Part 16

If a wife will give a man time and will play the attractive game as she did before marriage, her husband will soon turn his face homeward, and will wonder what the other charm was.

Many men are attracted by youth alone and after youth has flown they are not interested. A wife should study the fancies of her husband if she desires to hold him, and then begin work upon herself, to hold her youthful looks.

Wives must prepare for the dangerous age which they say comes to a woman between thirty-five and forty-five, and to a man from forty to fifty, when both are accused of being attracted to younger faces, and when they do foolish things. A wife must strengthen herself, lest she stray, and cultivate her own attractive powers lest her husband should incline to stray.

A man does not age as quickly as a woman. At fifty a woman is supposed to be on her decline while a man is in his prime at fifty.

It is a woman's own fault if, at forty the lines in her face turn down and if her hair and teeth are all gone. If she is a "nagger" the reflection will appear in her face. If she has permitted household cares to swamp her, and reflect themselves in her face and body, she has no one to blame but herself.

Many a woman has attracted her husband through her singing, conversation, or other accomplishments and after marriage has permitted these to decline, and has not lived up to the ideal that she gave him before marriage.

A wife should ask herself if she is living up to the ideal she suggested before she married, or if she is a disappointment, before she questions her husband's conduct.

Some wives think that their morality in wifehood is all sufficient. A woman may boast of her "virtue" until doom's day, but "if her soul is small and her heart stingy" her example is not worthy of imitation--for she is only good to herself. She has no way of proving the ownership of the "virtue of virtues." It takes many virtues to make one "good," in the real sense of the word.

A colored wife should not be discontented without good cause nor should she complain of monotony when she may choose so many helpful diversions, and may help to make others happy.

Every colored wife who has not borne children, or a wife who has lost children owes a duty to the children of others.

In fact, these owe a greater debt to posterity than the mother. Such women should not live for themselves alone, lest they canker. Contact with youth infuses youthful thoughts and enthusiasm, and keeps a woman's heart young, and if her heart is young her face will reflect this mental attitude.

There are thousands of children with living mothers who still need "mothering." One may work out her own youth and beauty culture while "mothering" a little one. It is worth a trial as a youth stimulant.

There are four great laws given to a wife:

"Brace up! Brush up! Clean up! Look up!"

The Colored Mother Beautiful.

When a woman enters into the marriage contract--into the partnership of home making--it is understood that parenthood is to be the chief aim and hope.

If a man is good enough to marry and to contribute his support, he is good enough to be a father or else he should not have been selected.

A woman who marries and does not intend to have children is merely an object of convenience who has sold herself.

To assume the position of colored motherhood is the greatest privilege and responsibility that can come to any woman in this age.

The colored mother beautiful carries a heavy burden--the weight of future generations of a handicapped, persecuted people. She may bless or curse each succeeding generation; she may change race history; she may make a more beautiful race with the beauty that comes from beauty of character and right living.

What a privilege to carve the destiny of a race! How glorious to look into the future and see lines of ancestry influenced and advanced by her thought and example, to see her stamp of personality upon a posterity which will point to her in pride and thankfulness!

The time has come when each colored girl must prepare herself for this rare privilege, when she must distribute her powers and talents for race good.

Whatever the colored mother is, millions of colored children will be. A colored mother lives not only for herself and for her own children, but she must live for the race. A colored mother is a success as she measures up to her relation and obligation to the race.

Negro children of all children need mothers who are strong spiritually, physically, and intellectually. Enough colored children have been born under bad or careless conditions. The child born under bad conditions can not be expected to hold his own among other children.

No woman has a right to blight the future of her race. Not even her body may be abused--this beautiful casket--the treasure house of future souls. Any crime that she commits against herself or her body she commits against the race.

Almost any colored mother would lay down her life for her children but she must have a wider vision into the scheme of life and the world, and must deliberately plan to make her grand-children and great grand-children healthier, happier and more useful.

While it is admitted that heredity is not all, yet inherited tendencies have great influence.

The colored mother beautiful must be a living example of all that is progressive. She must study more about the laws of heredity, and child culture to prepare the child for its race battle, unhampered by inherited mental or physical tendencies.