Woman's World

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 80, 26 August 1914, Page 6

Woman's World

slaves of the iu WOMEN WHO KAJL AS v TIRADES of T-iiKi it 11 usi;a I Witliout uiuliii' ■ simis::. .. may be said that few modern ma 1 :'.a,ges are genuinely liappy. Men ami • omen who begin married life under C • happiest possible conditions drift info indifference towards each other, or. ::t the be>;t. to au affectionate tolcrati-ii that ; s curiously unrcminiscent of the fervent happiness of courtship days. Naturally, it is impossible to retain the novelty and romance of .those early days during the many vicissitudes of married life, , but between every Iran and woman unit- ) ed for life, there should be a stfong j sense of companionship anil understan.l----i inj>. ! THE BKCIXXINTJ 0F TRAGEDY. ! The great mass of won 'u are so inii mersed in domestic duties that they j are unable to give their husbands t:ie i friendslii'p and sympathy so eagerly offered (luring the cngagament and tsie first few months of married life. Most of the domestic tragedies which end in tho divorce court could be traced to very pimple causes. A man is ideally happy in his wife's love till the first baby comes; then he lias to take a back seat. His wife is too busy to come out with Jiim; she has so much to do that she hasn't time to read the papers, or , play golf, or even a game of bridge. She is always so tired that it seems a shame to trouble, her with business wor- | ries, and so the husband sorrowfully I accepts tile, new state of affairs as inevitable. Is it much wonder that when temptation comes to him in the form of a pretty, sympathetic woman, lie should succumb? In hundreds of eases a wife only realises that she has lost her husband's love when it is too late to win it back. TIIINK THE PROBLEM OUT. Tragedies of this nature could very easily be avoided if women quietly thought the problem out in all its bearings. A young wife only able to keep a "dar girl.'' may complain that it is quite impossible for her to go out with liter husband in the evenings as she has her baby to tend. But this is not, as so many women imagine, an insuperable difficulty. We will suppose that ; lie husband is out all dav until six o'clock. To such a case it should be possible for the young wife to arrange for her maid occasionally to begin her day's work at two o'clock and end it at ten or eleven, instead of working from seven in the morning to six in the evening. Most servants would tie glad enough to oblige a considerate mistress in this wav, and certainly during the winter months the hard-working "day-girl" would be grateful for the extra hours in bed oil a chilly morning. Even if the arrangement could be made onlv for one night during tin- week, it would give the wife an opportunity of going with her husband that might avert many a temporary estrangement or permanent friction. COMFORT IS BETTER Til AX TIDINESS. What is very amazing is that n woman who has a reliable ro.side.nL servant often complains that she lias 1:0 time to give the mail she loves. The lio'tst wants 11 thorough cleaning, or she has sewing to do, or the children are fretful and must be amused—an excuse suffices, and the husband has either to content himself with talking to a dull, uninteresting wife, or else liyd mental hiliration elsewhere. The vast majority of Englishwomen are such slaves to their homes that they would rather see an unhappy, unsatisfied look on their husband:)' faces than a speck of "dust 011 | tin; top oi the piano. Provided that a house is moderately tidy, and meals j well-cooked, an average husband is pcr- ] fectly content, lie does not so much as notice soiled curtains, or tarnished silver, or an undarned tablecloth. Therefore, it is useless for a woman *0 s:ty, in excuse of her narrowness. "1 imi-t have the house nice for John; it's the duty of every woman to make the home ] attractive to her husband/' What a great pity it is that women do not rea- | lise that the charm of home atmosphere is not contained in shining pots adu pans. An untidy, ill-kept home may be Paradise to a man if its atmosphere is one of love and happiness and iimi'cstanding, and the most immaculate house is often not a lu.me at ail. '>■•- | cause the true home spirit is missing. Willl.E TIIE MAX'S AWAY. I Most men like to come, after the -day's work is over, to a bright home environment, but that environment de- | pends iniinitcly more 011 the mistress 01 j the home than it, docs upon material I tilings. After all, what use is a spotlessly clean and tidy home to a man if Ilia wife is tiled,-cross, unsympathetic? if a periectly kept house can only Uachieved at the expense of the hitsband s feelings, then it is iniinitcly bettei, surely, to let the house get dirlv. and give one's time to one's husband. J he sensible, celf-reliant woman sees 10 it that she neglects neither. If the. average woman spent less time in gossiping und shop-gazing she would be able to get through her domestic duties muc'i more quickly and cilicienlly. If a Moman leaves the preparation of the breakfast to an incompetent servant, or if sill) is always late for the ii Ist meal of the day. or if she' shops all the myrning and every morning, it is impossible to get the days duties, over by the time that her hpsband comes home. A woman who wants to excel as a homemaker should get up early, supervise the maid in her morning's work, and do the shopping after lunch. There wiil still be time for afternoon calls, games, reading „r writing, and for a brief rest, if necessary, before the "'high" tea dilute dinner. A woman owes it to her husband to make herseli as charmiu-'' as .possible during the time that he spends with her, and a self-ivspivting wife should be ashamed to greet him in the evening wearing an until!-,- wrapper or a laded old blouse. And she should be. still more ashamed of herself it she h«i s not read her newspaper, and so is unable to discuss the events ,>f the day intelligently with her husband. I'.E A RKAIi COMPANION. If a woman really has not time t.., read good literature she should make a point of rending a newspaper "thoroughly every day. A glance at the pi - hires, head-lines, and woman's page followed by a minute perusal of tile advertisements, is not reading a news- | paper. It is rather humiliating for a man to teel that his wife is so narrow iu her outlook that, she is utterly uninterested in the day's doings; tna't great political movements and mighty wars sink into significance beside the fact tint the baby has cut a new tooth or tinmaid lias been guilty of imperliiieiii -. Married women, self-sacrificing, an I noble, as they are often ill their relations to their children, are frequently painfully narrow and uninteresting be-cause-they care for nothing outside their own homes. If a husband is at all intellectual, such apathy on the part oi the woman he loves is bound to pain him. Iu the end, especially if lie is a

sensitive, imaginative man, he will inevitably seek the comradeship outside iiis own home—and thin comes tragedy Who can uoubt that the happiest marriages are those in which there exists perfect comradeship between husband and wife? And what a line example it is for children to see such understanding and perfect sympathy jetween their father and mother. In such marriages the children never get the impression that mother, so to speak, is pulling one way and father the other. THE IDEAL HOME. The ideal home life is based first .111.1 foremost on a perfect understanding i.e-_ tween tho husband and wife, for ..here can never exist the right atmosphere of love in any house where the husband is regarded by the wife merely as a breadwinner, and the wife by her husband as merely housekeeper. And the woman who wants to retain her husband's love till the very end must realise that the modern man needs more than a housekeeper to make him happy. He needs the tender care and unfailing, intelligent sympathy of a comrade.