The Washington herald., 1917-06-06

good husband for some unknown lit
tie girl She could teach him the
elemental moralities, and that a man
Is bastard who deliberately wrecks
woman's life by marrying her If he
is drunken or diseased.
She could teach her son the chiv-
aIrous attitude toward women. She
could teach him to be generous and
unselhsh to his wife. She could teach
him all the little things. the little at
love, and she could make him such
a husband as would make his wife's
heart sing for JOY.
But does she do this? She does
not: Nobody ever even heard a
ing a good husband, or considering
his wife in any way. The mother
lets her boy grow up selfish and sur
ly and filled with contempt for wom-
en- and their ways and he marries
siderate a husband as his father has
been before him.
Nor Is the mother any more con-
cerned about providing some hapless
young man with a good wife than
she Is some unfortunate young wom-
an with a good husband. She raises
her daughter to be spoiled and ex-
travagant and lazy and shiftless.
with no consideration for any other
human being on earth but herself.
how to cook or to manage a house.
so that her husband will be sure Of
comfortable home She doesn't
teach her daughter low to sew or
money SO as to get the best out Of it,
so that she may be a real helpmeet
to her husband.
On the contrary, nothing is more
eommon than TO hear mothers say.
I'm not going to teach my daughters
how to cook. Thsre'll be time enough
for them TO learn that after they get
married, or I'm going to indulge my
daughters in everything can. II
will be time enough for them to do
ried," and the mothers dump these
selfish. undisciplined, Incompetent girls
on unsuspecting men without a pang
OF remorse for the misery they are
inflicting On the poor husbands.
Among my acquaintance is a splen-
did young fellow full OF ambition and
energy and talent, who would go far
except for the handicap he carries
in the shape Of a wife. whose mad
in debt. Whenever, his wife is de
MED anything she howls and shrieks
and makes such scenes that the poor
husband gives in at last through sheer
exhaustion. And her mother backs
her up in her tantrums by saying. .'of
course, Tom l known you can't AFFORD
IT, but you II have to get ii for GLADYS
oecaSse she has never been denied
anything in her life. or forced to do
anything she didn't want to do
What way to bring up a wife for
a man; What a crime! Murder would
be less cruel thing to do than to
raise q girl to make some man mis-
erable for Life, or q boy to be the
kind OF a husband that makes a
woman wish that her bridal veil had
been her shroud.
And here Is the incongruous thing
about 1t all: The very mothers who
are raising up the sort of husbands
and wives who will be a curse TO some
other woman's children, are praying
that their own children will get exact
ly the other kind of matrimonial
partners
Is it not time that women tried
to be Just In this matter. and that
every mother had It on her conscience
to make her boy and girl such a hus-
band and wife as she would be will
ing to see them marry?
When that time comes we shall
have the domestic millennium and
marriage will cease to be a failure.
Copyright. 1917. BY the whesler Syndicate Incl