Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-03-18
ONE of the most amazing things

~ NE of the most amazing things
in the world is why married
people who are, otherwise,
well-bred and good-mannered, So
often fight in public.
Matrimony is, of course, dull
and drab state of existence when
it slides into the long, long trail
that goes winding through the year,
and nobody would interfere with the
pleasures of the man and woman
who seek to vary it's monotony by
little scrap now and then.
But surely there Is ample oppor-
tunity for these domestic bouts to
be held in privacy, in the time which
husband and wife perforce spend
at home, and when the doors can
be shut, and the blinds pulled down,
and the key holes plugged up so
that neither, sight nor sound of the
encounter will penetrate to the out
side world.
To inflict these affairs on the
innocent bystander is a criminal
cruelty to dumb animals, for there
is no other situation in life that
is so acutely embarrassing, nor So
filled with poignant and helpless
the French sense, at quarrel be-
tween a married couple.
Neither discretion nor tact Of
fers the victim any safe way of es-
cape. To take either side is to in
wife assault and battery. The lady
may call her husband a brute, but
if you agree with her she will turn
upon you like a wildcat, and tell
you tt her husband is a perfect
gentleman, and that you are beast
of low degree yourself to traduce
that noble and generous man.
The husband may say that ~
wife is a pin-headed idiot. and de-
mand of heaven to know why he
was ever fool enough to marry her.
but if you assent to his estimate
of his spouse he will accuse you Of
being a jealous cat, if you are a
woman, and punch your nose for in
sulting the pearl of her sex If you
are a man. In either case you will
have made two enemies for life, for
there is this popularity about a
husband-and-wife quarrel-that 1t
brooks no interference and both COM
batants invariably turn upon the out
slider who butts into it.
Nor is it any safer to try to pour
oil upon the troubled waters. No
hand is artful enough to apply the
lubricant just where the friction is.
so the only thing that the unfor-
tunate third party can do is to keep
still, and noncommital, and preserve
an unarmed neutrality until the
storm has blown over.
It is a far from exhilarating ex
perience, however, and nobody's idea
of a pleasant and enjoyable time, yet
it is one of the social martyrdoms
that we are all called to go through
far too often.
All of us know married people
who are really charming, cultivated,
delightful people, who would be the
most agreeable of companions eX-
cept for the bad habit they have
formed of fighting in public, and
which makes them wet blanket every
festive occasion which they attend.
These people will take you out in
their car, and you will be having a
most beautiful, time, bowling along a
lovely road, through exquisite seen
cry, and listening to their witty
chatter. Suddenly some foolish
question comes up about a turn in
the road, or one who owns certain
estate, or how many miles they made
on their last ride-and biff! bang!
they are at it, hammer and tongs.
They say the most insulting things
Of each other. They make the most
criminal charges against each other.
They delve down into the past and
drag out family skeletons that have
been locked in their closets for years
and years, then just as you think