Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 1, Number 14, DeMotte, Jasper County, 27 October 1932 — THE HELPFUL WIFE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE HELPFUL WIFE

By THOMAS ARKLE CLARK

Late Dean of Men, University of Illinois.

It was the consensus of opinion in the neighborhood that Mrs. Bronson

was a great help to her husband. In point of fact she was really the brains of the combination as women not infrequently are. He had been made into a teacher by long training and experience while she had been born one and had been kept from distinction through having to look after her

household affairs and to prod him along. He was a scientist, or at least he

was engaged in teaching science, and it was Mrs. Bronson who read the scientific journals regularly and kept her husband advised of what was going on in scientific circles. She got his material ready for him whether he was making a speech upon some recent scientific discovery or doing an experiment which involved apparatus or materials of any sort. She could have done the work better than he was doing it, only she was satisfied to look after her household and merely to be a help to her husband. The Grover family was considered in very good circumstances. Grover had never had a large salary, but it was adequate, and more than what was required to keep the family comfortably. In fact, however, Grover knew very little about investments and business in general. He just knew how to take care of the particular job which he was holding. It was Mrs. Grover who got the circulars and booklets and general advice from bond houses and investment organizations and who developed a rather keen intelligence as to what should be done with money in order to invest it safely for exigencies of the rainy day. She had the key to the safety deposit box that was in Grover’s name. She cut the coupons, she made the bank deposits, and she knew exactly what investments they had and how they were distributed. She was in reality the financial manager of the firm, and without her Grover would very likely have been insolvent. She got very little credit for her helpfulness, however. Downs is quite generally spoken of as the best dressed man in town. He deserves no great credit for his careful appearance. It is his wife who packs his bag when he is leaving for a trip; it is she who looks him over and pulls him into shape before he leaves in the morning. She brushes him off and sees that he is properly groomed. She’s the helpful wife. ©, 1932, Western Newspaper Union.