Year: 1859

try there may be found, day after day,
week after week and year after year, arti-
cles with such captions as the following:
advice to wives'--'The way to make
Home Happy'-'IIow to Keep "a Husband S
Affection. and other similar titles, scores
of which memory viii at once suggest 10
the reader. In all these appeals. eternal
folbearancc is urged, as the great duty of
the wife in reference to the faults and pos
tive sins Of the husband She is entrea-
ted with AL the forms of eloquence, be-
tween the thunders Of denuncation and
the terderest pathos, always to meet him
with a smile-to keep the fire cheerful and
the lamp trimmed, against his coming
to have the table spread elegantly and pro-
fusely, and all the children, be they two
or twenty, rosy with health, and dressed as
tidily and tastefully as possible, ready to
do reverence to their father, by flying like
doves TO the window when his step is heard
on the walk, or the grating Of the latch
key al the door,


IF you want to keep Your husbands at
home. says these wise advisers, make
home the happiest place in the world, :
just IS if the best and most devoted and
elfsacghcing woman that ever was born
could make home happy independently Of
her husbands assistance and corporation.
| tell You nayl | have seen it tried great
many times; and l tell you, too, there is
other tyranny than that of blood and
chains, and the wives and mothers of our
land, and every land under heaven, sup
pose, de staggering under it, and falling
down under it. and being buried away from
it every day and hour; and thank God
there is a rest and silence down to which
no irritable grcwl--no tvrannous exaction
can fnd It's way.


l have seen in my life good many pla-
ces called homes; have seen women in
shem doing all mortality could do to make
them agreeable to the bears that come thi-
Their to feed--Prgcrlng, as they said, dry
bread to beeisteak. when the steak was
small and the husband hungry--skimming
all the cream from the pint of milk for his
coffee, serving him first, him last, him
midst. ami without cn1,' to all that absti-
ncncc and painstaking on their part could
provide. and l have very seldom been re-
galed with 'ihank you. or 'how kind!'
from the pampered and petied head of the
house. Generally | have seen snarling or
sullen silence bestowed in payment.


Many time | have seen women turn
their dresses bottom side up, and inside
out and make them do till decency could
stretch itself no farther-changs the flow
ers from the right to the left side of the
summer bonnet, and make it serve the
winter-takc the baby blanket for shawl
and contrive new coat for the boy out
of fathers old one, and moreover, per-
suade the child by those ingenious argu-
ments which only Strengthened mothers
know how to make available, that the gar
mcnt was altogether brighter and better
than new one; and all this for the sake
of seeing said husband and father 60 to
the church, or TO tie club, or the election,
in new coat and hat. | cannot call to
mind however, any similar sacrifices and
contrivances elected by such behavior.


We all know how women violate the
commandment, Thou shalt not lie.' by
creating a fictitious atmosphere through
which their children behold their father,
not as he is. but as he should be. For in
stance, when the husband spends money
for cigars, which should have bought shoes
for bare footed child, the wronged and
disappointed little one is told, most likely,
that pa forgot the shoes, and will buy them
to- morrow!


When the husband tarries long at the
beer shop. or oyster saloon. and the child
rem grow clamorous for supper, their gnaw-
ing stomaches arc quieted by the dclusion.
that their dear parent is in some comfort
less situation coming his fe-blood to their
service; and SO on, according TO The mag
nitude of the fabrication in defense.


But notwithstanding all this make be-
lieve, | have very often seen cloud of dis
comfort brought into the house by the COM
ing home of the husband and father. 1t
has, ineed, usually been my misfortune to
see that muchbeguided event, the signal