Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-10-15
THE Pbiladslpbta Bulletin is great on the

marriage business Every now and then-it has
readable editorial on the subject from which
we infer that the Quaker city people, or at least
that portion of them who read tho Bulletin,
have passion for the subject Well so does
every body, we suppose, not married. 1t is
subject that never grows stale though it's been
''writ" about since creations dawn. As long as
young people have their heads full of the mat.
ter, so long will the Bulletin and other papers
be full Of the ms and outs appertaining thereto
The last number Of the Bulletin heads an arti-
Gle, ''The Outlaws of Society," (rightfulcaption!)
under which it discusses the propensity of
American young ladies to consider marrying as
business, and their visitors and beaux as so
many available possible husbands. If young
man pays weekly visit or oftener to young
lady, Why then he is to be considered as on file
for consideration at the Iadies leisure. For in
stance TO quote e
limo country the face of the earth is every
young man reduced so promptly and plainly TO
his Intentions" rs in America. Does he or
does he not wish to marry? IF not let him
right about face. Marriage is the one sole idea,
the great game, and let those who are not in it
get out ofathe wayI Listen to what a writer of
the kind to which we allnde, says:
"Have nothing to do with those who have no
fixed intention: They are such as will loll on
your sofa, turn the leaves of your music book,
and ill your heads with silly nothingness, and
at the same time monopoliZe you for all your
fancy dances, play waiter behind your chairat
supper, be your humble servant at theatres, and
concert rooms, and serenade you through a
three years campaign. Whistle such. danglers
OFT Out them dead after short trial, and be-
gin airesh. If a man does not come to the pop
ping point after seasons frolicking, he will
not.do it At all. he is not a marrying mau and
you had better hand such over to young sisters
or nteces; just out of short dresses
The Bpt1lstin, which ought to be au fast, in
such matters now, doesn't subscribesto such an
idea at all, at all, but proceeds to remark that
the above may be ({ II 35i
All very common-sensible, bang up and
straight forward, but it is substituting extreme
cases TO assume, sithe above does, that every
man who does not come straight up to the
scratch and propose at once, is mere dangler.
1t is this rushing into marriage on short ac-
quaintance, which fills our courts with divorce
cases and a'certain class of newspapers with
"spicy detail"
Well, as we are after the point and want TO
find out how young lady should do, and how
this delicate business of attentions should be
managed, we go on to quote again. The BulIs-
tin islofl the opinion, (and so are we,) that
IT is very difficult to discuss this subject as it
should be treated To merely bangle after
young lady is to do heria great wrongs But
girli&holdoes notknow enoughlof the character
of a man paying his attentions, to see what he
is about andjwhen to dismiss him; isn0tIshrewd
enough to marry Mt all. On the other hand
the treating of every man as one either to be
regarded as a possible husband, or else to be
hardly spoken to, produces in American society
effects which astonish foreigners. Rich men
once continually surrounded by fiatterers, whose
brightest jests once set the room ina roar. can
scarcely obtain recognition or more anydistant
bows from bellies, the instant the report is rails
ed that they are engaged. AS for the neglect
OF married ladies' in society, it is national re-
proach. 1t may be said that many parties
are in this country, without, exageration. so
far rs all the gayety is concerned, as much
marriage markets as the slave bazaars of Com
staninople. IT,
Now, AR. Bulletin, We think you are both
wrong and right You see, we American peo-
pleare eminently practical. That's our forte and
pride, both at home and abroad We've got
lots of business to attend to, and you know the
prOyerb about life being short and art being
long. We make it rule to take the nearest
cuts from business to pleasure and back again:
That being the prevailing spirit of the age is it
to be wondered at, whether right or wrong,).
that American ladies partake of its They have
been lead to the believing in such things from
contact with this known characteristic. It's a
matter of both sentiment and business, and it's
neither the one or the other entirely. We
don't know whether more good than evil results
from it.
We cut shorttthe Bul1stin's paragraph about
married and engaged people. We beg pardon,
and resume 1t again = p -
It all absurd, for men aud women do not
lose intelligence, education or brlliancy, by be-
ing 5etrothed or married, nor should they in
consequence of it be debarred from conpenial
intercourse with their fellow beings. The idea
that love-making and that alone should be the
only reason for assembling friends, is-to say
the least-slghtly gross. Yet it has been in
this country a fact for years, and the result has
been that ignorant boys and undeyeloped girls.
in by far too mpnycircles, virtually rule society
while the only topics ever discussed in such
circles are marriages and engagements, engage.
ments and marriages, Gd inffnittm
The great remedy for itiall will be proper
system of education; one in which an interest
in matters which refine the heart and the intel.
lect will take the place of superficial accomplish.
ment and beaG-catohing Weare happysto see
that conviction of the truth of this is beginning