The Washington times., 1935-12-11


wonder sometimes if they do +
seriously.
Back of the anguish of women
who note and dwell upon every
phase of a husbands growing in.
difference, is a fear old as tinIe
itself.
1t goes back to the cave days
when, if a woman were sup
planted by younger and more
attractive rival, she-and very
likely her children-were thrown
out of the cave to perish.
This terrible inheritance of
fear is instructive and can't be
argued with. 1t exists, as the
shapes of our faces and the
sounds of our voices exist,
through ages and ages of inh9S-
ttance.
But sometimes I wonder if
these women do not suffer un.
necessarily, and if their inability
to conceal their suffering does
not bring about the very condi,
tionS they most fear.
Imperfect
They are gloomy, they nag,
look devastated, and the home Is
anything but a refuge in which
their husbands may find rest
after a long, hard fight In the
dollar arena.
Men are imperfectly monog-
amous. Wise women accept this,
and if husbands stray from
the domestic reservation, they 40
not make the fireside so hot Tor
the wandering feet that they
will take any direction but nome
ward. .
Men like a change in feminine
attributes, lust as they like a
change in food. Roast beef, parS-
lev. potatoes and rice puddlng
may be good food for the maScu,
line palate, but a surfeited palate
NAV crave now and then chicken
A la king and peach melba.
The wise wife understands
with a knowledge almost
maternal-this masculine weak.
ness and does not raise the ROOF
when her man comes back 10
his roast beef and rice pudding.
women who agonize so bitterly
over these little EXCLUSIONS
often harmless-on the part OF
husbands, have little or no out
side activities.
And women who turn utterly
domestic, as soon as they return
from the wedding tour, lay up
troubles of this kind for them
selves. They grow stale and dull'
and are little more than gadgets
in the domestic machinery.
Every woman should provide
herself for this rainy day, which
is likely to come in the best
regulated of households.
A little club work, church work.
community work, or an lntereSC
IN a musical or dramatic club
or a cooking class, will keep
her from watching every breath
her husband draws. and make
her less like a cat BESIDE a
mouse hole.
More Interesting
Though a husband may be so
nossessive during the first months
of marriage as to want his Wlte
to drop friends, family and all
outside interests. she should keep
these things for his Sake-Keep
her gifts and accomplishments
polished, and her interests in out
side affairs. She will be a more
interesting wife and mother IL
she does.
This does not apply to the real
domestic tragedy, where a nus
hand turns over his pay envelope
to another woman, lets the rent
% unpaid and the children do
without food and clothing.
Like the painful surgical opera
tion, which is sometimes neces'
sary, such conditions require the
strong word in the domestic
relations court.
But if a husbands filtration is
inst a case of admiring the anus
ING Mrs. So and So, or taking an
old friend to lunch once IN a blue
moon, these things are not worth
the gnawing agony that wives ex'
pend on them.
Better remember that men are
like that, and that a home and
children, also public opinion, are
pretty safe anchors, after all.