The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-04-17

The old superstition that the chief
end of wife is love has given the
world that loves that kills.
When we speak of a woman who
loves not wisely but too Well we
mean some poor, weak creature who
has let her heart run away with her
head; who has trusted too much and
been deceived.
But the real women who love not
wisely but too well' are the women
who make of their love grinding tyr
amy that holds their husband and
children just as much prisoners as if
they were locked up in steel barred
Jail; who make of their love an insur-
mountable barrier that stands forever
between husband and children and
achievement.
The old superstition that the chief
end of a wife and mother is to love
has made women believe that affection
is sort of universal panacea that you
only have to apply to domestic life,
and all is well.
Hence, if a woman knows in her
own soul that she loves her husband
well enough to die for him, she con-
siders that that state of feeling fulfills
all of her marital obligations. 1t isn't
necessary for her to bother herself
about keeping a neat clean house and
providing him with good, wholesome
food. 1t isn't necessary for her to be
| thrifty and industrious and a good
| manager On the contrary, she holds
that she can be lazy ana trifling, and
wasteful and extravagant, and poison
him with bad cooking. because he's the
| only man in the world to her. She
| thinks that love squares the account
with her triflingness.
A woman will even justify herself
for nagging her husband to death and
not giving him one inch of personal
/ nv 0lG.n l1@E
makes her so anxious about him that
| she can't avoid interfering with his
! every act.
VINO does not know somespoor, pit
| eous, henpecked man who does not
| dare to remain talking with friend
| five minutes after his wife expects him
to punch the home time clock, because
he knows that if he is half hour late
he will find his keeper walking the
floor and tearing her hair in FRENZY
lest he has been kidnapped on the
streets or has not had intelligence
enough to keep from being run over i?
Who has not seen the badgered look
on a mans face when his wife re-
minded him at table that everything
he wanted to eat was bad for his
stomach, and that he knew that smok-
ing made men nervous, and that a
| glass of beer was the way all drunk
ards started?
Who does not know the shudderine
| jealousy, who would no more dare to
have good looking young girl
| stenographer in his office than he
would to place a dynamite bomb I'M
der his swivel chair: and who cannot
| even appear interested in his dinner
partners converse ton, or dance twice
at party with the same woman
without the certainty of paying for il
| with a scene at home?
Who does not know the man who's
aG cd NHT1n
tons crushed by his wife's love
which interfered with his advance
ment at every step, and was like the
Old Man of the Sea on his back when
he tried to climb?
Who has not known some mother
| who wrecked her children's lives be-
cause she kept them tied to her apron
strings when they wanted to go out
into the world and seek their for
| tunes?
These are the women who love not
wisely but too well, and their love
is a curse on the individual on whom
it is bestowed far more blighting than
any hate could be.
Among my acquaintance is a fat
placid middle-aged woman of this
sort, a woman who puts herself upon
the pedestal of wifehood and mother
hood, and makes a great virtue of her
perfect devotion to her family, and
thinks it terrible that any woman
should have any interest outside OF
| the home.
If you should tell this woman that
her love for her husband and children
had been the greatest possible mis-
fortune that could have happened tc
them instead of being a blessing tc
them, she would not believe you. II
you should tell her that she was q
vampire woman far more cruel ano
constituencies than the rag and q
bone, and a hank of hair" lady OF
Kipling's immortal verse and Burnt
!, Aef nj eI,a 10 =
beyond measure.
But it is true. She has lived by
. sucking the very life blood out OF
those nearest and dearest to her. She
has grown fat and comfortable and
calm by robbing them of the hopes
! and aspirations on which their soul.
were set. She has sacrificed every.
thing that. was worth while in then
to her own selfish pleasure.
This woman married in her youth
| a brilliant and talented young doctor
He had already made a fine start il
his profession. He had begun to ge
articles in the medical journals anC