Had a nice wander through the Bulimba bookshops today. The Riverbend Bookshop over there has a pretty good range for a suburban bookshop – plenty of art books and a nice range of history ones too – I can always find something to add to my library there…. it’s as dangerous for my credit card as CD shops used to be back in the late 80s 🙂 Today I found the other little book of Don’ts that I was keeping an eye out for – Don’ts for Husbands by Blanche Ebbutt.
The last one had some absolutely priceless little pearls of wisdom and this one does too.
Don’t try to “drive” your wife. You will find it much easier to lead her.
Don’t delegate the carving to your wife on the plea that you “can’t” carve. You should be ashamed to own that you can’t do a litte thing as well as a woman can. Besides, a man ought to take the head of his own table.
Don’t scowl or look severe. Cultivate a pleasant expression if Nature hasn’t blessed you with one.
Don’t insist on having gorgonzola or other strong-smelling cheese on the on the table or the sideboard twice a day when you know the odour makes your wife feel ill.. After all, it is a small thing to forgo in comparison with your wife’s comfort.
Don’t forget to buy your wife a pair of gloves occasionally. She will always be pleased to have them.
Don’t omit to learn to dance as soon as you get married, if your education has been neglected before. Your wife will lose half her pleasures if you can’t dance.
Don’t let your wife pledge your credit beyond what is necessary and reasonable. She must learn to cut her coat according to her cloth. (Poppycock I say! 🙂
Don’t neglect to insure your life for a reasonable sum. .Then you will at least know that your wife will not be left in actual want if you die suddenly. *
Don’t expect your wife to wait on you hand and foot. She is good for other things than to fetch and carry for you. If you don’t exact it, it will give her pleasure to wait on you to a reasonable extent. (WTF?)
and lastly …
Don’t hang about the house all day if your occupation does not take you abroad. Spend regular hours in your study or “den” … but don’t inflict your company on your wife every minute of every day. She is fond of you, but she wants to be free of you sometimes. And she has business to do, even if you haven’t.
Thank goodness I was born when I was… for I’m fairly certain I would not have made any man a good wife 100 years ago…. that is if I was fortunate enough to have found the good favour of some gentleman so as he might wish to marry me!
* For surely the loss of one’s husband is far easier to bear if one is able to grieve in Tuscany or Thailand … or maybe Tahiti would be nice 🙂
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little book