Page:Love and its hidden history.djvu/42

 thought concerning the causes of much of the abuse heaped upon women, and that cause is jealousy:—

"Whatever else you may abuse, never abuse a woman. Always remember you had a mother, perhaps you have a sister, maybe a wife. It is cowardly, mean, unjust. If any act deserves the pillory, then does this. The very fact of her sex should make her exempt from all that is coarse, unkind, or cruel. No genuine man ever yet abused a woman. As soon expect to see a dart of lightning in the blue sky of June, a rose in the snow-bank of January, a gift from a miser, a great act from a mean soul, as a real man abusing a woman."

Now, if a woman suspects her husband or lover, she generally flies off into vehement anger, and pursues the identical course to make matters a great deal worse, for human nature is a very crooked stick. All the citizens of a town might not want to go outside of its limits in a month; but you just pass a law that they shall not go, and every soul of them will quit within a day. Just so with husbands. If they get the name, they will be very likely to run after the game. I have a woman in my mind's eye for whom every sacrifice was' made by the man she called husband, yet that man was never allowed to even speak to another female, even in her presence, without being followed by a jealous storm that so embittered his whole life that death was preferable — even by suicide. He began by giving her the full volume of as earnest love as his high soul possessed; and yet that woman outraged his whole being until he was glad to give her almost his last dollar and leave her for the sake of rest. What made the matter worse was that she was jealous of all women, not one of whom had at first the slightest power over him, but when driven from the home of his heart, he sought the society of one upon whom he never would have cast a thought but for the unreasonable jealousy in his home.

Men — husbands — are often stone blind at the very time their eyes ought to be wide open. They — all men — are oblivious of the fact that all women have their moods. There are often seasons — especially pre and anti catamenial ones — wherein she feels the absolute necessity of endearment, caresses, affection, and pure, unsullied love. She wants, and ought to be, ! But just as soon as, by her endearments, she betrays this great