Omaha daily bee., 1915-01-18

S S1os Snd 't inc 0' @ai. Sg&9@Es
| lantry that | did to
any one Of my women clients l should
have made Of our married life a success
instead OF the failure that it was.
When / married Annie she was a
! pretty. bright light hearted GIRL fond OF
| the gay things of life, but sensible and
tactical. and willing TO de her part in
tie matrimonial partnership. She was a
| good housekeeper a thrifty manager.
but not one Of the sort of women who
reek of butchers bills and domesticity,
for she had all sorts Of outside interests.
In short she was the kind of woman who
makes not only good wife but a good
cnum-if her husband lets her.
Now, l am nervous and irritable by
nature, and in those first years of our
married life was overworklng, straining
every nerve almost to the breaking point
to get a solid foothold in my profession.
This made me still more nervous and
irritable, and IN vulgar parlance. took
It out Upon my innocent and unoffending
wife.
! II realized that in my dealings with
my law partners I had TO be self-con-
/ trolled and reasonable. knew that had
TO turn a suave and smiling face upon
our clients / dared not flash out angry
ami sarcastic speeches upon the outside
world, but could see no reason for maxi
/ ing myself pleasant and agreeable at
home. nor was there anything to prevent
my making cruel speeches to my wife.
she was my property. She belonged
TO me. She had to stand whatever treat
ment 1 accorded her. She couldn't knock
me down for an insulting speech as a
man would have done. nor could she pick
/ UP and leave as would a servant to whom
l had been offensive.
! "Ot course. 1 didn't think out these
eowardly arguments at the time, but
! they were subsoonsciously in my mind as
they are in the. mind of every other
, grouchy husband who takes advantage
, of his position as a husband to treat his
wife worst than he does any mental he
employs.
so I became a domestic DR.. Jekyll and
MIR. Hyde. Out i'm the world 1 was cele-
brated as being a good fellow among
men. Women praised my gallantry and
told my wife how them envied her being
married to a man who paid such charm-
/ ing compliments, and who was so gentle
and attentive TO women was also much
esteemed as dinner guest because of
my geniality and wit and my mex
/ haustlble fund of good stories.
And these people who found me so
amiable in public never even guessed
that in private was as surly as sore
headed bear and that l Invested myself
OF my good manners at my own door even
as I took off my hat.
81 had wooed my wife with tenderness
and gentle consideration and fiery ardor,
else she had not married me. and l can
well remember her hurt bewilderment
when. soon after we were married. ]
dropped the mask and let her see the
unlovely side of my nature. Something
had gone wrong at the office and !
came home seething with the fury had
had TO keep suppressed all day.
,"Annie came joyously 10 meet me, bub-
bling over with some little plan she had
made don't know vet why | did It,
for she had done nothing to provoke
me- Perhaps it was because a mean soul
has a kind OF 10Y in hurting anyone In
It's power, just as a brute Kicks around
lhis dog, but l turned on my wife with
torrent OF abuse that made her shrink
away from me as from a mailman
And that was the beginning. The bars
were down then. Poor little Annie be-
came the escape valve Tor my temper
land nerves. Whatever knocks the out
side world handed me I passed on TO her.
II rich Mrs. Smith tried my patience
went home with a scowl on my face
that made my wife afrail to speak TO me.
II I lost case took cut my chagrin
by making bitter and sarcastic speeches
to my wife. II one 81 my partners called
my attention so a mistake had made, be
I 9TH ssasr viii n ~
criticisms
''rhere were days and days in which
= indulged myself in sullen grouehes In
: which I would not speak TO her except
20 return an irritable answer To some
louestion. There were times when RACED
like a lunatic over the merest trifle that
had gone wrong There were other times
when / stabbed her 10 the heart with
cruel speeches-and the pity Of Il all Is
( that / didn't know what I was ooing.
didn't saxen realize that ! should have
been less Of a brute II / had beaten her
! phyhcauy than I vas to continually
flay her with my temper.
"stln less did 1 realize that ! was muir
! ldering love l thought in my museuline
eRotlsm that a woman went on adoring
her husband no matter how he treated
, hsr.-I know better now. for one day
/. Annie left me.
t gwen a worm viii turn she said.
4 i have stood your abuse as long as
can. and I am COINS away where shall
D al least receive eivility from those with
whom 1 am associated. In passion Of
, remorse I told her OF my love ana my
I repentance. hut IL was too late. She had
come 10 hate me with a concentrated bit
4 terness with which a woman only hates
the man that she has loved"