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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1884)
f 221 THE WEST SHORE. A STUDY OF HUSBANDS. WE hear much about the art of winning a husband Let us take a step further and make a study of keeping a husband. If he is worth winning he is worth keeping. This is a wicked world, and man is dreadfully mortal. Let us take him just as he is, not as he ought to be. In the first place, he is very weak. The wife must spend the first two years in discovering these weaknesses, count them on her fingers and learn them by heart The fingers of both hands will not be too many. Then lot her study up these weaknesses, with a mesh for every one, and the secret is her's. Is he fond of a good dinner? Let her tighten the mesh around him with fragrant coffee, light bread and good things generally, and rench his heart through his stomach. Is he fond of flattery about his looks?, Let her study the dictionary for sweet words if her supply gives out Does he like to hear her talk about his brilliant intellect? Let her pore over the cyclopedia to give variety to the depth of her admiration. Flattery is a good .thing to study up at all hazards, in all its delicate shades, but it must be skillfully dona The harpy who may try to coax him away will not do it absurdly.' Is he fond of beauty? Here's the rub; lot her be bright and tidy; that's half the victory. Next, lot her bang her hair, metaphorically, and keep up with the times. A husband who sees his wife look like other people is not going to consider her " broken down." Though it is a common sneer that a woman has admitted that her sex consider more, in marrying, the tastes of her friends than her own, yet it must be considered ludicrous that a man looks at his wife with the same eyes that other people do. Is he fond of literary matters? Listen to him with wide-open eyes when he talks of them. A man doesn't so much care for a literary wife if only she will be literary enough to appreciate him. If she have literary inclinations, keep them to herself. Men love to be big and great to their wives. That's the reason why a helpless little woman can marry three times to a sensible, self-reliant woman's none. Cultivate helplessness, .Is he curious ? Oh, then you have a treasure; you can always keep -him if you have a secret and keep it carefully. Is he jealous? Then, woman, this is not for you; ceaBe torturing that fretted heart which wants you for its own and teach him confidence. Is he ugly in temper and fault finding? Give him a dose of his own medicine skillfully dona Is he deceitful? Pity him for his weakness; treat him as one who is born with a physical defect, but put your wits to work it is a bod case. It is well not to be too tame. Men do not waste their powder and shot on hens and barnyard fowls; they like the pleasure of pursuing wild game quail and grouse and deer. A quail iB a good model for a wife neat and trim, with a pretty swift-way-about, Bnd just a little capricious.' Never let yourself become an old story; be just a little uncertain. Another imiortant fact in, don't be too good; it hurts his feelings and becomes monotonous. Cultivate a pleasant voice, so that this very mortal man may have his conscience prick him when he w in jeopardy; its pleasant ring will haunt him much more than would a shrill one. It is hard to do all this, besides taking care of the babies and looking after vexa- tious household cares and smiling when ho comos homo, but it seems nocessary. " "To be born a woman is to be born a martyr," says a husband who for ten years had watched in amazement his wife treading the winepress of her existence. It is a pitiful sight to some men. But it the wife does not make a study of those things the harpy will, to steal awBy the honor from his silver hairs when he is full of years and the father of sons and daughters. At the same time, good wife, keop from trying any of those things on any mortal man but your own. Those rules are only evolved in order to "keop a hiiHbnnd." The poor, weak creature would ratlior be good than bad, and it is woman's duty to hold him by ovtfry moans in her power. Ella Steulino Cusimins., NEW ORLEANS EXPOSITION BUILDING. rpHE main building of the Now Orleans exhibition is in X some resects the most romarkablu edifice ever built in this country. It is much the largest oxj)osition build ing ever erocted in the world. The architect has sue cooded in producing the largest single room, every part of which can be seen from any jxiint, of which thoro is any knowlodgo. The building is 1,373 foot long by 005 foot wide, and covers 33 noros, or 11 acros moro than thn Philadelphia Centennial ExM)sition of 1870. Thorn are 1,050,300 Bquare foot of floor space. The roador may form a better impression of tho vast dimension of the structure by imagining throo ordinary city blocks one way and five the other covorod by a solid roof; snd, if lie chooses to allow his fancy carry him still farther, he can picture a monster panorama of the world's industry, ex tending before his vision uninterrupted by a single object except the supports. The building is 00 foot high, with a tower 115 feet high, and the architect has boon fortu nate in romloring the exterior unique and attraciivo. A platform will lw erected on the tower, reached by eleva tors, from which visitors may have an exceptionally fine view of the city of New Orleans, the exposition ground, the Mississippi River and the surrounding country. There will be ono line of gallery oxtouditig around tho ' entire circumference of tho building, to which visitors will be carried by twenty steam and hydraulic elevators, representing all the manufacturers of those conveyances in this country. The music hall, situated in the center of the building, will comfortably seat 11,000 jororm ami GOO musicians. To light the building with incandescent lamps will require 15,000 lights and 1,800 horse wnr. To light with the are system will require 700 laiiiw ami 700 horse power to oorato the dynamo, The total strain required for lighting and for the machinery hall will bn at least 3,000 horse power. In this estimate it included tho power for five are lights of 30,000 candlo owor each, which will light the grounds. These are the largest single lamps ever constructed. The cost of this great structure, lacking no single desirable feature for the pur pose intended, will only be about 1100,000, and the other buildings will be proportionately inexpensive.
