PROPER TREATMENT OF WIVES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 428, 25 August 1908, Page 4

PROPER TREATMENT OF WIVES.

Selfishness is the rock upon which domestic bliss generally goes to pieces. A model husband never plays the tyrant. He treats his wife as his equal, not as a subordinate or slave. Some women are married to bears. Some are caged, birds, too sad to sing. Others have that word “obey” eternally thrown at them. Another quality in a husband is his determination to cultivate cheerfulness and scatter sunshine in his home. He will make himself handy around the house and not expect anything to be done for him. When his wife asks him to mend the sewing machine or put new wire on the screen door, he will not pout and say, “ That was not down in the marriage contract.” He removes burdens wherever he can, and moves around the house like a bearded angel, blessing everything, he touches. He overlooks any little weaknesses his wife may possess, instead of calling her a “ crosspatch,” and then becoming ten times as cross and ugly himself. He sympathises rather than irritates. He is not always insisting that he is right and his wife wrong. He is jovial and lenient, and lets the little woman have her own way in many things, always allowing her to have the last word. A good husband also keeps up his courting as long as he lives. He never forgets to tell his wife how much he thinks of her. He speaks words of praise while she is living, and doesn’t wait until the funeral to deliver sentiments she cannot hear. —Rev. J. E. Scudder, First Congregational Church, Jersey City.