WIFE TAMING.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2248, 4 December 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

WIFE TAMING.

Tub two branches of the noble science with which this article has to deal are :— First, the higher, practiced by men possessed of a certain amount of intellect and culture. These men are frequently gentlemanly and polished in manner, clever and entertaining in conversation, sarcastic and quick at repartee ; yet, with all this, they are utterly wanting in that Heaven-sent sympathy for, and forbearance with, the trouble*, trials, or fault* of the •♦ weaker vessel." Without that myi»terious power which we c-ill sympathy, no marriage can be happy ; there can be no love without it, and on love, as we all know, the well-being— nay, the very existence — of most women depend?. A. husband of this class seeks to make of his wife a mere automaton, of which he holds the strings ; cold approval if «he moves and speakH exactly as he would have her to do ; stinging remarks and polite "crushing" if she dares to be original or ndranee any op ; nion which does not «gree with his. The lower branch is in the hands of men of the "Bill Sykes" type, coai.se and illiterate brutes in whom Gocl'h image is almost b.ittered oat ; men who treat their wires much worse than they would treat a dog — the dog might retaliate, the wife either cannot or will not. Any right-minded person will pity, and, if necessary, take the part of a woman whose husband ill-treats her — ill treatment in this case meaning frequent beating, and now and thon a black eye, or an hour of co of insensibility from a well-dhected blow. On these husbands the law lays its hands and a man who breaks his wife's head may be compelled to spend a couple ,of years in the shelter of a gaol. What of a man who breaks his wife's heart? — what punishment is his ? None. The female portion of his friends nay perhaps : ' Well, ahe mu3t have been a poor spirited creature to put up with him for so long. I would have left him long ago, I know ; wonder who he'll marry now ?' And the male acquaintances : " Most likely there were faults on both aides ; is not a bad fellow. Wives must be kept in order, and if it can be done in a gentlemanly manner so much the better.' Yes ! a geutlemanly manner ; what a multitude of sins are covered by that cloak ! Perhaps one instance may not be amiss. • — was a handsome man of thirty when he married a pretty, lively girl of nineteen. He was one of those cold, quiet, correct men who, while seeming to careless observers quite a model husband, could sting his little wife almost to madness with a few words. She, being quite youug, was happy and light hearted when first married ; but those around her watched the light die out of her pretty eyes, and the pink roses on her cheeks gave place to white ones, and taw that her whole nature was changing. Think what it must be to a girl with the memories of love stones she had read, and those girlish dreams of love and marriage — which all loving and pureminded girls indulge in— still fresh in her mind, to find that the man she has married is cold and unsympathetic; that he repulsed those outbursts of enthusiasm or affection which belong to a young healthy nature, telling her perhaps that " what is vulgarily called ' gushing ' is simply bad form and quite unbefitting a married woman." Her husband's mere presence in the room would damp her spirits, and if he approached her that look would come into her eyes which always reminds one of a hunted hare. She told nobody of her sufferings till she died, and then her mother heard all — she had died from cruelty ; cruelty of a refined kind, it is true ; but who is there but knows that a sensitive woman would far rather have blows and haid usage than public snubs and those cutting sarcastic remarks which make her long for revenge and yet hold her powerless to act ? There u of course no remedy under the law ; a man cannot bo imprisoned for being sarcastic, or flogged for trying to bring his wife's spirit down to the low standard of wifely submission which he has set up for himself. Yet perhaps women have something of a remedy in their own hands ; if they see a friend of their own sex being "put upon" they may b.md together to make th.it husband's life a misery to him ; make him appear ridiculous in every possible way — for tho^e who are quickest to ridicule often feel the most keenly when their turn comes. If this did not answer perIvips a kind of modern ostracism, or "sending to Coventry," would tell on these cowards — for equally are they cowards who use either their moral or their physical strength, their tongues or their fists, to the disadvantage of those whom they vowed to "love, honour and cherish." — The Queenslander.