El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-01-09
Why My Wife Left Me
The Husband Who Neglected Her Tells His Story.

but our wives come to US little, young
inexperienced, ignorant girls InaL are
uutty in our hands, to be made INTO
Whatever we see fit, and-GOd forgive
us for the bungling jobs we turn out.
Il married as sweet and good a little
girl as ever lived, and, like so many
other men who go from small country
towns to the city to seek their Tor
tunes I found her back home when
I returned to my native village Tor
vacation one summer.
ELLEN was one of the girls who are
typical of the American small towns,
girl who is fresh as rose and 1raak
as a boy; who has lived a life absU-
lutely untrammeled by conventions, be-
cause she lived in a community where
everybody knew her and her father
and grandfather before her, and no
one misinterpreted any act, but who,
for all her audacity and herr own be-
lief that she is worldly wise, IS as
ignorant Of real life as baby.
ALSO Fond OF Pleasure.
ELLEN was all of this, and she was
also pleasure loving, full of high
spirits, and the central figure in every
party and dance and picnic and res
tivity of any kind that occurred IN the
little town.
she had lived. you see, a life that
was full of wholesome pleasures and
activities and cOmpaniOnship, and with
out realizing its cruelties or dangers,
and loneliness of a. great city, where
she knew no one but me, had nothing
to do, and no pleasures except such as
1 could arrange for her.
AT the best, this is a terrible ex-
perience for any young woman A
man who has no family connection in
a city never realizes how few people
he knows until he tries to arrange
social circle for a woman. I wanted
Ellen to make friends. but I had no
friends whom I 1On16 fmfronnqA TO her
except men. L actually didn't know
but two women well enough to ask
them to call on my wife, and they
We're two staid old ladies' who had
nothing in common with a young girl
"Of course if I had realized then the
danger of the situation as 1 realize it
now, I should have moved. heaven and
earth to have provided Ellen with some
companions of her own age and sex
and some normal and healthful Occu-
patton. But I didn't. I was egOtistic
enough to think that just being mar
ried to me was amusement and career
enough for a lifetime for any woman.
and that when 1 was away from her
she could want no other pursuit more
fascinating than contemplating my
many charms and virtues.
so / introduced my men friends to
Ellen, and 1 watched with artless
pleasure their admiration Of her fresh
young beauty and naive manners, and
We made up all sorts of parties to-
gether and had a jolly good time.
Il Had To Be Away
Unfortunately my business required
my being away from home a great deal,
and so as 1 was not willing to leave
Ellen alone in an apartment, We lived
in a hotel. where she had absolutely
nothing on earth to do but to kill time
i'm itself the most hazardous Of all
pursuits for a woman.
Ellen grew eXtravagant because she
had nothing to do that was amusing
but to shop. and nothing to think about
but enhancing her good looks. She
became frivolous. because she breathed
nothing but an atmosphere of frivOlity.
She made acquaintance with other
women similarly situated as she was,
and beacme a bridge fiend, and a fire.
quenter Of the tea dances at our own
and other fashionable hotels.
Without her realizing it. or my
knowing it, she was drawn into a
sporty set of fast men and women, the
sort of men who prey upon foolish and
vain women, and who find their deca-
dent amusement in home wrecking, and
the kind Of women who are always do
ing a hazardous balancing act on the
outer edge of respectability. What
chance had my poor little country
Ellen among these wolves Of society /
Not so much as lamb in a. den of !
ravenous wild beasts.
And I wasn't there to protect her,
or even to warn her of her danger.