SUNSHINE AND YOUNG MOTHERS.
Folly.—For girls to expect to be happy without marriage. Every woman was made for a mother; consequently, babies are as necessary to their “peace of mind,” as health. If you wish to look at melancholy and indigestion, look at an old maid. If you would take a peep at sunshine, look in the face of a young mother.
“Young mothers and sunshine!” They are worn to fiddle-strings before they are twenty-five! When an old lover turns up, he thinks he sees his grandmother, instead of the dear little Mary who used to make him feel as if he should crawl out of the toes of his boots! Yes! my mind isquitemade up aboutmatrimony; it’s aone-sidedpartnership.
“Husband” gets up in the morning, and pays hisdevoirsto the looking-glass; curls his fine head of hair; puts on an immaculate shirt bosom; ties an excruciating cravat; sprinkles his handkerchief with cologne; stows away a French roll, an egg, and a cup of coffee; gets into the omnibus, looks at the pretty girls, and makes love between the pauses of business during the forenoongenerally. Wife must “hermetically seal” the windows and exclude all the fresh air (because the baby had “the snuffles” in the night); and sits gasping down to the table, more dead than alive, to finish her breakfast. Tommy turns a cup of hot coffee down his bosom; Juliana has torn off the strings of her school bonnet; James “wants his geography covered;” Eliza can’t find her satchel; the butcher wants to know if she’d like a joint of mutton; the milkman would like his money; the iceman wants to speak to her “just a minute;” the baby swallows a bean; husband sends the boy home from the store to sayhis partnerwill dine with him; the cook leaves “all flying,” to go to her “sister’s dead baby’s wake,” and husband’s thin coat must be ironed before noon.
“Sunshine and young mothers!” Where’s my smelling-bottle?