The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-08-18
The American Husband Is The Best In World-But

A Paris newspaper recently asked its feminine readers which nation, in their opinion, sproduoed the best husbands, and the reply was almost unanimous: America"
 No wonder. When the foreign wom- an hears of the freedom that Amer tcan women have at home; when she sees the American women travelling alone in Europe while her husband stays at his business to earn the money to pay for her trip; when she beholds the husband meekly toddling around after his wife with his hand in his pocket ready to pay her ex- travangant bills, and when she notes how the American woman is spoiled and indulged by her husband, 1t is no wonder that she thinks that the American husband Is the fairy prince that every young girl dreams of marrying.
 And she's dead right. The best hus- band in the world Is the American husband. No other man in the world is so generous to his wife, so kind. so considerate. so chivalfous to her as is the American man. He is the preferred matrimonial risk, and any woman is lucky who gets a good specimen of the breed.
 But--
 No other man in the world de- mands as much of a wife as does the American man.
 It is true that he gives much, but it is also true that he expects much. He isn't satisfied with 2 per cent interest on his matrimonial invest ment. He considers himself stung unless he makes a profiteer's profits. So the lot of the American wife isn't by any means all cakes and she and ale and skittles.
 The European man considers that his wife has done her duty when she has made him comfortable home, and borne him children and reared them properly. It is only in exceptional cases that he looks to her to forward his career. Nor does he expect her to keep him interested, stimulated and amused. Still less does he require her to be perpetually young and beautiful and we'll dressed.
 There are other women to whom he can go when he wants to be enter tained. There are other women whose beauty he can admire and whose frills and frivols can give him bit of a thrill. There are other women who can stimulate a mans ambition and with whom 1t Is fascinating to talk with whom it is fascinating to of the home, not in 1t. And 80 he Is satisfied with his fat. comfortable, middle-aged, sloppy wife as a wife. He never expects the Iron pot to turn into a Sevres vase and be, at once. a kitchen utensil and a parlor ornament.
 But the American man demands this miracle of his wife. Being good housekeeper, and thrifty man. ager, and bringing up & family of children are not her whole career as they are of the European wife. They are just a side line that she Is expected to turn off with one hand and one-half of her brain while she devotes the other hand and the other half of her brain to other matters.
 The American man is the Grand Pasha who expects women to enter tain him. In all other civilized coun- tries men try to interest and amuse women, but in America 1t is women who have to do the diverting, Go where you will, it's women who are making the conversation, and who are working like coal-heavers try Ing to keep the talk going with men who are sitting back permitting themselves to be monologued to.
 This goes double in the home. It Is the wife who has to be the little ray of sunshine. It is the wife who has to be bright and vivacious, and