Year: 1874




departments furnish hits at mothers-in
law. The American witticlsms are mere
limitations. What foundation there may
be for these slurs on large class of Eng
lish women, we do not know. That they
are unjust in America we are sure. And
yet every week one reads something
which the writer manifestly thought to
be smart, which, as 1t reaches the eyes of
hundreds Of the most self-sacrifcing of
our women, must give them pain, because
it is an unnecessary and unjust asperssion
of their whole class. Sometimes the form
of the joke is TO put into the mouth of the
on-in-law some severe hit at his wife's
mother. 1t is noticeable that it is never
the husbands mother, but always the
wife's mother that gets the blow.


1t is time to pause and inquire into the
justice Of this. Is there anything in the
relationship to necessitate an antagonism
between a woman and her daughters hus-
band? Or, in point Of fact, do these wo-
men conduct themselves in such way
as to justify these hits? In a very largo
majority Of instances, so far as the hus-
band is concerned, he has to thank his
mother-in-law for what is beautiful, at
tractive and profitable in his wife the
man marries the girl whom this woman
raised. Now, if mothers-in-law arc such
hideous things-so base, so mean, so i'm
rnnrfipapf--that q xticif from fhat,, = f,, In
dreaded, how is it that such hags are the
mothers Of such houris, and that such
hateful women have been able to train
other women to be so charming? When
ever, therefore, man slurs his mother
in-law simply in virtue of her holding
that relation to him, it would seem to
imply something wrong in his own char
acter or conduct. No true gentleman
would give his wife any treatment he
would not be perfectly willing to have
her mother witness. Ordinary delcacy
should cause a gentleman to be as care
full in speaking Of his wife's mother as of
his own.


AS human nature is constituted, is al
ways safer that when a young couple
marry, the wife be taken 10 q distance
from her home, and not to that Of her
husbands parents. Then they cling to
each other, each looking to the other for
help and pleasure. 1t is the wife who
is more in danger of trouble from her
mother-in-law. A man has to dread
trouble more from his own mother than
from his wilos mother, and yot we have
to see the first arrow of wtticism shot
from woman's bow against her mother
in-law. 1t is hiS mother who is apt to
torment the young wife with intmations
of how she did when she was first mar
ried.


But none Of these disagreeable things
happen where a man truly marries a
woman, and she truly marries him, and
the parents on both sides have correct
ideas of the sanctity which belongs to
this unity. Even as things are in society,
how many married man is indebted to
his mother-in-law for taking thousand
burdens from his wifcs shoulders and his
own! 1t is the mother-in- law who as
sists in securing the new house, procuring
the furniture, arranging it in its place,
suggesting many an expedient for COM
fort from her own experience, and put
ting the machinery of the house in work
ing order. To her the husband owes
many an hour of his wiie's society which
otherwise would be absorbed by domestic
drudgery; and when the little children
come, it is the wifc's mother to whom
they seem the nearest and dearest. 1t is
she that nurses them most tenderly in
the most trying portion Of their lives. 1t
is she who spends SO many a wearisome
hour in the nursery, that he and his |
friends may have his wifes company in
the parlor or at the place of public amuse-
ment. A thousand touching stories of
devotion upon the part of the wife's
mother could be told, but we do not in
tend to be pathetic


Whenever we hear a man making a
disparaging insinuation with regard to
his mother-in-law, we always feel like
saying TO him, "Sir, you never would |
have been anywhere if your father had |
never had mother in-law.-H
Basdr.