Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1857-03-28
Aoperse Gera loraip Asiut
UUNTY Va

does not always matter about lhelr gram
mar or rhetoric, that manners or morals,
but their dress and furniture and equip
age, are all important. A stain on the
character is easily forgotten, while the
bonnet of last winter is remembered, and
the former may be tolerated--the latter
not a second season. Genteel society
has certain style, and its subjects must
be versed in its rules and abide by them,
or be banished. So al least, foolish peo-
pie suppose, and they practice according
Ily. Hence the extravaganza that every
where abounds, and hence the decline In
the matrimonial market.
There is multitude of young mechan-
les whose wages are moderate, clerks
whose salaries are small, lawyers whose
briefs are too brief, and physicians who
do not feel pulses enough TO fill a purse,
any of whom, by strict economy, could
support wife, but who will, if there is
not speedy change, be wholly unable 10
enter The market. They are doomed to
celibacy, or to worse. Start not, far
reader, if friend asks you how many ot
those gay young men whom you see at
an evening party, so genteeI, so polite
have learned that a concubine Is less ex-
pensive than a wife. You will be shock
ed when YOU know how many there are,
and who they are. And ii is the fault OF
their mothers. sisters and sweethearts.
They have carried folly and extravaganza
in dress and living 10 so high a pitch, that
poor young man Of any pride of charac-
Ter is afraid to marry. No man wishes to
see his wife living in humber style than
| his affianced, or seem 10 want from The
husband what the father supplied. Raih-
er, he desires that his chosen at least ap
pear better off married than single; bet
how can he, when young ladies dress as
they now do? Of this he is hopeless,
and if his moral character be not well es'
rablished, the syren can in such cases too
often successfully tempt him 10 his undo
ing, and cause him 10 entangIe himself in
some immoral alliance that ruins him for
ever.
But peradventure he runs the risk and
marIies The eXtravagant tastes tha
have been assduousy cultivated by the
father and mother of the young wife, are
brought 10 maturity under the fostering
care of the indulgent husband. But il
saps his moral strength TO do it. The or
dnary sources of money fail TO supply
his needs--palicnl toll does not suffice,
Io,I c,r.,I sDncula,iono p\ust bn Albumin
red. The show of prosperity is necessa'
ry to The bold specuIator and money is
spent by husband and wife without stint.
/ Fortune does not smile upon the adventu-
rer, and often, in these cases, desperate
game is played, in which moral character
is saked against the chance Of game and
Il is lost. how many forgeries and defal.
cations can be traced precisely 10 this
source. How many husbands curse the
day they ever began to indulge the exlrav.
agant tastes Of their wives. How many
wives, when failure, poverty and degrada-
ton come would gladly have forgone their
folly, could they have predicted the end.
Let US hope that The evil has reached its
height, and that society will soon be res
tored TO lis senses by the misfortunes and
crimes that attend its madness.
This is no triaing subject 10 the moth.
ers of this generation. 1t is with them
to shape the tastes and habits Of their
daughters. The husband often succeeds
in acquiring competency which the Ia
ther fails 10 retain. The wife may add
to prosperity which the daughters ex'
haust before the Oldest gels out Of her
teens, or strikes some other vein for gold
than the parernal pocket. Look TO ii, ye
mothers, that you teach other and wiser
acts than those Of show and dress. Look
to it, or there may be such decline in
the demand for walking millinery blocks,
that few years hence you will see only
bevy of fading spinslers, where you had
hoped 10 see our grand children at play;
you wondering meanwhile if the matri-
monial market will ever rise so high as
that they may yet become merchanIsble
articles.