The Citizen Republican

AFTER SIX YEARS OF MARRIED LIFE WOULD LET THE WOMEN WORK

From the New York American.

Philip Boileau, the celebrated portrait painter, and creator of "The Boileau Girl," has solved a domestic problem in an original way, and in so doing has made a rule for the government of the home and the management of wives.

He has lost his wife, yet kept her.

No single woman should go out into "the fray which is called earning a living" is his discovery, "but every woman who has been married for six years should have that right." Mr. Boileau's reason for this belief is purely his own. All life, he says is the pursuit of an ideal. It is human to chase the will o' the wisp of what we believe is perfect. Art, business, marriage, all conform to this truth. When a girl weds she marries her ideal, or as nearly her ideal as she can find. If he is a fairly decent fellow, in Mr. Boileau's opinion, he can hold loyally to that ideal. And what happens? The wife has acquired her unit of measurement, by which she estimates other men. Her husband, Mr. Boileau says, is the standard by which she measures all other men, and it is his own fault if he fails to keep that standard in the family. Guided by the standard it is safe for the wife to go forth and conquer the world, or that portion of it which she wishes to subdue. There is then no temptation in the society of other men.

But, on the other hand, argues Mr. Boileau, the unmarried woman has not found her ideal. At least she has not lived side by side with him for years. Therefore is she without a standard of measurement, and association with unscrupulous men she may meet in her career may be her undoing.

Six years of apprenticeship as a wife are a necessary prelude to livelihood earning, to his mind. The husband and wife have been adjusted their natures and tastes to each other. The standard is fixed. In other words, matrimony is a preparatory school for livelihood earning. If the wife is a good student she may safely be graduated into the world after six years.

Mr. Boileau has the courage of his theory. The beautiful Miss Emily Gilbert, whom he married six years ago, after she had been for a brief time his model, has changed his mind about being wholly satisfied with domestic life. When she was married she said: "Although I was preparing to go upon the stage, I am happy to be only a wife and a housekeeper."

But she has grown restless in the well-ordered studio at No. 11 West Thirtieth street in New York and the summer home at Douglaston, L. I.

"There isn't enough in my home to occupy my mind and time," she says. "Mr. Boileau is one of those men who is a natural housekeeper. He directs everything as easily and smoothly as though he waved a wand and said 'presto,' and it is done. We have no children and what could I do? Naturally, I thought of the preparation and encouragement I had received at the dramatic school. I asked him what he thought of my going on the stage and to my delight he answered: 'If you wish, Emily, certainly.' If all husbands were so kind and broadminded as mine there would be few divorces and few unhappy wives."

Mr. Boileau is happy in having married his ideal. For years he had been winning fame by the Boileau girls he drew; tender, sweet, sympathetic, the essence of delicate femininity. He met Miss Emily Gilbert and realized that ideal. She has had a strong influence upon his work in the six years since their marriage.