Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1853-08-17
Ca0ies' department,
ApAuGHrER,s MARRIAGE.

We find the following floating about with,
out claimant. Itis one of the purest gems
we have ever met with-full of truth and
sentiment:
The departure Of a son from beneath the
parental roof, does not present a spectacle
of desolation. Masculine life has, from in.
foncy, an individual life, and independence,
an exotism, SO to say, which is essentially
wanting to female exi, ,tence.-When son
abandons his parents, to create for himself
separate interest, this separation causes
but little interruption in their mutual rela-
tons. 4 man marries, and still maintains
his friendships, his habits, and his 6lial affec-
tions. Nothing is changed in his life !; it is
only an additional tfe. His departure is con-
sequently a mere, simple separation; while
the departure of a young girl, the wife Of a
few hours, is real desertion-a desertion
with all its duties and feelings still fresh
about it.
In one word, the son is sapling which
has always grown apart from the trunk ;
while the daughter has, on the contrary,
formed an essential portion Of it; and to de-
tach her from her place is to mutilate the
tree ITSELF You have surrounded her youth
with unspeaknble tenderness-the exhaust
less tenderness of your paternal and mater
nal hearts and she, in return has appeared
to pour forth upon you both an equally in
exhaustible gratitude; you loved beyond all
the world, and she seemed to cling to you
with a proportionate affection.
But one day, one ill.fated day, man ar
rives, invited and welcomed by yourselves /;
ard this man OF your own choice, carries
off to, her domestic eyrie your own gentle
dove; far from the soft nest which your love
had made for her, and to which hers had
cluug.
On the morrow you look around you
You listen, you await, yor seek for some-
thing which you cannot find. The cage is
empty, the tuneful linnet has flown silence
has succeeded to its melodious warbiing ::
it does not come, as only on the previous
css--.s:..sT7 Tauttefing ise periumed wings about
your pillow, awakening, you by its soft Ca
resses. Nothing remains but painful calm
I'll painful silence-a painful void.
The chamber of the absent darling offers
only that disorder which it is melancholy
for a mother to contemplate. Not the joy
Gus aud inpatient disorder of occupation,
but that Of abandonment.
Madenly garments scattered here and
there; girish fancies no longer priced !;
chairs heaped with hal(.worn dresses; draw
yers left partially open, and ransacked to
their remotest corner; bed in which no
one has slept; a crowd of charming tr1es,
which the young wife despises, and which
are Uttered over the carpet like the feathers
dropped by the Rnnet, when the hawk made
the timd bird its prey. Such is the depress-
ing sight which rings tears from the mothers
heart.
+. Nor is this all-from this day she occu.
pies only the second place in the affections
Of her departed idol; and even bat-merely
the happiness Of maternity shall have taught
her whom she weeps to assign to her one
still lower. This man, this stranger, un-
known few months, it may be few weeks
previously, has assumed a right over affec-
tons which were once almost entirely her
{. own; Il few hours OF tleetiug, and it may be
of assumed tenderness, have, in q great de.
gree, suticed to efface twenty years Of
watchfnlneSs, of care and elf.abnegation
and theJ have not only rent away her right
to be the first and best beloved, but they
have also deprived her of the fial caresses,
the attention, and the adored presence of the
hearts idol, whom she has herself given to
him for life.
No,hing is left to the mother but the at
tachmeut Of respect All the warmer emo
tions are engrossed by the husband, to whom
his young bride owes alike obedience and
devotedness.
If she loves him, she leaves her home
without regret, to follow his fortunes to the
end of the world; if she does not love him
she will perform the duty with resignation.
Nature and law alike impose the obligation
on her, aud her own heart must decide whe.
ther it must constitute her joy or her trial;
bat in either case the result to the mother is
the same. Nor can that mother reproach
her with this painful preference, for she has
reared her in the conviction Of the necessity
of marriage; she has herself offered to her
its example in her own person Heaven it.
self has pointed it out as duty whose
omission is cul pable; and, therefore, far
from venturing to wish that the lost one
should restore to her all the tenderness which
time and habit may enable her to withdraw
from her husband. the mother is bound, on
the contrary, to pray that they may every
day become more dear to each other, even
at the expense of her own happiness. The
misfortune is the mothers last blessing.