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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (June 13, 1920)
the "I Have All the Luxuries 'in World," 'Banker Harris's Wife Moans,. "Everything I Want ";. Except One Thing ; I WANT; TO. BE LOVED!'? The Pessimist s ; v By Benjamin P. King, Jr. : Nothing to do but work. Nothing to eat but food, Nothing to wear but clothes To keep one from going nude. Nothing to breathe but air, Quick as a flash 'tis gone; Nowhere to fall but off, t Nowhere to stand but on. "Nothing1 to comb but hair, Nowhere to sleep but in bed. Nothing to weep but tears, : Nothing to buty but dead. Nothing to sing but song. Ah, well, alas, alack! ; Nowhere to. go but out; Nowhere to come but back. Nothing to see but sights, , Nothing to quench but thirst, Nothing to have but what we've got? ' Thus thro life we are cursed. Nothing to strike but a gait; Everything moves that goes, lio thing at all but common .sense Can. ever withstand these woes. BEVERLY, HARRIS Everything but HOW much love Is a bride entitled to? The. answer would be, no doubt, ; that she Is enUUed to a full twen-ty-lour hours a day of her husband's devo- , tlon until the end of the honeymoon. But after the honeymoon, as the years roll by, how much lore Is a wife en UUed to? .' No court has ever answered that ques tion with exactness. ;, There Is no book In any library which Indicates that Cupid has ever measured out the precise amount of time, attention, do- votion and caresses which a worthy wife may reasonably demand of her husband. The law now says In regard to beverages that more than one-half of one per Cent of alcohol is Intoxicating, undesisable and un- : lawful. What percentage of love and devotionon ; the part of the husband In married life is reasonable and proper? Mrs. Beverly D. Harris, wife of one of ; the vice-presidents of the great National ' City Bank of New York has raised these ; questions. .- i . -' Mrs. Hayis sits in her comfortable, .- warm, richly upholstered suite of rooms In r the great Hotel Pennsylvania. But she Is not happy. ! "J . Mrs. Harris, with clothes. Jewelry and , attendants to dress her, Is not contented. With the great restaurants, grill rooms, and variegated cuisine of the Hotel Penn sylvania at her disposal still Mrs. Harris Is hungry for something. The push button in. the wall will bring her any. or. all of the army of servants of : the hotel, and down below are taxlcabs and her own automobile awaiting her orders. But Mrs. Harris Is not happy. In the evening from her windows she looks up the avenue to the glaring lights of the theatre district a few blocks away , and she has the money to buy seats at any or all of the playhouses. And yet. she is wretched. . ! . ' ' Is anybody cruel to Mrs. Harris? No. Has her husband mistreated her, or threatened her or skimped, her on her; allowance or forbidden her to amuse her-' self in any reasonable way that a wife . could wish? Oh, no, nothing of the kind! 4 In her own words Mrs. Beverly D. Harris . says:. "I have all the luxuries In the world, everything I want except one thing. I WANT TO BE LOVED!" - How much love is Mrs. Harris entitled to demand from her husband?. The wife Is in compeUtion with, the big downtown bank. Mrs. Harris has her husband in name the bank really has his . mind and thoughts and attention, she claims. : Mrs. Harris and her plaint suggests the humorous poem by Benjamin King printed above on this page. The poet called his poem "The Pessimist., And this title car ries the suggestion that the, complaints la the poem are rather unreasonable ones. But is the plaint of Mrs. Harris unreason able? ,.: : -U: : :v Of course a complete discussion of the matter involves the question of what things are really worth while in life. Are there " other more Important things than money and worldly comforts, pleasures and luxu ries? Is there, after alL a greater thing, something much more worth while than anything which money can buy LOVE? It has been said that the poet's concep tion of "Love in a Cottage" Is an exploded idea. Only a poet, it is claimed, would undertake to be happy with his adored one : In a cottage without the material comforts Ktt life. The practical man and woman know that a- couple, no matter how d7 voted, cannot exist on love. Would Mrs. Harris be a happier woman to-day If her fcusbandwas a clerk fin a small salary, but LOVE with : fixed 'hours, who came home to ner always at 6 o'clock and was sure of his Satur day half - (holiday and his Sunday with her? "He was alt Wall Street Big r Bust- . ness. 'Sometimes when' he would come In from his office in the even ing -1 h would : ask hlnf to take me to a v. theatre : or a ' dance. Always he would say, To- . morrow, Baby," Mrs.' 'Harris com plains., . . - ' Mrs. Harris draws the picture of "the bird in the gilded cage" so well known to the novelist and' the., dramatist ? Every thing which money, can buy she has. All the artificiali ties of modern life which mean so much to those who do not possess ' them these her -husband has gladly provided. Her lite on the soft cush- . ions of her luxuri ous apartment In one ot New York's, greatest hotels' ; this would appeal . to the factory girl, or the farmer's daughter as a com pie te picture of happiness with .nothing ' wanting. And yet It Is all empty not satisfying. while thing la missing. - "On one occasion he even forgot his -birthday," Mrs. Harris remarked. ? "And that, too, after I had decorated the house -and bought many, many presents for him." - The busy financier, wrapped up Jn the complex complications of Big Business, carries his problems from" the bank to hls home.. Riding up In his automobile from the great financial, institution downtown, he sits In deep thought, seeing nothing out of the windows of his limousine. En grossed in thought, he enters the elevator of the great hotel, passes mechanically into Ms apartments, the buUer removes his coat, hat and takes his gloves and stick. And to his eager wife the man of Big Business receives absent mlndedly the welcoming kiss and setUes himself Into a chair, seeing, hearing nothing, his mind still f ocussed upon the solution of the un- -. solved problem which clung to him when he closed down his desk in the financial district In lower New York. ; ; Dinner in the apartment? Yes. Or down ; in the great dining room? It mattered not. His wife dressed becomingly -for dinner,; and the banker in his customary evening -clothes Seemed not to eee nor hear nor know the presence of anybody or to no tice what the waiter was bringing to the table. -He was all WaU Street Big Busi ness." And after dinner a directors meeting or a conference at some financier's home. ."He didnt understand me. I wanted to be loved," Mrs. Harris moaned. In the midst of everything the didn't care for x ' ' ' "He Was all Wall Street Big Business. Sometimes when he would come in from his office in the even', ing I would ask him toiake me to the the atre, or a dance Al ways he would say, 'To-morrow, Baby.' " 6s- Tn tU8 - WOrr Interesting Photographs ol : Mrs. Beverly D. Harris. Photos by Ira U HI1L she hungered for" the one thing her ; husband couldn't tray lor ner nis . 