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: