The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-01-13
DR.. Marden's
Uplift Talks
BY oR'soN swETT mARoEN. ;
SHOULD NOT BE A DRUDGE OR A
DOLL.

instance, IL QOeSn 7 a a man TO get
SO much money that he becomes
ashamed of his old-fashioned wife
and no longer wants to trot in her So
ciety." s@ ..'
Not long ago q man who abandoned
his wife and who tried in every way
to provoke her to get a divorce from
him so he could marry a young and
attractive girl, plainly told her that
she was not good-looking or stylish
enough for him, that now that he had
money he wanted a wife who could
show off in society.
This poor woman had made all sorts
of sacrifices in their early days OF
struggle with poverty. For years she
had worked and, deprived herself OF
necessities to help her husband get a
start In the world, and to care for
and bring up his children without q
nurse or maid. She made a drudge
of herself, but when he had become
prosperous he had no use for the
WORKOUT wife,, with her burned-out
beauty and her wrinkles, which had
paid the price of a large, part Of his
prosperity; he wanted to cast her
aside for a young, fresh and attrac-
tive wife.
In the trial the wife said: Il
worked from seven in the morning un-
It'll eleven o'clock at night But now
that / am no longer needed in the bust
ness, he has heaped upon me insults
untold. He has neglected and failed
to properly provide for me.
HE repeatedly told me that I was
not fashionable enough for him." the
wife concluded. "He liked dressy
women. He took me to- one place and
pointed out q Miss K. and said he had
spent s400 wining and dining her"
The world will never know the tor
lures, q thousand times worse than
death itself, endured by wives Of
prosperous husbands, who so often
prefer suffering to scandal and en-
dure a living death rather than ex-
pose their husbands, who have been
fascinated by younger and more att
tractive women.
One of the most pathetic spectacles
In American life is that of the faded,
outgrown wife standing helpless, In
the shadow of her husbands pros
perity and power, having sacrificed
her youth, beauty and ambition
nearly everything that the feminine
mind holds dear-to enable an indif-
%ferent, selfish, british husband to get
a start in the world.
It does not matter that the wife
sacrificed her own opportunity for a
career, that she gave up her most
cherished ambition In order to make a
ladder for her selfish husband to as
cend by. When he has once gotten
to the top, like a willy, diplomatic
politician, he often kicks the ladder
down. He wants to make a show in
the world; he thinks only of himself.
His poor, faded, WORKOUT wife, stand
ing in his shadow, is not attractive
enough for him now that he has got
ten up in the world.
The selfish husband thinks that he
should have "a clear track for his am
bition, and that his wife should be
content, even grateful, to be allowed
to tag on behind and assist him in
every. possible way in what he con-
siders the grand life work Of both of
them-to make him the biggest man
possible. It does not even occur to
him that she, could have an ambition
yelling up within her heart. a long
ing to answer the call which runs in
her own blood, and a yearning to ex-
press it in some vocation as well
as he.
/ do not believe that the Creator
has limited one-half Of the human race
practically to one occupation, while
the other half has the choice of a
thousand. 2
But many of our men readers
will say, 'fs there any, grander pro-
fession in the world than that of home
making? Can anything, be more slim
5ulating, more eleyating than home
making and the rearing Of children?
How can such a vocation be narrow.
ing, mo%notonous?"
OF course It is grand. There is
nothing grander in the universe than
the work Of a true wife, a noble
mother. But it would require the con.
2stitution IF a Hercules, an infinitely
greater patience than that of a Job,
to endure such work with almost no
change or outside variety, year in and
year out, as multitudes of wives and.
mothers do.
The average man does not appre.
ciate how almost devoid of incentives
to observation-disclosures, to many-sided-
ness, to liberal growth, the home life
Of many women is. .
The business man and the profess
sional man are really in a perpetual
school, a great, practical university.
He is continually coming in contact
with new people, new things. being
nodded by a vast number of forces
which touch the wife in the
quiet home. F.
believe in marriage, but l do
not believe in that marriage which
p~aralyzes self-development, strangles
ambition, and discourages. evolution
and self-growth, which takes away
the life purpose. Nor is it necessary
fhof tho uyifo cho,,I6 u,orl, I;l,o 1ox,o