Three stories about men.

This man, from an 1870 newspaper ad, doesn't look like he would be at all afraid of a milliner's shop.

The husband of the future: The model husband walks out with his wife on a week day and is not afraid of a milliner’s shop. He even has change when asked for it and never alludes to it afterward. He is not above carrying a large bundle or umbrella or even holding the baby in his lap in an omnibus. He runs on first to knock at the door when it is raining. He gets outside if the cab is full. He goes to bed first in cold weather. He gets up at night to rock the cradle or answer the door bell. He believes in hysterics and is melted instantly by a tear. He patches up a quarrel with a velvet glove and drives away the sulks with a trip to Central Park. He never flies out about his buttons nor brings home friends to supper. He respects the curtains and never smokes in the house. He never invades the kitchen and would no more think of “blowing up” at any of the servants than of ordering dinner. He is innocent of a latch key. He lets the family go out of town once every year while he remains at home with one knife and fork, sits on a brown Holland chair, sleeps on a curtain-less bed, and has a char woman to wait on him. He is very easy and affectionate, remembering the wedding anniversary regularly. The Holmes County Republican, (Millersburg, Ohio] September 8, 1870.
 

The well-dressed man in 1910.

Mr. and Mrs. F.F. Bartels of Eldorado, Kansas, celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary on July 15, 1920. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bartels do the cooking and housework and Mr. Bartels has a fine garden as well as many beautiful flowers. They have eight children who were all present to celebrate this occasion. There were also eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren present at this occasion. 

They have one son, deceased, who died in a hospital in St. Louis after an operation in 1910.

A bountiful dinner was served to the family at two o’clock and in the evening about one hundred friends of the family gather on the lawn which was lighted with electric lights. The Liberal Democrat, (Liberal, Kansas) July 29, 1920.

 

The well dressed man in 1921.

And one last story for today - this one about a dead man:

In the English court of appeal has just been concluded a remarkable trial in which the question at issue was: Can a dead man be divorced by law? Under the English law a decree nisi for divorce is granted and the divorce is not completed until six months afterwards. In the case in point the nisi decree was made and the husband died before the six months had been expired. The question was whether his relict was a widow or a divorced wife and on the decision hung the distribution of a considerable amount of property. The court decided that a decree nisi was not a dissolution of the marriage and that consequently the man was not divorced at the time of his death. It would therefore necessarily follow that he could not be divorced after death any more than he could be married or condemned.

None will question the propriety of the law here laid down but how much better it would be if men and women did not rush rashly into matrimony! The society-breaking divorce courts would be unnecessary and marriage would be elevated in dignity from its present fallen state. If divorces were not so easily procured, husbands and wives would bear with one another’s failings and not blazon to the world the shameful story of their misdeeds that are rendered necessary to secure legal separation. The Lancaster Daily Intelligencer, (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) April 10, 1886.