The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1868-09-17
To Marry or Not to Marry.
THE QUESTION uUMoRoUsLY CONSIDERED.

oN' "a De"CHNOOt, uisCuSSeS tue question
of marriage in pleasant way. We Gull
few passages:
Is life really life if one must pass it on
the tight-rope! Is existence worth hav-
ing, where 1t is eternally a question of
baianclnS-swaying to this side, and
bending to that
Is it proven that all people have vo-
cation for marriage, and is coniugalism
per Sc certain to requite those who, to at
tain 1t, must divide between two what they
had already barely sufficient fer one {?
These are the simple questions which we
have no need Of philosopher to ask or
answer for US. If one were simply TO
pronounce from what appears on the sur
face of llfe-and it is very hard to go
deeper-we should say that the single
people, especially the men, have the best
of it. They are more in request among
their friends, available for more attentions,
and keep longer young tLan their married
brethren.
The double barreled egotism of mar
riage spoils many good fellow, and de-
stroys the charm of many delightful
woman. The firm, that terrible partner
ship, crops up at every moment, and
routs that glorious spontaneity, that deli
clous responsibility, we once remembered
have no patience with those people
who want to marry on what it is puzzle
10 them to live singly upon. They must
be moral, torsooth at the cost of reduc-
ing some unhappy girl TO drudgery, on
the false pretence-for il is false-of low
ing her.
''Why can't they let it alone ?" as the
great master of common sense said of a
less eventful contingency.
L have met more pleasant and cons
panionable people among the single than
the married but there is canting notion
abroad that marriage is a sort of back bone
for good behavior, 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 shoemaker
should have a wife, but I'm sure her
coiffeur ought
But it is mistake TO suppose that
marriage is necessity, except to three
volume novel. | am certain that a very
large number of people are not made for
that species of companionship. Mind, |
am not enamored of Mormonism or
Spiritual wifery, nor have the slightest
sympathy with Agapemoncs. What l
desire to insist on is, that our present~day
civilization inculcates conjugaIism too n>
Discriminatory, and takes most uniustifi-
able means to support It's position One
CT these, and the least commendable of
all, is to dlsparage those who are called
old maids. | have seen many timid
rider in hunting field jeered into riding
at fence that cost him a ''cropper;
and am convinced that many women are
driven into marriage TO escape the obloquy
and sarcasm of belonging to the maligned
category.
1t is no exaggeration to say ''malign>
ed" would ask any one who has seen
much of life-who has, so to say, been a
man of the world, watching its ways and
studying its doings-I would ask of him
has he ever met in any section of human
ity greater kindliness, gentlcness and pa
tience than amongst these same old maids?
Where has he found more hearty, genial,
generous natures? where sound views of
life disfgured 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 witnesses to what
l say but one l will cite, because she
eminently represented all that [ have so
feebly attempted TO picture and if her
genius might seem TO outshine the Iustre
of her personal qualities, it is only to those
who had not the happiness-and it was
happiness her Intimacy. am talking
of Miss Edgeworth, and it is well worth
all the weight of the years it obIges to
have met and known her.
/ will not affirm that marriage could
have spoiled such nature, but l will say
it could not have bettered it Nor is it
a small part of the matter that at eighty
she was the guiding spirit. the delight and
the charm of that family which derived
glory fron her name and happiness from
her presence.
Is it to class which numbers Miss
Edgeworth and Miss Nightingale among
its members women need shame to belong?
! have done. l will only add that, in
stead of heaping ridicule on the condition
VI uIILudtItOo WOiI6li, duu, Out OI SDeSf
derision, driving them to accept anybody
-anytbing-as husbands, let US accord
them all the Difference and regard we be-
stow on others and let US not forget, in
the presence of some ''old maid whose
qualities of mind and nature have charm
ed US, and whose traces of beauty are not
few nor faint, that if we do deem matri-
mony the great prize in life, il is living
shame TO our sex that such a woman
should be single.
If 1 have wandered from my text of
"Marriages on Starvation Allowance" it
is simply because l have not that over
weening impression of conjugalism that
would recommend any one to face beg
gary TO attain it, any more that would
advise man to lay out his last shilling
to buy ticket in the lottery.