The Wife.

Otago Witness, Issue 2556, 11 March 1903, Page 72

The Wife.

The following extracb from _a,_" Study in Natural History" is from an Particle by Dorothy'lSix, -m 1 the -New* York American and Journal:-^- \ ' .'"The" Wife.— This docile domestic animal* is to;>be:Hound! •in all" parts of the globe, where she is most usefuT in insisting man to 1 till the soil, 'carry- on" the arto' and cpm- ; merce, and raise, Cain generally. ' Indeed,' so widely is she distributed throughout the civilised world that almost every man possesses one-, and while he is frequently miserable with her, he is -"wretched without her. "Although, however, the Wife is found among the fauna of every country, it is interesting to note that she is held in varying degrees of esteem in different lands. In Africa she is a slave,' in Asia a plaything, in Europe pan's companion, while in America she' is his boss. In Africa and Asia she is also driven four-in-hand abreast, while in Europe and America, she is driven tandem. "The Wife belongs to the Cat family (genus caterwaulis), and betrays her hereditary traits in many ways. When she. is young ehe is kittenish, a trick that she sometimes forgets to abandon after she gets old enough to know better. She is amiable as long as her fur is rubbed the right way. "She purrs with, contentment when, she is well fed. She gets her back' up at anything that displeases her, and frequently administers a sly ecratch when you are least expecting it. "In -appearance the Wife, differs -greatly, not only in different latitudes, but in the same environment. She is found both tall and short, dark and fair, and short and thin — in short, with aich varying characteristics that in selecting one a man has only to. gratify his tastes. - ■ ; "Men also often discover after they have picked* out one.kind of a Wife that- they" prefer another type, but as in .all enligh-' tened countries a matrimonial clearinghouse, called a Divorce Court, is maintained, this is a mere temporary inconvenience-. ' ' • ■ - - r j."As has been stated, the- Wife is a domestic animal, but she is byt nature -a, foxy creature, who plays shy and- wild,-sand:-the : -catching and taming-"of -her -is -'one' of'th'e choicest sports of mankind. In reality she belongs to the species of man-hunting animals. If man would leave her alone she would track him down, and nothing in natural history is' a more interesting study than the cunning: and art with which this apparently innocent little animal turns the pursued into the pursuer. From her infancy she has been trained for the game, and ehe leads man a merry chase to the altar, where she allows herself to be captured."