ARE OUR HUSBANDS TOO KIND TO US.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3127, 24 July 1922, Page 8

ARE OUR HUSBANDS TOO KIND TO US.

(By Kathleen O’Brien.) It appears, from a recent trial, that coercion by one’s husband is still an honorable plea for the excuse of actions otherwise difficult or inconvenient to explain. The coercion plea, 1 understand, was based on a law framed to protect wives in an ago when husbands were wont to administer corporal chastisement. Husbands no longer, except in rare cases, administer corporal chastisement. So far has civilisation advanced. Yet sometimes—sometimes 1 wonder Let us be plain with ourselves. Arc wives any happier for being unspanked? Please observe that I do not support spanking qua spanking. I merely ask, arc wives happier than they were when spanking was considered respectable, homely, and decent? Personally I don’t believe they are. It is a horrible admission to have to make, but an indigenous honesty wrings it from me. Neurasthenia among married women is alarmngly prevalent. Hysterical symptoms are on the increase. “Nerviness” is widespread. Our husband’s choice in ties, collars, carpet slippers, provokes .us to fidgety malice; we grow venomous over tho angle-his “Trilby” makes with his nose; we could scream when he rubs his hands and breathes a cheery “Ah!” over the soup. In short, we have developed “tantrums.” Please observe, again, lest 1 be accused of disloyalty to my own sex, that it is the happiness of the wife 1 am concerned about, not the possible discomfort Til' the husband. That is another story. “Tantrums” are an uiir pleasant affliction. They are accompanied by a profound depression, and your hair comes out. Nobody having tantrums can be happy. That is where the husband’s responsibility comes ill. Didn’t lie promise to cherish her in tantrums and in health? I consider it his positive duty to put his loot down (irmly on a tantrum whenever it threatens to disturb bis pour wife's native serenity. But here, out of a vast and profound observation, 1 have made a. curious discovery. 1 believe husbands are afraid of tantrums! Isn’t that odd? 1 believe an average husband would rather face a perfect battery ol machine guns than one wife with tantrums. What- he should do, of course, is to take up the attitude of a sergeantmajor with a squad of recruits, and bellow—well, bellow what a sergeantmajor hollows to a squad ot recruits. Whereas the average husband takes the on bis shoulder and says, “Never mind, dear, you shall come and choose a idee new fur coat with me to-morrow,” or seme such. And, of course, the tantrums get worse than ever, and more hair comes out. How a man can have the heart to be so cruel to the poor innocent woman who married him 1 cannot understand. Oh! if husbands would only realise how much happier we should be il, on the first appearance ol a tantrum, they would quite kindly and tenderly throw the furniture at our heads!