LUCKY TIE MAN WITH A NAGGING WIFE!

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 631, 6 April 1929, Page 18

LUCKY TIE MAN WITH A NAGGING WIFE!

IF YOU HAVE A SCOLDING SPOUSE, CHERISH HER (URGES MEDICAL MAN) FOR SHE IS POSTPONING YOUR APPOINTMENT WITH THE DOCTOR. THE UNDERTAKER AND THE GRAVEj! DIGGER.

'll BpFct OVE specialists, lawyers, I judges, and others who | lems of men and women j f J have long handed out warnings to the wife who nags. Few things, they claim, can puncture love or marital bliss so quickly as this almost exclusively feminine habit of nagging. Cartoonists and vaudeville comedians have their fun regularly at the expense of the shrew, and no end of sympathy has been bestowed on the man who possessed such a wife. Now, however, she is actually “given a hand” by no less a person than Dr. Eugene Lyman Fisk, who is one of the medical directors of the Life Extension Institute of New York, lie believes that fortunate Indeed is the man whose wife nags. No need at all to pity him, for ner shrewish disposition is an asset to him. "Of course,” says Dr. Fisk, “I must hasten to limit the statement that nagging wives are an asset. I do not mean to include every kind of nagging wife, but only a certain class. Since, though, they are not valued any more than the other types, it is they whose cudgels I want to take up and whose virtues I want to call to the attention of their unappreciative husbands. “The kind I mean is the woman who nags her husband to take his umbrella and his rubbers when it rains; who insists upon his putting on his overcoat, and changing to his winter flannels, as soon as the thermometer goes down. She will treat him to a sermon if he smokes too many cigars, if he chews his food too fast, if he takes water with his meals, or if he drinks too many cups of strong coffee. She's at him when he eats fattening foods, or tries to read in a dim light without his glasses. She'll get. him to go to the doctor when he would otherwise go around coughing his head off in the early stages of pneumonia.

“And there'll be trouble if he should attempt to pursue other women, or vtay out late at nights, or dissipate In general. Naturally, the man does Hot stop to think that this all reacts to his own benefit, and that his wife Wants him to be strong and healthy, and physically fit to go through life. “Every woman has an inherent nursing instinct within her. It is same instinct that makes the mother anxious about her children’s health. ■She is the one in the family who is ready with first aid for a bruise, a stomachache, or a cold. She is a tireless bedside watcher when anyone In the family is ill. If she has any affection for her husband at all, she is equally concerned as to his wellbeing, and she nags him about it. The doctor can give him equally good advice. but the chances are that he won’t pay any attention to it unless his wife compels him. Does he show appreciation for her solicitude? Rarely!

“Men, on the whole, are likely to be more neglectful of their health and their appearances. Unless someone is after them, they won’t give a thought to themselves until it is too

late. The fact that women are more interested in the subject of health is demonstrated every time I lecture. There will always be a predominating number of women, and one is struck by their interest and their eagerness for information. One has a definite feeling that they go home and put into practice some of the suggestions. “Not long ago I published, in collaboration with Professor Irving Fisher, of Yale, a book called “How to Live.’ When I recently went on a lecture tour, a man approached me and said jokingly, but with an undercurrent of seriousness, ‘So you’re the man who’s been making my life a hell on this earth. My wife makes me live by your book.’ “While it really is not possible to prove statistically that married life is conducive to longevity, yet the opinion of most authorities is that the greater security and conservatism of married people as compared to the unmarried' naturally makes for greater longevity. Married life is a more healthful state than unmarried life. “For these reasons, I believe that all men should marry. If they feel that they are not in a position to support a wife, it is at least better for them to marry and let the wife continue to work than that they should remain single. Her nagging will put the man on his toes. There are many men who even owe their careers, their success in business, and their social prominence to their nagging wives. Without them at their elbows, the men would not have been spurred on, and their powers for achievement would have remained dormant. “Naturally, 1 have no sympathy at all for the wife who nags her husband for luxuries and jewels, or for selfish reasons. My applause is only for the women who have the welfare of their husbands at heart, and who nag them for their benefit.” It was pointed out to Dr. Fisk that even nagging wives whose intentions may be good can drive their husbands to a divorce court because they can be too wearing on his peace of mind —that nagging wives have even been known to drive their husbands into the arms of other women.

“True enough,” he said, "but I might say that if the husbands would only stop to realise the benefits that result from such nagging, they might take it in a better spirit. Yet, even then, I do admit that such women can be somewhat taxing. That is why I feel that women should cultivate the art of nagging.” This statement sounded very interesting, so Dr. Fisk was asked to expand it. “By that I mean that the women should get what they want in a more tactful and pleasant way. Their demands should be made more subtly, and given with a smile. But I need not tell a woman how to exert her wiles—she is a past-mistress at that. It is only that, after a number of years of married life, she no longer thinks it necessary for her to use it. And yet, if she did, she would not only get what she wanted more easily, but the man would he happiex in acceding to her demands. “Marriage, however, requires a good many other qualities besides tact. It requires .health, courage, patience, self-sacrifice, tenderness of heart, serenity, and endurance. To me it is amazing that so important a relationship should be entered into with so little training or education as to the responsibilities and adjustments which it entails. About the only education the average person receives for marriage is through novels which grossly distort and over-emphasise the emotional factors. Practically all of them, as in the case of movies and plays, end where marriage begins. The possible exceptions are those that deal with the sex triangle, and overemphasise it as a factor in causing marital difficulties and shipwreck. “The chief trouble is that men and women are educated to get married, but pot educated to stay married. That calls for a course of training in itself. It is not, therefore, the number of divorces that surprises me, but the number of marriages that succeed. Imagine trying to undertake any other important task in life without some adequate training, and succeeding in it!” (Continued on Page 19)