Show Kathleen Norris Says June Junc Brides Begin Begirt to Complain i About L Husbands I Bell Syndicate Bervic j jI I L rr I q 0 0 I d I 1 k 1 1 I Ie ie e j A d Oil i 00 a If I i 1 hand my husband and a towel el he lee drift dries only o one plate Then hell he'll sit i down chattering b but w he lee never neveT helps help 1 By KATHLEEN NORRIS HAVE VE a crop of letters from I June brides and I wish all the fathers and mothers of the brides and bridegrooms could read them Apparently young men and girls step into matrimony nowadays as entirely unfitted for the obligations of the new life as they were at the respective ages of five and three years Strangely enough they are all well-informed well on the physical side aide Forty years ago girls knew nothing nothing noth ing of that They dreamed bashful dreams of the realities of wifehood but nobody told them anything mothers and teachers shrank away from the simple biological truth and babies were born in cabbage leaves It is different today In high school and college everything of that sort is discussed diagrammed ana Not infrequently actual experimental experimental ex making love goes coes on Old-fashioned Old mothers frequently appeal to me sending me the text textbooks textbooks textbooks books upon which small girls and boys batten In our schools but all educational boards are for open and frank trank dealing In the matter malter Victorian Victori an reticence is prurience and Infancy In In- fancy tancy babbles lightheartedly upon subjects once reserved for the In all other ways the marriages of our young people are left to chance There are no moral rules no ethical rules to hamper them The new wife expects to do always and in everything exactly what she likes the young husband has never been crossed or disciplined in his life When the first shock of their contending wills occurs It staggers them They cant can't believe It They often decide to end their marriage then and there Hundreds of divorces dl di ensue It would be InterestIng interesting Interest Interest- Ing to know exactly how many take place in the first year it is an appalling appalling appalling ap ap- palling number A Few Samples From these letters aforementioned I 1 offer a few quotations The They are typical of hundreds some are despairing despairing de de- some humorous some puzzled Mother never talked to me about how selfish and childish men are says say one Not knowing a thing about budgets housework cooking and nd marrying the dearest man inthe In Inthe inthe the world on an income of 1000 a year Im I'm In horrible trouble confesses con con- confesses a second A third wife is thoroughly discouraged not because he Is mean or drinks or doesn't hand over his pay check she writes but he Is so dumb Hell let me set the table clear the table pull back the chairs brush up the floor clean the kitchen wash the dishes and put them away she says without ever offering so much muchas as to wipe a spoon If I hand him hima a towel he does one plate wiping round and round it it and apparently not thinking at all what hes he's doing Hell He'll sit backwards on a chair chattering chat with me moving when my Broom comes his way but he never I helps In our room dirty linen goes goe goeson goeson on the floor camera and films raI rat ra ra- I t dio dlo records letters books are all aU allover allover over everything Hell He'll let me carry the picnic out to the car and up the hill bill he never thanks or tips a waiter wait walt Wash er at gas stations hell he'll say these windows will you and sit smoking and talking with me while some ome nice fellow works for us us not even saying Thank you you as we drive away lIes lIe's always natured good-natured enough if I f pointedly ask him to do something but half haU the time he doesn't do it This morning I gave him his white shoes and aDd mine and asked him to clean them and when I t went out on the porch be he was wu making a sling shot to annoy the neighbors' neighbors cats and he be went on making it while I cleaned the shoes That's one kind of husband The fascinating college graduate of 22 who married Elise last June Is different dif dif- different ferent feren t. t Nettled by Ills rus Stinginess Thorny exasperates me until Im I'm all aB but a nervous wreck writes Ellse Elise from Wilmington Del His father divorced his mother because I she was so extravagant and it seems to have affected him I never noticed noticed no no- Iced it while we were engaged but now he be doesn't want to spend a cent Everything our Everything our home our comfort the question of having a baby is estimated in terms of cost He asks me at dinner at-dinner dinner what the chops cost wasted butter annoys him and if some friends come in and drink up our cocktails and smoke our cigarettes ciga reties be he gets wild at them We have a small Income but were we're not as poor as that comes to Id I'd rather be In one room and be happy and easy about It it than scrimp In a pretty room five apartment What to do dot Then theres there's Emily whose new husband she complains is still still just a bachelor He had four years In college I three In law school and three in his own bachelor apartment writes Emily and I 1 thought I was lucky to get a husband with no family to complicate matters I But Jim simply doesn't get the Idea of being mar mar- red ried Hell He'll bring four men home unexpectedly for dinner and when I look startled he laughs and says I Its not up to you darling Tom here is doing the steaks and we got gota a lot of beer and Saratoga chips Then they proceed to get the kitchen into the most terrible mess scatter catter cigarette ashes over everything every thing use up every pan and bowl Inthe In hi hithe inthe the place and presently they're all playing poker in the room dining as oblivious to my existence as 81 if I were a fly The Sport Loving Husband Jim sends me word hes he's playing golf goU wont won't be home to dinner Last week he and three men went fishing fishing fish fish- ing there were no women on the trip but on the way home bome they stopped at Toms Tom's house bouse for dinner and be he wasn't back until midnight Am I a fussy fUSBY cry baby that this doesn't satisfy me My mother and anda a married sister live near and I Ican Ican Ican can always go to them but I get ashamed of explaining what Jims Jim's doing These are a few of the problems problem And over and over again comes the Innocently surprised complaint The trouble Is Is hes he's selfish As A. If H we weren't all aU selfish Two-thirds Two of this trouble could have been spared by wise mothers mothers who wha tr trained their sons song and daughters In self control and coo coa Mothers who made i It natural for them to talk over expenses ex and pl plans plane ns before marriage |