No, Ethel, if you married expecting to be a dormant partner during the day
and then to go through Mr. Ethel's pantaloons pocket at night and declare
a dividend, of course life is full of bitter, bitter regret and
disappointment. Perhaps it is also for Mr. Ethel. Anyhow, I can't help
feeling a pang of sympathy for him. You do not say that he is unkind or
that he so far forgets himself as to wake you up in the morning with a
harsh tone of voice and a yearling club. You do not say that he asks you
for pocket-money, or, if so, whether you give it to him or not.
[Illustration: FOR REVENUE ONLY.]
Of course I want to do what is right in the solemn warning business, so I
will give notice to all simple young women who are now self-supporting and
happy, that there is no statute requiring them to assume the burdens of
wifehood and motherhood unless they prefer to do so. If they now have
abundance of pin-money and new clothes, they may remain single if they
wish without violating the laws of the land. This rule is also good when
applied to young and self-supporting young men who wear good clothes and
have funds in their pockets. No young man who is free, happy and
independent, need invest his money in a family or carry a colicky child
twenty-seven miles and two laps in one night unless he prefers it. But
those who go into it with the right spirit, Ethel, do not regret it.
I would just as soon tell you, Ethel, if you will promise that it shall go
no farther, that I do not wear as good clothes as I did before I was
married. I don't have to. My good clothes have accomplished what I got
them for. I played them for all they were worth, and since I got married
the idea of wearing clothes as a vocation has not occurred to me.
Please give my kind regards to Mr. Ethel, and tell him that although I do
not know him personally, I cannot help feeling sorry for him.
[Illustration]
Bunker Hill.
Last week for the first time I visited the granite obelisk known all over
the civilized world as Bunker Hill monument. Sixty years ago, if my memory
serves me correctly. General La Fayette, since deceased, laid the
corner-stone, and Daniel Webster made a few desultory remarks which I
cannot now recall. Eighteen years later it was formally dedicated, and
Daniel spoke a good piece, composed mostly of things that he had thought
up himself. There has never been a feature of the early history and
unceasing struggle for American freedom which has so roused my admiration
as this custom, quite prevalent among congressmen in those days, of
writing their own speeches.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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