The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1868-10-31
TO Marry or not to Marry.
The QUESTION HuMonousLy CossrpsssD.

Cornelius O'Dowd," in the new number Il
Blackpood, discusses the question of marriage b
pleasant way. We call a few passages:
| lis life really life il one must pass it on tie
| tight-rope Is existence worth having, where i
| is eternally a question of balancing-swaying b
this side, and bending TO that I?
sit is proven that all people have vocation
for marriage, aud is conjugalsm per Sc certain 3
require those, who attain it, must divide betweet
two what they had already found barely sufficienI
for one? These are the simple questions whicl
we have no need Off philosopher to ask or answef
for US. II one were simply to pronounce frou
what appears on the surface of life-and it il
very hard to go deeper-we should say that thi
single people, especially the men, have the bes
OF IT,. They are more in request among thei'
friends, available tor more attentions, and keet
longer young than their married brethren
'The double-barreled egoism Of marriage
spoils many good fellow, and destroys the chasr
OF many delightful woman. The firm, that ter
ribie partnership, crops up at every moment, and
routs that glorious spontaniety, that delicious f
responsibility, we once remembered.
81 have patience with those people who
want to marry on what it is n puzzle to them TO
live singly upon. They must be moral, forsoothE
at the cost of reducing some unhappy girl II
dragery, on the false tence-for It is E,.sc-1
of loving her.
"Why can't they let i: -se?'' ms the great
master of common senses d OF a less eventful
contingency.
81 have met more pleasant and companona-
BILE people among the single than the married ;
but there is q canting notion abroad that mar
riage is sort OF backbone Tor good behaviour,
and so the curate must be married, and the doc-
tor ough, 10 be married. don't know how FAR
the theory goes, or whether lady S sao~maker
should have wife, but Pun sure her coifftur
ought.
Il hope shall soon hear the last Of this tire
some controversy for IL any man wishes posi-
lively to ascertain, from his experience, whether
it be safe 10 marry Zoo per annum, let him com
nit small msdemeanor in Ireland and be sent
to Jail for three months II his constitution stands
the dieary-the seven ounces OF Cruel and pinch
of barley per dem-he may have his bans pub
lishsd the day he comes out and certainly there
will be nothing in his absorbent sYstem to inter-
fere with his happiness.
'But it is a mistake to suppose that marriage
is necessity, except to three volume novel.
am certain that very large number Of people arc
not made for that species of conpanonship
Mind, am not enarnored Of Mormonism or Spiri
tual-wifery, nor have the slightest sympathy
with Agapemonea. What desire to insist on is
that our present-day Observation-Disclosures conju-
galism too indiscriminately, and takes mos, un-
justifiable means to support its position. One of
these, and the least commendable of all, is to dis
parage those who are called old maids. have
seen many timid rider in hunting-feld jeered
into riding at a fence that cost him 'cropper,'
and am convinced that many women are driven
into marriage 10 escape the obloquy and sarcasm
of belonging TO that maligned category.
"lt is no exageration to say 'maligned.' |
would ask any ones who has seen much Of life
who has, so 70 say, been q man of the world,
watching its ways and studying its doings-I
would ask Of him, has he ever met in any section
Of humanity greater kindness, gentleness and pa
tience than amongst these same old maids
Where has he found more hearty, genial, gener-
Gus natures where sound views of life disfigur-
ed by fewer prejudices? where more thorough
charity in discussing the motives where in one
word, less OF those very attributes by which it has
pleased the world to characterize this class Ii is
no part of my task to call witness to what say ;
but one will cite, because she eminently repre-
sents all that | have so feebly attempted to
picture and if her genius might seem to out
shine the lusre of her personal qualities, il is only
to those who had not the happiness-and it was
a happinesS-ofhe her intimacy am talking of Miss
ana it is well worth all the weight
Of the years ii obges to have met and knowR
her.
~ will not affirm that marriage could have
'POiieu SuCI Hdturt, Out Will say IL COulu Iih
have betteted it, Nor is il small part of the
he deliah, and he s[ as the .agina sp;i
derived glory from her name and happiness iron,
her presence.
SIS it to a class which numbers Miss Edge
worth and Miss Nightingale among its members
woman need shame to belong?
~ have done. | will only add that, instead OF
leaping ridicule on the condition Of unmarried
woman, and out Of sheer derision, driving them
TO accept bcdy-anyt ything-as husbands, let
MS accord them all the Difference and regard we
oestow on others and let US not forget in the
presence Of some old maid whose qualities of
mind and nature have charmed US, and whose
traces OF beauty are not few nor fait, that if we
10 deem ma!rimony the prize in life it is liv-
ng shame to our sex that such woman should |
be single.
'If have wandered from my text ofMarriages
On Starvation Alowonce II is simply because |
have not that overweening impression of conju-
yalism that would recommend any one to face
Deggary to attain it, any more than would ad
wise man to lay out his last shilling to buy a
ticket in the lottery.