Evening star., 1941-10-31

Mary and John have broken up
the little home they established five
years ago with such high hopes of
happiness. They have sold their
furniture and are getting one of the
fashionable new streamlined di-
vorces in which the party of the
first part and the party of the sec
ond part pay each other eXtravagant
compliments and say they will
always be friends and wish each
other every good luck. but that they
have found living together just i'm
possible. Incompatibility of tenn
permanent, you know Perpetual
quarrels. Arguments over the most
trivial matters that ended in John
slamming the door behind him as he
ent.alt4and Mary going TO bed, in
No one can understand why a
marriage that started out so aus
piciouslv should so soon come to
grief. For John is a fine. moral
young man and Mary is such a
- "a girl that It seems in-
credfb1e that they couldn't make a
go of it. Besides, Johns chief asset
In business is his gift as mixer and
his ability to handle people with kid
gloves, while Mary could win
popularity contest every day of the
week and everybody who knows her
praises her disposition as much as
they do her complexion. So all of
their friends wondered why two
people who could get along so
smoothly with the balance of the
world couldn't get along with each
other. They said that, of course, if
John was a crouch YOU could under
stand why Mary couldn't stand him:
or if Mary was nagger you couldn't
blame John for leaving her, but
when John was jolly and good
natured and Mary was amiable. it
just simply didn't make sense for
them to always be fighting. But
most married people do, and what
do you suppose it is about marriage
that makes husbands and wives keep
a chip on their shoulders al the time
that they are daring the other to
knock off?
Nobody knows. And there you
are, and there are all the millions of
other Johns and Marys who make
marriage 40 years civil war for no
reason that any sane person can
explain.
Why does man who spends his
days gumshoeing around the dis
agreeable peculiarities of other
people come home and jump with
both feet right in the middle of all
of his wife's pet prejudices? Why
does a woman who is so mild abroad
that butter wouldn't melt in her
mouth fill it with vinegar the
minute she gets in her own house?
Why does a man meekly take his
boss bawling out, yet raise ruction
If his wife makes the slightest
criticism of anything he has done?
Why does a woman fatter and
cajole her employer, laugh at his
jokes and yes-yes his opinions, but
feel it her sacred duty to disagree
with her husband in everything he
says, and ask him, for PHYS sake, is
he going to tell that old story again.
and never give him so much as a
crumb of praise?
You may say that the reason men
and women make more effort to get
along with strangers than they do
with those to whom they are mar
ried is because it is more important
for them to please those outside. of
the home than it is those within it.
The husband has to take it If Mary
is a slovenly housekeeper and
nagger, but Mary has to turn out
good work and act pleasant if she
keeps her job in an Office.
A man feels free to tell his wife
that she has the intellect of a hys-
terical hen, or for goodness sake to
shut up about her poor nerves, be-
cause she can't quit without serious
complications, but he would never
dare say that to his silly, tiresome
women clients and patients and GUS
toners, who could take their troubles
and their money somewhere else
1t takes two to make a quarrel,