'time and caresses. A well known novelist In a re- - ' cent interview-Inclined to fear for ' a couple who devoted, too much time to love-making. - - "A man and woman who have nothing t to do but loo each, other can be happy together for not mora than a year or a year and a half," he declared.'- "Then, to perfect their; -union, work must take the place of nature's flagging energy. Against its ebb they must defend themselves and ' their love "by the stimulus of that great human . Interest,- work. The reason why . the marriages' of the rich so often end unhappily is because neither' man nor woman ibas a constructive task . to per - form. - But another writer and student of human emotions and matrimonial mis- -haps writes thus:. . . . . C) 1820. IntaraUoBal Featur 8rvlce. Ino. .. s t -1 , - " - '.. :: M ' -jell's.-: V "This is the ninth commandment of mat rimony: t - - "V - " J "Thou shalt exalt no other place above thy' home;.- neither thy business office nor thy bridge table, nor any cause shalt thou put . before thy home, nor neglect ' thy home for it. ! If the true corespondent were named in the majority of divorce suits, it would not be some blond-baired siren, or some romantic looking Lothario. It would! be Business, or Society, or the Uplift Move ment the writer asserts, and continues: "These are responsible for the breaking up of more homes than the whole bunch of wayward impulses and fickle fancies . . - Great Britain KiliU Boerrd. and straying passions. We Americans are not by nature' a romantic and a' senti mental people. ' ideals appeal to us more than Individuals, and when we make fools' of ourselves, and hash" of our lives,, It is oftener over a thing than it Is a person." Thus It happens that when the average American man neglects his wife and leaves her to go her own gait alone; when he is so little acquainted with his children that they think of him as that man who comes . nere every Sunday, and when he has to -.consult his address book to see where he' lives, it is not because some other woman has stolen his.affecUons away from their,, legitimate owner. - -. r He still thinks-i-when he stops to think of her at all that his wife is the one woman In the world. He theoretically adores hl3 children, and he spends money lavishly on his home, but these aTe not the real Interests of his life. 'The thing of his passionate preoccupation, that he thinks of by day and dreams of by night, that his every hope and ambition centres around; the thihg that makes his pulses thrill, or sends a chill to the marrow of his bones, is Business.; ; It is the husband's absorption in busi ness J that marks the beginning of the parting of the ways of most couples. The man gives hls 'real Interest, his real en thusiasm, to his work, and- not to his home. He hurries through nis breakfast with , the paper propped up before him so that he can read the stock market report, and if his wife tries to talk to him he mumiles an Incoherent reply that shows he hasn't heard a word she said. As soon as he has gulped his coffee and eggs ho Joyously rushes for the car andIs swal lowed up In an alien world from hers. . When he returns at night he is too tired -to want to go out with her to any place of amusement, too tired even to talk. He never has time to go off on little jaunts with her, and when he does take his pleasure he wants to take It with other men with whom he can converse on the only topics In which he Is interested. In all the world there is no other crea ture more wantonly cruel than the husband who is only indifferent to a good wife. It is a terrible thing for a man to pick out a merry, happy, affectionate, warm-heard girl mud win her love and marry her, and thencrush-her cpirit and wreck the happi ness that she had a right to expect Just by carelessness and neglect. .. And all the ' reward that these women ask is so piteously emalL They would bo satisfied with so little. They are such bumble beggars at the door of affection: that ' they would take with gratitude Jst tne husks of a kiss, just a few crumbs ot praise, just the pink lemonade of an oc casional outing. The- busy, absorbed husband never dreams he. Isn't a model husband, because he supports his family, and does nothing for which be could be summoned to the divorce court. , And his wife Is happy, ot conrgej Why shouldn't she be? Wy should she be? She has asked-for bread and she has been" given a stone. She has thought to flndjlove, and she Is given indifference. ' - ; She had expected to f " be cherished and pet ted, and sue is neg lected. . It Is the reward she gets for her years of devotion, of , faithful ness and loyalty. It - Is the pay she receives for the nights that she has watched by sicic beds, or the sacrifices ehe endures, for a de votion to the interests and welfare of a mas ter wtto does not even give her a" word of thanks or an affec tionate sign that he even notes what she does. It isn't accident that turns a pretty, hlgh- - i spirited, gay young girl , in the course of a year or two of matrimony into a hag-; gard, depressed, lack-lustre woman. She has eaten of the dead sea, fruit of a mar riage that has turned to ashes on her lips. in the foregoing is presented the senti mental side of the plaint of the rich bank er's wife. Is It a reasonable picture or is the poet right when he says: V. j"Nothing at all but common sens e ... tCaa ever-withstand these Woes?" ' But this question, "How Much Love Is a Wife Entitled to?" is a great and broad and deep one and cannot be an- - swered by a humorous poet. The subject will be further discussed from new angles next Sunday:
