The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1868-11-09
no MARRF Oa Non 70 MAagY.
The Question HamOrOusIy COnsid-
cred.

number of Blackboard, discusses the
question of marriage Ia a pleasant
way. We Gull a few passages:
Is life really life, if u must pass
It on the tight roper Is existence
worth having. when it Is ~eternally a
Question of balancing swaying to
this side and bending to that?
"Isit proven that all people have a
vocation for marriage, and is conju-
galism per Sc certain to require those
who, to attain it, must divide between
two what they had already found
barely sufficient for one? These are
the simple questions which we have
10 reed Of n philosopher to ask or
answer for Us. If one were simply to
pronounce from what appears on the
surface Of life-and it is hard to 90
Geeper-we should say that the single
people, especially the men, have the
best OF it,. They are the more IN re
quest among their friends, available
for more attentions. and keep longer
young than their married brethren.
The double-barreled egotism of
marriage spoils many a good fellow,
and destroys the charms of many a
delightful woman. The firm, that
terrible partnership, crops up at every
moment, and rOuts that glorious spOn-
taneity, that delicious Irresponsible
ty. we Once remembered.
Il have-no patience with those
people who want to marry on what it
Is a puzzle to them to live singly upon.
They must be moral, fOrsOOthl at the
cost of reducing some unhappy girl
to drudgery on the false pretense-for
it is false-of loving her.
- Why can't they let it alone?' as
the great master Of common sense
said of a less eventful contingency.
Il have met more pleasant and
companionable people among the
single than the married; but there is
a cantiag notion abroad that marriage
isa sort of backbone for good be-
havior, and so the curate must be
married, and the doctor ought to be
married. [ don't know how far the.
theory goes, or whether a lady's shoe
maker should have a wife, but l am
sure her coifeur ought.
81 hope we shall soon hear the last
of this .tires0me controversy; for, if
any man wishes positively to ascer-
tain, from his personal experience,
whetheF it be safe to marry on f100
per annum, let him commit a small mis-
demeanor in Ireland aud be sent to Jail
for three months. This constitution
stands the ~dietary-the seven ounces
of cruel and pinch of barley per diem
he may have his bans published the
day he comes out, and certainly there
will be nothing in his absorbent sYs-
TEN 10 interfere with his happiness.
But it is a mistake to suppose
that marriage is a necessity, except
10 a thTee-volume novel. L am GER
tain that a very large number of peo-
pie are not made for hat species of
companionship. Mind | am not en-
amored of Mormonism or spiritual
wifery. nor have | the slightest sym
patty with Agapemones. What de-
sire to insist on is, that our present
day civilization inculcate5 conjugal-
ism too indiscriminately, and takes
most unjustifiable means to support
its position. One of these, and the
parage those who are called old
maids. l have seen many a timid
rider In q hunting field jeered into
riding at a fence that cost him a
"cropper;" and | am convinced that
many women are driven into marri-
age TO escape the obloquy and sar-
CdSu VI DCAOnklHS W lhdb mdAt6nC0
category.
SIT is no exsggeration to say ma
ligned.' | would ask any one who
has seen much Of life-who has, so to
say, been a man of the world, watch
jug its ways and studying its doings-
1 would ask of him, haShelever met
in auy section of humanity greater
Kindness, gentleness and patience
than among these same old maids?
Where has he found more hearty,
genial, generous natures ? where
sound views of life disfigured by
fewer preiudices? where more thor
ough charity in discussing the mo-
tfvcs? where, In ore word, less OF
those very attributes by which it has
pleased the world to characteriZa THIS
claSs2 1t is no part OF my task to call
witnesses to what l say; but U L
will cite, because she eminently rep
resented al thatl1 have so feebly at
tempted to picture; and if her genius
might seem to outshine the luster oil
her personal qualities, it Is only 10
those Who had not the happiness
and it was happiness-of her intimacy.
/ am talking Of Miss Edgeworth, and
Il is we'll worth all the weight Of the
years it obiiges to have met and
known her.
Il viii not affirm that marriage
could have spoiled such a nature, but
/ will say it could not have bettered
1t. Nor Is it a small part of the mat
ter that at eighty she was the guild
in spirit. the, delight and the charm
of hat family which derived glory
from her name and happiness from
her presence.
is it to a class which numbers
Miss Edgew0rth and Miss Nlghtln.
gale among its members woman need
shame to belong? :,
Il have done. / will only adj
that, instead of heaplng rldlcule oil
the condition of unmarried women
and out OF sheer derision drivin
them to accept anyhody-anything-
as husbands, let US accord them al
the Difference and regard we bestoy
on others; and let US not forget, 1
the presence of some old maid
whose qualities of mind and natur
have charmed US, and whose traces
beauty are not few nor faint, that
we do deem matrimony the grea
prize in life, it is a living shame t
our sex that such a woman should b
single.
IF / have wandered from my tex
of NJ Marriages on Starvation Allow
,ance, il is simply because [ have no
that ~OverWeening impression of con
iugalism that | would recommend an,
one to face beggary to attain it an
more than | would advise a man t
lay out his last shilling to buy a tickt
in the lottery"