Fair to Look Upon | Page 4

a spear or javelin, instead of causing an appeal to the divorce
courts, as they do in this civilized and enlightened generation. And I
believe that, after all, the old way is the better one, for when men and
women die, they are dead, but when they are only divorced they are
awfully alive sometimes.
[Illustration: "AND THE MEN WATCHED TO SEE HER GO BY."]
And it came to pass, when they arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians "beheld
the woman that she was very fair," and the men watched on the street
corners to see her go by; and she passed herself as a giddy maiden with
such unrivaled success that she gained a notoriety that would have
made the fortune of a modern actress, and the princes of Pharaoh
commended her wit, beauty and grace to the king, "and the woman was
taken into Pharaoh's house."
The attentive reader will observe that Holy Writ, in speaking of a
woman, never deigns to say that she is virtuous, industrious, obedient,
or a good cook, but seems to ignore everything but the fact that "she
was fair to look upon."
That was all that seemed to be required of the "holy women of old."
And Pharaoh "entreated Abraham well for Sarah's sake" (you notice
they did everything to please the ladies in those days), and loaded him
with riches, presents and honors; and Pharaoh's wives and sub-wives
and cadet wives didn't like it. And the Secretary of the Treasury, the
Prime Minister and the High Lord Chamberlain of the Bedchamber
didn't like it. The neighbors began to talk openly; the scandal "smelled
to heaven;" and the Lord Himself had to interfere to head the fair Sarah
off, and He "plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues,
because of Sarah, Abraham's wife."
And then--after the preliminary amorous clasping of hands, the little
caressing attentions, the lingering kisses; after the fiery expectation and

the rapture of possession, after all this came--as it always does--the
tragedy of satiety and separation.
"And Abraham went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife and all that he
had."
[Illustration: "AND THE WOMAN WAS TAKEN INTO
PHARAOH'S HOUSE."]
Yet Peter, in speaking of the duties of wives, has the temerity to refer to
the "holy women of old," and holds Sarah up as a bright and shining
example for us to follow, saying, "even as Sarah obeyed Abraham,
calling him lord." But we won't lay this up against Peter, for it is a
telling fact (and shows the predicament he was in) that he had to go
back nearly two thousand years to find an obedient woman. There were
evidently none in his day, but as he wished to make his teaching
effective and submit some proof to clinch his argument, he went back
to Sarah and said, "even as Sarah obeyed Abraham," which shows he
had never gotten at the real facts in the lovely Sarah's career, or else
was misrepresenting Sarah to carry his point in favor of the men.
A careful perusal of my Bible convinces me that the "holy women of
old," as Peter dubs them, were all afflicted with a chronic determination
to have their own way--and they had it.
But the men were always obedient to the women, and each one
"hearkened unto the voice of his wife" and also obeyed God and the
angels.
At this point in the history of the affable Sarah and the dutiful Abraham
we come to the Abraham-Hagar case, and find the hired-girl question
already agitating society.
And the historian tells us that Sarah told Abraham that he could have
Hagar for his very own, and then the narrator naively remarks, "And
Abraham hearkened unto the voice of his wife."
But of course this is a vile slander against Sarah, and, at this late day, I

rise to refute the charge.
Probably some of Abraham's political friends, when the disgrace broke
forth in all its rosy glory, trumped up this story about Sarah's consent to
save his reputation. But Sarah never did anything of the kind, as her
subsequent actions prove. It isn't human nature; it isn't wifely nature;
and although Sarah was a little gay-hearted herself, she wasn't going to
stand any such nonsense--to speak lightly--from Abraham, and when
she discovered his intimacy with the hired girl she quietly called him
into the tent, and in less than ten seconds she made his life a howling
wilderness. I don't know exactly what she said (as I wasn't there), but it
ended, as such scenes usually do end, by the dear man repenting. For,
since he is found out, what else can a man do? He said he was sorely
tempted, no doubt, and so forth and so on to the end of the chapter, and