The Oklahoma City times. [volume] (Oklahoma City, Okla.) 1908-1984, 1918-06-10

IT HE question Of how much liberty
husbands and wives should allow
each other is one that is never
debated in the family circles, because
neither husband nor wife has the Sght-
est intention Of permitting the party
Of the other part to draw single free
breath II he or she can prevent 1t.
The average married couple conceive
of home as penal institution to
which men and women are sentenced at
the altar to serve life term at hard
labor and each one believes that he
or she holds a divine commission TO
be the jailer OF this prison house, and
see that the other does not slip fet-
ters for even a moments res, and re-
taxation
Camouflage as Duty
OF course they do not put the mat
ter thus brutally 10 themselves. They
camUuflage their domestic tyranny un-
der the names OF duty love and moral
ity, and other high sounding altruis-
tic terms, but when you scrape off the
paint and come down TO the real thing
you find that the ideal OF the perfect
wife, or the perfect husband that prac-
tically every man and woman cherish
is an abject slave who hasn't enough
spirit TO even make fight for a latch
key.
Over the portals that lead to the holy
estate might be written, abandon all
personal freedom ye who ENTER here
Never more can you 20 and come a.
you please even for single day. Never
more will you have even an afternoon
off as does a butler or cook Never
more can you have friends Of your owr
choosing, or do a single solitary thing
without giving elaborate explanation
before and after you do it.
Marriage Means Jail.
You are married and your dear be.
loved husband or wife considers that
1t is his or her sacred duty to deprive
you OF your freedom.
Don't say this isn't true because you
know it is true. Don't say you don't
treat your wife or husband that way
because you do, just as far as you are
able
WHAT else, except the subtle de-
w termination to deprive her of the
freedom that financial independence
gives, makes a man refuse TO make his
~iic an allowance? 1t isn't because
the man thinks that his wife would
waste money Il she had it in her hand
for he knows her to he thrifty and eco.
nomical and able to get more out Of a
dollar than he does II isn't because
he thinks he saves anything by dolinf
out the money penny by penny to her
or having things charged on a bill, be
cause he knows that both ways make
for unwise spending,
Fettsred to Meal Ticket
It's just because so long as his wife
never has a dollar of her own, she is
Just as much fettered to her meal ticke,
as any slave ever was lashed to his
galley oar. She cant even think a
thought without reference to her master
or take a street car ride without his
kind permission,
Why docs a married woman who Is
of mature age, and good sense and
Judgment have to ask her husbands
permission to buy new hat or dress, or
60 on weeks trip to visit her mother
1t Is because her husband allows her
no personal freedom, and the queer part
of il is that he Is so accustomed &c
thinking OF ,matrimony as & state oI
bondage that ii never even occurs tC
the man that he is inflicting a crue
and inhuman hardship on his wife, snt
that she beats her wings against III,
bars of her cage, no matter how much
he had gilded them.
And women are just as loath L
grant their husbands any liberty as mer
are to give their wives any freedom
Look at the way wives make their hus
bands punch the time clock. Observ,
how women freeze out all OF their hus
bands old friends. Notice how sus
picious wives are Of every acquaintane,
their husband has whom they have no
previously o. kd,
IF a man wants to take his oldes
clothes and 90 off somewhere fish
in, instead of going to fashionabl
summer resort, does his wife bid him &
to it and have a good time and com
back rested and refreshed1 She doe
not And he goes with her, cursin
and blasphemng, to a fashionable sum
mcr resort. II man likes unconven
tional, Bohemian sort of people Will
his wife prefers the prayer meetin
crowd, is he free to spend a happy eve
ming now and then among his oil
cronies9 Well | trow not When h
does he has to make a sneak Of i
and tell his beloved Maria enough fib
to send his soul to perditon.