A MODEL HUSBAND | The Sunday Times of Memphis recently solicited essays from all its young lady friends, on the subject of a model husband. Numerous contributions were received in response, and from amongst the many, the committee selected the following, which despite its brevity does infinite credit to the head and heart of its fair young author, Miss Lillian B. Perry, of Covington, Tennessee:
“If I wished to marry, (which of course I do not), I would desire a man too noble to commit a mean act, but generous enough to forgive one. A man as gentle as a woman, as manly as a man; one who does not talk scandal nor disagreeable truths. A man whose name I would be proud to bear; to whom I could carry my doubts and perplexities, and with whom I would find sympathy and joy.”
[A Model Husband; The Mississippian; Jackson, Miss; 13 May 1891; Pg 4]
The Model Husband
Miss. Perry won a Prize With Her Essay, Also a Husband.
Last winter the Sunday Times, of Memphis, offered a prize of $20 to the young woman who should write the best letter or essay on “The Model Husband.” Miss Lillian B. Perry, of Covington, Tenn., won the prize.
The letter was copied in the Minneapolis Tribune, where Fremont Reed, a banker and rich business man of that city, saw it. He much admired the beautiful sentiment. Going to New York he came across the letter reprinted in one of the metropolitan journals. Reaching Chicago on his return, he read the prize letter in a Chicago paper. By this time he felt sure that his fate was interwoven with that of the fair unknown essayist. Mr. Reed wrote to her asking to be allowed to correspond. She answered no letters of this kind, as she received many. Mr. Reed was persistent and wrote a second letter, and enclosed endorsements, and Miss Perry then consented to correspond with her unknown admirer. Later, Mr. Reed visited her. A second visit ended in a promise to be his wife. Yesterday he arrived in this city, and in the afternoon they were married at the bride’s home. Mr. Reed is thirty-five years old and handsome. The bride is a typical Southern beauty, and the daughter of a once wealthy family, impoverished by the war, and though reared in a country town, is a young woman of rare accomplishments.
[A Model Husband; The Clarion-Ledger; Jackson, Miss; 29 Oct 1891; Pg 2]
