Life — December 4, 1890 — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“OWMife there's Life there's Hope.” VOL. XVI. DECEMBER 4, 1890. 28 West Twenty-Tiikp Street, New Yor, No, 414. Published every Thursday, $5,004 year inadvance, postage free. Single copies, ro cents. Back numbers can be had yy spPpire to this office. Vol. T,Pound. §3o.g0: Vol: Hs bound, Sisco: Vols. M11 IV. V.. VL. VIL. VHILIX XXL, XIE, XIIL, X1V2and XV., bound or in flat numbers, at regular rates. ejected contributions will pe destroyed unless accompanied by a stamped and directed envelope. Subscribers wishing a sending old address as weil ess changed will greatly facilitate matters by s new. = OMEONE ed Lire the other day which of a group of married women of its acquaintance was the best wife. The more Lik thought about it the more it didn’t know. HIS one had blotted out her own individuality and merged into her husband's; that one had overwhelmed her husband's individuality and merged him into herself. Another went her own gait very little affected (so it seemed), by the incidents of marriage at all, Another without squash- ing out her husband's individuality, absorbed his spare time and energy to such a degree that the interests of general society forbade one to commend her methods. ° : . O * course, husbands had to be considered, for a wife is composite article, and the husband is part of the raw material that goes to make it. There were women, who, it seemed, would have made almost perfect wives if the husband element in them had been of better quality ; and again there were other women who made a good showing, and yet seemed to deserve only a qualified degree of credit, because the quality of the husband element was so high. Again there were women who took admirable care of their children, so that you couldn't help approving them, but that phase of their behavior one felt constrained to rule out, on the ground that it characterized them not as wives, but as mothers. . the question put itself, whether, if the query was changed to Who is the best woman we know? the lines of enquiry would be changed. LiFe concluded that they would, because a woman would be judged in her rela- tions to society in general, whereas one’s opinion of her as a wife rests mainly upon her effect on her husband. ‘Thus she might be of such desperate excellence as fairly to take the stiffening out of the man’s knees, and make it seem to hima hopeless struggle to try to develop, in the glare of such a contrast, the traits or energies that might otherwise have been within his reach. Such a woman would not really be a good wife, however incontestably admirable she might be, taken merely as a woman, ONVERSELY a woman might have glaring faults, which however, proved of such obvious use as a means of discipline and a spur to her husband, that you would feel bound to admit that they added to, rather than lessened, her merits as a wife. For the best wife, we must admit, is the one that makes the most of herself and her man. She is not to be considered apart, but as a part of a masculine, and her merits may be gauged by the net result of the whole com- bination. . . ° IFE does not aspire to a place as a recorder of society ~ events, but Lire is always appreciative of genuine humor, and therefore cheerfully gives space to the following announcement, with the appropriate credit : Mr. and Mrs, Frederick W. Vanderbilt expect to sail for Europe on the Majestic, November 26, to spend the winter in England and on the Continent. New York will thus place London and Paris under obligation for sending to them some of her most gifted, courtly and splendid specimens of hu- manity.— Zhe Mail and will have reached its end, and LiFe hopes with no seri- ous casualties to any of the plucky collegians who have upheld the honor of Yale, Harvard and Princeton. We old-timers who remember the foot-ball of other days are not altogether willing to concede the superiority of the game as it is played to-day. Weare quite willing to admit that it requires more head-work, but this requirement adds an amount of danger altogether out of proportion to the advantage gained, ° . . HE old game was quite as good in the way of exercise, and except to the experts was vastly more amusing as a spectacle. In a subdued and modest way, LIFE would suggest that it doesn’t wish to see our college boys coddled. It does strongly object to seeing them offered up to make aholiday for people who would lose interest if it were not for the serious possibilities of the game. comicbooks.com