happy that he begins TO
prefer comfort and happiness to
everything else, his wife included
Twenty years ago, this man was
equally capable of crime or heroism;
now he is fit for neither His soul is
asleep and you may speak without
contraint--you will not wake him."
quote the foregoing. not because
altogether endorse it, but because 1t
serves as an interesting send-of to
my subject In all fairness, it behooves
me to preface this hazardous excursus
with the qualifying statement that
am acquainted with many husbands
whose wives far from having spoiled
them, have made them largely what
they are-strong, manly, courageous
men. They give the lie to all that
Stevenson says. Marriage has put a
finer edge on all their faculties, has
strung their energies to a keener ten
sion, has impaired to them the self
sacrificing spirit; in short, it has quite
substantially re-organized them, and
let us be honest enough to credit the
transformation to the wife. Lucky men
to get such women! But all men are
not so lucky Some Of them have the
misfortune to marry women who suf-
fer them to undergo the degeneration
Stevenson speaks Of.--women who
have not the force Of character to hold
them rigidly to lofty standards of con-
duct. Many a husband is pampered
into a moral slackness pitiful to be-
hold He is babied into an invalidism
of the will that makes Of him the ver-
lest cypher when causes Of great. pith
and moment challenge him Let me H.
lustrate. The citizens Of Wilmington
will soon be called together to discuss
the new proposed charter. Let us sup
pose that IL is the evening Of a meet
ing called for that purpose. John has
about made up his mind to go, but
/ Mary, his wife, says: my dear: Don'i
60 out tonight An east wind is blow
ing; you may catch a cold. Besides
you look tired Draw up your chair by
the fire and take Il easy tonight. OF
the table you will find the last mum
Der Of Everybody's." I need not tel
you the rest, Wilmington is full o
Johns with such Marys for wives
Now, II they were the women the,
should be. they would say to their hus
bands 60, by all means!" The,
would urge them to interest them
selves in every good movement
What is true in regard to civic af
fairs, is also true in regard to religi
GUS affairs Given a tactful, courage
Gus, oonsecratod woman, and, in tn
course Of time, her husband can b.
won to Christ Given one who is timid
shrinking and negative and humanl.
speaking, there is little chance Of hi
changing his attitude. Again ant
again could we ministers be instru
mental in bringing men into tn
church had we the help of their wives
or course, this does not always fol
low
In conclusion let me appeal to mar
ried women TO do all in their powe
to make their husbands nobly unset
fish and heroic Sympathize with then
in their struggles, but do not suife
them to become slack and nervous
Hold them to the highest ideals. De
mand of them their best. II you ar
married to a man who seems bent o
becoming stagnant and selfish, void @
heroic enterprise, and high enthusi
asm, for the salvation Of his soul, d
something.