Dooley, Mr. (Fictitious character) -- Fiction; Irish Americans -- Fiction
"But with a woman 'tis diff'rent. Th' man puts down on'y part iv
th' bet. Whin he's had enough iv th' convarsation that in Union
Park undher th' threes med him think he was talkin' with an
intellechool joyntess, all he has to do is to put on his coat,
grab up his dinner pail an' go down to th' shops, to be happy
though marrid. But a woman, I tell ye, bets all she has. A man
don't have to marry but a woman does. Ol' maids an' clargymen do
th' most good in th' wurruld an' we love thim f'r th' good they
do. But people, especially women, don't want to be loved that
way. They want to be loved because people can't help lovin' thim
no matther how bad they are. Th' story books that ye give ye'er
daughter Honoria all tell her 'tis just as good not to be marrid.
She reads about how kind Dorothy was to Lulu's childher an' she
knows Dorothy was th' betther woman, but she wants to be Lulu.
Her heart, an' a cold look in th' eye iv th' wurruld an' her Ma
tell her to hurry up. Arly in life she looks f'r th' man iv her
choice in th' tennis records; later she reads th' news fr'm th'
militia encampmint; thin she studies th' socyal raygisther; further
on she makes hersilf familyar with Bradsthreets' rayports, an'
fin'lly she watches th' place where life presarvers are hangin'.
"Now, what kind iv a man ought a woman to marry? She oughtn't to
marry a young man because she'll grow old quicker thin he will;
she oughtn't to marry an old man because he'll be much older befure
he's younger; she oughtn't to marry a poor man because he may
become rich an' lose her; she oughtn't to marry a rich man because
if he becomes poor, she can't lose him; she oughtn't to marry a
man that knows more thin she does, because he'll niver fail to
show it, an' she oughtn't to marry a man that knows less because
he may niver catch up. But above all things she mustn't marry a
janius. A flure-walker, perhaps; a janius niver.
"I tell ye this because I've been r-readin' a book Hogan give
me, about th' divvle's own time a janius had with his fam'ly. A
cap iv industhry may have throuble in his fam'ly till there isn't
a whole piece iv chiny in th' cupboard, an' no wan will be the
wiser f'r it but th' hired girl an' th' doctor that paints th'
black eye. But ivrybody knows what happens in a janius' house.
Th' janius always tells th' bartinder. Besides he has other
janiuses callin' on him, an' 'tis th' business iv a janius to write
about th' domestic throubles iv other janiuses so posterity'll
know what a hard thing it is to be a janius. I've been readin'
this book iv Hogan's an' as I tell ye, 'tis about th' misery a
wretched woman inflicted on a pote's life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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