attention. Children are the first to occupy a woman's attention after her marriage; but if she is obliged to work, she makes up for her absence with a nursemaid versed in the principles of upbringing. In the small towns the mother does not work: she is the mistress of her house and the manager of her family's affairs. And I believe that a mother, wherever she may be, should not go out into the field of work unless necessity overtakes her. It is understood of the American woman that she does her housework herself — a maid costs a considerable sum of her means — but she calls in a woman who comes once a week for the heavy work. And this is what makes the man feel at home in his house, unlike the men of this country; for the American father is the most important part of the household, and not merely for earning the livelihood.
Here, the men spend their leisure hours in a café, where they sit with their companions — men likewise; this is rare in America, for a man's time of rest belongs to his family, and he spends it within the home, his wife keeping him company in it. When a woman feels the responsibility of her home and the companionship of her husband, she draws him to spend as much time as possible in the house.
As for divorce in America, it results from the lack of harmony between the two persons; neither poverty nor childlessness is the essential cause. If the American man tries to sit with his wife for several hours together and finds no happiness in them, he counts his marriage a failure. Here the
woman is not her husband's friend, and the reason for that is that social conditions stand in the way of friendship between the sexes at all the stages of life. And the failure of the American
marriage goes back to our asking much of it: for us it is not merely an idea of security and procreation, but success in friendship, and harmony in thinking and inclinations.
