STRAY NOTES.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 651, 19 July 1921, Page 6

STRAY NOTES.

(By “Don Quixote.”)

Our wives, hove before we have them, we do idealise them, how fondly Edwin gazes into Angelina’s eyes, and dreams of the long vista of golden days of happiness, when he shall enter into his kingdom, darling Angelina is the only woman in the world to him, all others show as phantasmagoria in a world of shades; encircled by her arms’, “ earth is heaven and heaven is love.” Of these wonderful dreams of youth, sometimes the dream lasts as long as life itself, but more often the waking comes all too soon, his glorious Angelina is after all but a very 1 human woman and developes a temper or nerves, and the melody of love is jangled out of tune.

A very old and wise philosopher said that matrimony was like a young man putting his hand into a bag of snakes with one eel lurking coyly amongst its reptilian confreres; he might get the eel.

But women are charming things and possess a great and wonderful attraction for us men and what sorts and conditions we have to choose from, short and . tall, thin and fat-, the brilliant brunette with dark and langurous eyes, or some blonde beauty with hair ripening corn and eyes the colour of the summer seas. No wonder Edwin gets confused andj finds perchance he has “loved not wisely but too well.”

! Perhaps he takes home to the little j nest he has been building the love J bird that changes, to his dismay, to j the loud voiced termagant, whose inI dignant cry of “wipe your boots” be- ! comes in' time his only welcome ; home. r

Or perhaps he finds out the mistress of .'his heart and home is a sily little butterfly of a woman, whose one idea hi life is to curl her hair and powder and - paint that face, which would be so much more attractive if left as Nature designed it. The hang of a skirt or the fall of a collar is more important than the destines of - a nation, and who will stiiJ “gad about” even though the heavens fall and the babies cry.

Or it may be the wife becomes wedded to -her house, and Edwin’s life becomes a burden,. He takes off

j his boots on a sheet of newspaper in the lobby, and his smoking is i chiefly indulged in out of dofcrs, or , surreptitiously out of the spare ' room window. Life is lived j n a i melee of spring, summer, autumn and winter cleaning, and likes the dove from the Ark of Noah, Edwin has; nowhere to place his foot, and the only light, in the home is reflected from its polished floors, and is not the golden radiance of “love’s young dream.” Or perchance the sable wing of tragedy may darken the home that once was the centre of such fond imaginings, and the partner of his joys and sorrows is false to the vows she took before the altar of hem God, and by her cruel and dastardly treachery, throws down the castle of their love, leaving the man alone, the loneliest creature on God’s earth; j his health laid desolate, and his hon- 1 our lying in the dust.

Or it may be Angelina takes to herself a Mission, an.l becomes a renting, ruffling Suffragette, or an ardent Prohibitionist, filling his home with tracts and pamphlets ; her con-

i versation a verbose enumeration of “ery-as-dust” statistics, rising ocj casionally to an elaborate dissertation I on the effects of alcohol on the hHI man stomach.

Possibly the “Popoplorum-tibby” of deal dead courtship’s days may develope into a “whiner,-” a very Miobe for tears, turned on like town water, bv a touch, a modernised “Mrs Grumage.” If its not the weather, “and you know how the rain depresses me,” then its her health, and if its not a pain in her head, then its a pain somewhere else. Of course no one sympathises, or its the dullness of the country life, or the noise of town, or the dust, or the mud, in fact poor Edwin comes to think “life is just one d thing after another.”

Or Angelina becomes a “nagger,” then indeed she is a “wearyful woman,” and Edwin goes to bed, to listen, till sleep mercifully interposes, to a curtain lecture many yards in length.

, Or else “stand off the grass,” to Edwin’s j horror, Angelina dons the trousers and the poor man becomes that most pitiable and despicable of things—hen-pecked ; and in a few short years Angelina’s Yes or No is like the law of the Medes and Persinas, that changeth not. I, at one time knew one of these “poor things,” and the good lady who ruled his heart and home, decided that they would sell out, and that £lB f) acre was to be the price,. In due time a most eligible buyer turned i up. He liked the property, and was satisfied with the price, so rejoicing the agent returned to the house with the prospective buyer and the owner to “sign up,” the owner excused himself while he went to tell his little wifey about the' affair. On hearing that every thing was arranged, bar signing, the lady at once replied “Then we won’t sell.” Take my word for it, Edwin, if he’ll give £lB then its worth more. Go back and tell him you won’t sell a penny -under £22, which he did.

But perhaps after all, Edwin, by

a lucky; grab, gets the eel, and Angelina is all his fond fancy painted her. H<‘ linds indeed the “price of a good woman is above rubies.” He can safely put his trust in her, her companionship makes life’s journey a pilgrimage of delight. Her adaptability to her husband’s moods, her interest in what interests him, her fender sympathy in his sorrows, her enjoyment of his joys, the subtle merging of her personalty in his, without detriment to her own mentality, makes the union ideal, “those twain shall be one flesh.” \