Chapter X · (continued 2)

7.

Count H. has been married for many years, but lives on the most unpleasant terms with his wife, and devotes his spare time to the society of prostitutes. The scum of the street form his favourite associates; but his voluptuous adventures carry him also into family life, and no respectable middle-class wife or girl, however innocent, is safe from his advances, which are all the more incredible because he is quite an old man and completely impotent. He uses all possible means to make the woman of his choice compliant—presents, promises, threats.

8.

Dr. S., husband of an immoral wife, public official, libertine, philosopher, enjoying a small secured income. Lives with his wife on a footing which permits both parties unlimited freedom. The worthy couple devote their whole energies to earning money by their industry, in part by secret prostitution on the part of the wife, in part by direct and indirect procurement by the holding of piquant evening parties for youthful members of the aristocracy. The family has an extraordinary vogue. Persons of high position are engaged in confidential intercourse with them; young girls of the better classes gladly attend their soirées, since there they meet the élite of the young aristocracy, rich Jews, and officers. This interesting pair get through an almost incredible amount of money; they keep a magnificent carriage, they have a country house, a valuable collection of pictures, etc. It is only from their servants that both of them receive little respect, since the male portion of the household subserve the lustful desires of the wife, the female domestics those of the husband, and all must be initiated into the secrets of the household industry.

9.

Dr. U. was till recently an old bachelor, who had never wished to share his property with a wife and children, and found it much cheaper and more agreeable to impregnate servant-girls and other neglected characters than to keep a mistress, or to seek his pleasures in the street. Finally, becoming infirm at sixty-two years of age, and needing nursing, on account of an occasional gouty swelling of the leg, he discovered that it was not good for man to be alone. Having rank and wealth, it would have been easy for him to find a young and pretty girl who, under the title of wife, would have undertaken to play the part of sick nurse. But the old practitioner knew too well the value of what he had to offer to throw himself away on a poor girl. He considered that it would be reasonable to choose such a partner that he would not be obliged to divide his income, and to find some one to take care of him in his old age who would cost him nothing at all, but would rather provide for her own needs. He thought less, therefore, of youth than of property, less of beauty than of thrifty habits; and finally found an old maid, a woman with some property, who, on account of a somewhat unattractive exterior, had failed to obtain a husband. Now one can see the prudent husband, who is as faithful to his wife as the gout is faithful to him, walking from time to time in the street on the arm of his life companion, whose aspect is somewhat discontented. She still wears the same clothes which she wore before her marriage, and which have a sufficiently shabby appearance, but she endures her lot with patience, because she is now greeted as “gnädige Frau,” and people kiss her hand, as they did not do formerly.

10.

Count J., a man of unblemished character, lived for some time a happy married life. The increasing age of the wife, however, associated with the exceptional constitution of the Count, whose youth seemed remarkably enduring, led to scenes of jealousy, which embittered the life of both. We can hardly suppose that this jealousy is altogether unfounded; but surely it is a matter for regret that two human beings of distinctly noble character should by marriage be exposed to lifelong unhappiness.

11.

Herr von K., a young merchant in the wholesale trade, is married to the daughter of a man of position, and the wife by a rich dowry helped to found her husband’s fortunes; hence she enjoys the distinction over other wives that her husband pretends a great tenderness for her, and conceals his indiscretions with the greatest possible care. For this reason, she has always been devoted to him; she regards him as the example for all other husbands, as a true phenomenon in the midst of an utterly depraved world of immoral men. And as an actual fact, if one sees this man, how he lives in appearance only for his business, with what delicate modesty he avoids any conversation about loose women, if one hears him zealously preach against husbands who deceive their wives, how inconceivable it is to him that a man should find any pleasure in immoral women—one would be willing to swear that he is everything that his wife enthusiastically describes him to be. But some wags amongst his acquaintances, by taking incredible pains, discovered that this honourable merchant had no less than seven mistresses, two of whom belonged to the class of prostitutes, two to the class of grisettes; the remaining three had been decent middle-class women. To these last he presented himself under various names and in the most diverse forms—now as attaché to an embassy, now as an officer, now as a journeyman mechanic. To all these latter mistresses he had promised marriage, and by a succession of presents, oaths, and lies, he had in each case attained his end, and thereafter abandoned them without remorse to the consequences of the adventure, whilst he himself set out to seek in a fresh quarter of the town new sacrifices for the altar of his lusts. Since he never had anything to do with known prostitutes and procuresses, but by personal pains provided the materials for his pleasures, he succeeded both as a merchant and as a husband in preserving the reputation of a man free from illicit passion and deserving of all confidence.

12.

Major W., a distinguished officer, a man of honour in every respect, had in youth married a chambermaid, naturally, as one can imagine, from pure inclination. But the marriage remained barren, because the wife suffered from organic troubles; and soon her sexual powers were completely extinguished. Whilst the husband still remained virile, the wife was already an old woman, suffering from spasmodic and other affections, surrounded always by medicine-bottles and medical appliances, always ill-humoured and nagging, a true torment for the good-natured and amiable husband. The latter bears with Christian patience and inexhaustible love the ill-humour of his wife; but Nature is less pliable than his kind heart: his conjugal tenderness diminishes, and his ardent temperament seeks other outlets for the gratification of his natural sexual desires. The sick wife notices this coolness, and revenges herself by a refined cruelty. She knows that sulkiness on her part makes him ill and miserable; she therefore afflicts him with coldness of manner, and by jealousy and ill-temper she makes his life a hell. There occur horrible scenes of domestic brawling, which more than once have led the husband to attempt to end his troubles by suicide. He suffers in a threefold fashion: by the continued irritation of his healthy natural impulse, by the illnesses he contracts in gratifying that impulse, and by the sorrows of his really loved wife. He imposes upon himself a voluntary celibacy in order that he may not make her ill; but this sacrifice does not suffice, it does not make his wife gentler towards him. She demands from him, tacitly, all the ardency of the bridegroom; there is no rescue possible from this inferno. The husband surrenders himself to a quiet despair. He is faithful in his vocation; he lives only for the wife, who torments him continually. The neighbours see a very unedifying example of an extremely unhappy marriage, originally contracted as a pure love match, and none the less entailing martyrdom alike on husband and wife.

Note.—That in Vienna the conjugal conditions so graphically described in the above extracts are still much the same as formerly, and that marriage needs and marriage lies are there exceptionally painful is shown by the foundation in Vienna of a “Society for Marriage Reform,” which sent to the Assembly of German Jurists, meeting at Kiel in the beginning of September, 1906, the telegraphic request that they would undertake a revision of Austrian marriage law, since hitherto no cure had been found for unhappy marriage in Austria, no divorce was possible, and those who had obtained a judicial separation could, according to Canon Law, sue one another on account of adultery (cf. Neue Freie Presse, No. 15108, September 13, 1906). It is hardly credible, but, according to a report in the Berlin Aerzte-Correspondenz, 1907, No. 8, it is true, that the Medical Court of Honour for the town of Berlin and the province of Brandenburg, in the year of our Lord 1906, punished physicians on the ground of adultery!