The Washington herald., 1918-12-09

! Fltteen years ago, when they were
married, they were a poor young
couple with scarcely a penny with
which 10 bless theselves. They went
TO live in a little two-by-four fiat.
J and the husband worked early and
late, and the wife did her own cook
ing, washing and sewing. and scrimped
on every nickel.
The young husband had brains and
energy. and ambition, and in fifteen
years of pushing hard work he has
made his way from Grub street to
the sunny side of Easy street. Today
he is at the head of his own business.
a comparatively rich man. and is max
ing money with both fists. In few
more years he will be a very rich
man.
This mans childhood was hard and
stunted by poverty His boyhood and
early youth were filled with struggle
and strain, with strenuous effort and
self denial. Now that his efforts have
borne fruit he naturally wishes 10 eat
of it. He wishes to live luxuriOusly.
to have a beautiful home. to wear
good clothes, to have a good motor
car. 10 eat good food, to travel. and
do the things that he has always
wa anted 10 do all Of his life.
He loves his wife dearly. He sp-
preciates 10 the fullest all the help
she gave him in their early married
life. and he wants 10 dress her beau
tifully, and for her to go about with
him and have a good time, too. But
while the husband has expanded with
his prosperity 10 meet his new life,
the wife has still stayed spiritually
and mentally back in the little two
by-four fiat in which they started.
So far the husband has given in 10
his little piker wife and has stayed
put by the dull little family radiator
OF an evening. But he is getting very
restless, and those who are watching
this little domestic tragedy in the
making are wondering how long il
will be before he will break away and /
find some other woman who will help |
him get some fun out of his money l
by spending it.
When he discovers the lady il will |
break his wife's heart. and she will |
consider herself a martyr, but. in real !
ity she will be the one who is TO /
blame for the catastrophe, because 1
her husband tried to take her along |
with him into pleasant pastures. and |
she refused 10 go.
She is so stupid that she cannot |
see that man has 10 have a play |
mate as we'll as a work mate and that |
if a wife will not play with her hus- 1
band he is very apt to find some other |
woman who will. Also, she is so |
ignorant Of life that she does not
know that man always spends his |
money on some woman, and that II |
his wife will not let him spend il on |
her. some other woman will.
II is a matter OF common observa-
ton that a mans success in the out |
side world so often brings disaster
upon him, and that about the time |
the self made man acquires a place |
in the sun he generally also acquires /
a divorce.
This is invariably set down as the
mans fault, and many tears are shed |
over the pathetic lot of his forsaken |
old wife. The truth is that in the 1
majority of cases the blame is wholly 4
the wife's. and the reason that she
has been left behind is because she
refused to come along. The man
would have been glad for her to come
along with him IL she would have
done so, but she refused. She wouldn't /
keep step with him. She wouldn't
prepare herself to go where he was
going, and the result was the fate
that happend to all laCgards. The pro-
cession swept on without her.
In such cases the husband is Just
as much entitled 10 our sympathy as
the wife. II it is sad for the woman
who is left behind, II is equally sad
for the man who must go on without
her. He too is lonely, and his lone
illness is tinged by a sense of injustice
because he knows that the tragedy
might have been averted IL only his
wife had had the strength to break
away from old ideas and habits that
she had. and IL she had had the pluck
and industry to improve herself and
raise herself as he has done.
The shadow and the triumph OF
many a great man that takes all the
glory out of his day is the grubby
little wife of his youth, who doesn't |
even try to understand the things
that interest him, and who nags and
frets for her petty economies, and
clings to provincial ideas that she
tries TO force him down TO.
Women are more completely the vic
Tins of habit than men are. They /
find 1t harder to change their point i
of view and their ways OF doing things 4
than men do, but unless they acquire
dexterity in adjusting themselves to
thsir husbands sRn6 their hn&hand.'