The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1861-06-26
Matrimony.

Matrimony.
as she engaged" SIS he paying attentions to any
one? When will they be married?' Such are the aues-
tons which are invariably heard whenever there is
gathering together Of grown up of the pres
ent day Matrimony, love, and courtship, forms the
standing subject Of conversation. The very unfrocked
urchns catch the can't words of their elders and talk
of beaux and wives and act their mimic courtships
and marriages Mothers talk to daughters of their
chances of matrimony and fathers reckon up in the
presence ofther children the amount of landed property
which are respectively held by their different visitors
neighbors acQuantances: and having asccrtaned to
mathematical certainty the wealthiest of the number
invariably recommended him or her as a prize worth
seeking after The frst-we had almost said the only
deficient idea which young women just entering upon
her teens boast of that she be married some
time the other married well if she can poorly fshe
must but at all events married she must be- The bare
idea Of an old maid jars upon her sensitive nerves and
acts spell to call up associations of disgust and
horror 70 her the barren and blasted tree blossomless
and eaess and rocking to every breeze that sweeps
cOldy around it. is an emblem of the state of single
'blessedness" She knows not, dreams not, that
in exercise of the holy charities and ympahies of her
nature, may live on I'M lonely and unappropriated low
ingness like some beautiful wild flower smiling apar.
from its clustering sistcrhood-
Fair as a star when only one
Is shining in the sky"
And wherefore all this talk of matrimony? Why
should the young and beautiful so soon learn to fix her
ect? to speculate aud devise plans for what is usually
termed marrying WELL which being interpreted sign
es marrying large estate, and handsome house with
out regard the person the intellect necessarily ap-
pended to those desirable commodities? What is mar
riage after a2 a leap in the dark-a launching out
upon untred ocean. 1t may indeed be happy hearts
may unite in all the felicity of kn6redfeeling and SYM
pathy melting like two clouds of summer sunset into
one another. But this cannot always be. The myste
rious chords of human sympathy each in measure,
distinct and peculiar. They have general character
no definite and irreversble affinity.
Few are the hearts whence one same touch
Bids the sweet fountain flow"
Marriage often takes place before the parties have
been fully able to understand each oher before the
guarded reserve and the dsmulaton of courtshp have
passed away and given place to the frank impulses of
nature and feeling; and disappointment falls keenly and
heavily upon the yotares of wedloek, when the
rrevocable is spoken. In the caustic language of
~ de Argens in bis philosopher termed Hermit "a
who would please carefully conceals his faults. And
this is womans peculiar talent For six twelve long
months two persons study cheat one another At last
they joined il wedock and their assimilation proves
a mutual puni1hment during life"
We cannot say, with Edward Fitzgerald, that "we
never saw bridal but our eyeids have been wet" Bat
we have seen some, one at least, when could have
wept had not the fever of the world long before dried
up the fountain of childish tears It marriage
for money You might read that in the miserable and
decrepid form which drew up its bended proportion
before the altar at the side of young beautiful and
supplemented girl She pale and her delicate little
hand trembled it adjusted the rich folds of her gar
ments, and there was quiver about her fine mouth
which told of repressed agony; and when the ceremony
began she turned hasty glance towards her suted
bridegroom, and could see her shrink from him with
a slight but evident feeling Of disgust and abhorrence
We looked upon the bridegroom.
He regarding her with as much fondness as his
cold and selfish heart capable Of amisery chucke
if he had just counted his gold. And was this
the whom that beautiful creature to be bound
"a living and lovely being upon feless corpsebeauty
and greenneSs upon barrenness and decay? And her
friends and relatives they stood clustering around her,
with thereyes fixed not upon the agonsng cOuntenanCe
of their victim, but upon the jewery and gauds which
adorned her Fools foQls knew they not that the vc-
tim of pagan immolation is gaudily decked when
she is placed upon her pile of consuming and that her
sacrifice is far less terrible than that of fair and lovely
creature made in the perfect smilitude Of angels and
glowing with rich and ardent affection, upon the polu
ted shrine OF mammon? Alas. what could ever atone
for this claiming of the human afecons-his binding
of innocence and loveiness to the age disease and
aYarice? Sick heart, turned away from the mel
aucholy spectacle, while these words of William Penn
rushed strongly upon memory: go how sordid has
grown! man the nobest creature of the universe,
a God upon earth, and the image of Him who made
it, thus mistake earth for heaven, and worship gold
for God"
If not for money marry for love? Ay and starve for
for it. too-starve like the bride Of Jaler. Love is
very good thing It's proper place 1t will do very well
to talk of especially in the dallance hour of
light evening" when the perfect stars looking down
from above and the flowers of spring time are growing
like the rival spangles beneath Love sounds well in
theory-ts is beautiful in practice-it is the soul of
poetry. Love blessed thing in the halls of aluence
or even of competency-but it is the mortal enemy of
poverty. It's home is the romance of our young years.
and when that home is violated it too frequently is
by the enawing of existence think We the beau
tful idol will survive the desolaon of the temple?
Believe it not. There are connected with the marriage
state of the loving and the poora thousand difficulties
a thousand evils uuknownand unheeded in the delirium
of young affection. For time the unfortunate lover
may bear up against the evils which increase with the
dawning of every mowow--he may sacrifice ease and
personal cOnveuience-he may toll on in unceasng but
hopeless energy and still hide from the beautiful young
who has given herself up to a dream Of love-
the doubts and fears which darken and distract his
bosom. 4 few months years more, and the dream
is broken in upon; the painful truth manifest Then
the bitterness of poyerty-the increasing wants.
and the decreasing means Children are around them,
young innocent children and these must also suffer
Sorrow must greet them prematurcly. They must learn
from the hollow cheek and the mourntul eye OF their
parents, the awful lesson Of their destiny. Then
come the coldness the estrangement, which want and
care are well calculated to produce There is some
thing terrible in such a change. 1t is Ike cypress
breath--a funeral odor ezhaled from the expanding
rosebud
Call money, if YOU please ''the root Of all evil" In
the present state Of society, is the maiung OF
ter-offaet world is moved. Love without it, is but
beautiful deusion 1t gan neither boil in the pot nor
pay its savory contents. 1t not look unconcerned
in the face Of dun, escape the visitation of the
sheriff 1t cannot shorten the long phiz of the doctor
by the prompt payment Of his longer bills. 1t cannot
move the sympathy of the landlord reconcile the
lawyer the loss of his fee 1t is an old, but we fear
true saving, when poverty comes mat the door, love
goes out ut the window
-%s~------
How THE WORLD Is GOVERNED There arc about
los separately organised governments in the world at
the present time. Nearly one half monarches in
Europe and of these large portion petty principal
tiles and dukcdoms containing altogether about six
millions of inhabitants OF the governments of Europe,
Great Britain is alimfted monarchy France isnominay
constitutional but in reality, absolute monarchy,
Russia and Austria nre absolute. Prussia Spain and
Sardinia are limited5 with the chamber Of deputies
There are only four Republics in Europe Switzerland
San Marino, Montenegro, and Andora. The three lat
ter contain aggregate population Of not l20
900 people Switzerland secure in her mountain fast
nesses, is now by common cosent left unmolested.-
The governments of Asia are all absolute dosposms
m = ri Il