The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1870-03-24

rum Auo " Wo9tcIA AsuLal
Should She Have Married Him2
BY AMANDA T. JONES.


Attracted by the announcement in
the Western Rural of February 24th,
that Mrs. NJ. L. Rayne had written for
its columns, a story embodying her
best ideas of woman and the sphere
she is fitted to occupy, took up the
following number, and, with eager in
terest, began the perusal of "Marian
Chalmers WifehOOd." Therein find
Marian, after receiving a so-called eel
igible" offer of marriage, and being
urged to accept it, expressing herself
in these words:
al will not so degrade myself, as to give
him servile life-service, when my heart is
forever closed against him. I should be
his slave, for all the forces of my nature
rise in rebellion against him, and should
lOathe his caresses and defy his power, or
be forced into a wTetched subiection of
physical degradation. No fibre of my be-
ing responds to his touch; no covert flame
burns in my cheek at his approach. can
not meet his eyes with the pure, apprecia-
tive gaze of love. His coarse, worldly ma
ture has no attraction for mine. There is
no sympathy between us, and were to
stand up before the minister, and vow to
love and honor him, all the voices of nv
being would cry out against the sacrilege."
Not for one instant did it occur to
me as I read that earnest expression OF
just principle and pure feeling, that the
authors conclusions disagreed with
those of her heroine. I was therefore
astouuded (the word is not too fOrcible)
on reading further to find this en-
phatic declaration:
"Now, think Marian should have mar
ried this man. She would have forgotten
him at times in home duties. Then, when
little children lay in her bosom, she would
have loved him Ortheir sakes. At least,
she could have toiled along patiently, with
dark circles under her eyes, and a far-off
look in them, while
'Caro and sorruw and child birth pain
Lett their traces on heart aud brain,'
as they do with happier mothers and
wives"
Now, this is sincere; no possible sar-
casm turks in the simple phrases. II
is the cruel, worldly, revolving decision
of woman against women. It is the
voice of one, whom the readers of the
Western Rural have respected and ad-
mired for her sound, good sense, her
hOme-sympathies and her wOmanliness
of thought and expression; and alas
that voice is raised in approval of the
greatest impurity Of the age-marriage
for money!
Doubtless Mrs. Rayne, in the course
of her story, will present subtle reasons
and arguments more or less strong, in
support of her position; but reason nor
argument, nor any relation of after
temptation and loss, can excuse or
gloss over the hPartlessness of her de-
cisiOn. l am fain to believe that our
friend, to whom we love to look for
entertainment and valuable advice,
draws no such belief out of the lucid
depths of her own woman's heart, but
that, unwittingly, the gold of her ma
ture has received this current stamp of
false-thinking society, which not only
tolerates but approves unIoving mar
riages.
Does Mrs. Rayne advocate perjury?
Would she hear with placid smiles the
low voice of a guileIess-hearted girl, as
she stands at the altar in the symbol
cal purity of bridal white, declare 81
will" when every nerve tingles with
suppressed repulsiOn for her bride.
groom, and her soul cries out, impera-
tive to be heard, 81 will NOTW Our
human laws make perjury (such as
they may deal with and punish)
great crime. Shall we believe the laws
of God less stringent, or that the soul
shall not pay their penalty-aye, to
the utmost limit?
But see what perjury, in this case,
involves. Unhappiness All, if that
were all, it would not be much matter |!
There is discipline in trouble that re-
fines, ennobles, and prepares mortals
for the unending bliss of immortality.
The lover of Marian, the author
pronounees "cruel 4" ""crafty, ," "sensual." "
But he was a "goOd, respectable man,
who passed current in society" How
about the health of moral natures, 80
associated? Cruelty excites anger in
return craftlness, debasing fear; sens