apathy in municipal matters, are cited as proof of her incapacity of understanding.
I admit the frivolity of her present interests; but I would ask men to remember that it is they who push woman into the social whirlpool, by the mere fact of their eliminating all serious interests from her life as "unwomanly."
Husbands dislike their wives to meddle with politics or any other pursuit or profession which man has decided is his own peculiar affair: they prefer her to concentrate her thoughts on themselves, their home and children; to the feeding of them; the amusing of them. They want their wives to rest them, not to stimulate. They want to leave the sterner side of life, with its responsibilites and need of thought, behind them when they seek their fireside.
But do men ever reflect that while they consider it the woman's duty to eliminate everything from her thoughts which gives no pleasure to men, men themselves never consider it their duty to spend the whole of their time making their minds over to the pattern the woman would prefer for them to copy?
The wife, kept all day in her home, taught to concentrate her every thought on the charming and the pleasing of her husband, desires—naturally—constant proof and profession of his love from her husband. This exigency soon bores the husband. After the first few months of married life, his passion has quietened: he is no longer dominated by it. His business and political interests come back again: he does not want to spend his days in devotion to his wife. His club calls him; sport; his men
