The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-24
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THE LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT ToPIcs-ooMPLED EVERY
DAY FOR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
MATRIMoNIA1 DEsIGNs.

From the Cincinnati Times.
Not even the delicate skill with which
Shelley, ''sweet-voiced bird of song" built
up his sensuous fabric of affinity could
render it acceptable to civilized humanity;
and though the world has moved, they are
still less likely to take up with the coarser
dish that the free-lovers of to-day would set
before them. STILL coupled with that pecu-
MARY independence which Anthony believes
to be the basis of feminine virtue, the thing
has q certain merit in that it would eliminate
from our social system a great aud grow
ing evil-one that is becoming barrier to
pleasurable relations between the sexes, driv-
ing the one to the hot house development of
solitude and Ouida, and the other to beer
house and club.
Until young man reaches the advanced
age of sixteen, we believe it is still permitted
him to wander among feminine pastures, in
haling fragrance and beauty, without danger
of being asked his Intentions" But when
once that mystic period is passed, he very
quickly discovers that he is either game or
not game-in the first case to be trapped; in
the other expelled from the presence. And
in this we mean no censure upon the femi-
nine persuasion. So long as the chief end of
woman's existence is to be comfortably mar
ried to q sufficient income, so long must
every action tend to its consummation, and
every hindrance be repugnant.
However inevitable a consequence, it is
none the less disagreeable to that large class
of mankind who are either unwilling or una
BILE to marry, but who are yet civilized enough
to admire feminine society, and to be sur
feited with constant diet of street and bar
Rash the mortal who heroically resolves to
war against custom. He enters the modern
drawing room, and, if Ineligible, is withered
by the excruciating GOODNESS of mamma; if a
good part6, he is Immediately suspected of
matrimonial intentions, and his actions gagged
with the nicely of graduated scale. We
knew man in the far West who had acquired
a continental fame for his success at poker.
His system was simple: pair of kings was
worth so much two pairs, SO much more
and SO on to a complement of aces; and from
this valuation he never varied. So with the
system of an American matron-a smile, she
admires dance, che esteems;" and so on
by rule, till some tender indiscretion results
in big brothers demanding ''sight, and
you lay down the cards with the sorrowful
knowledge that though you have lost the
game you must take the stakes. -
This thing in America is all the more un-
acceptable from its incongruity. In England,
and still more in Germany, where marriagea-
BILE girls are constantly chaperoned, it is to
be expected and we marvel not at the Ame-
rican student at Heidelberg whose .frauIein
asked him at the second call when he was
going to ''see father" But our young wo-
men are bred to take care of themselves, and
may be left to themselves in the matter of
permitting attention that is not SERIOUS"
AT all events, we demand reciprocity
treaty that shall establish how far we may go
and how far not. The thing is getting dan
gerous, and if two dances and tender look,
or one sigh and backward glance, necessi-
tate a marriage lawsuit we want to
know it. Can there not be some arrange
ment-say by the wearing of a label, "No
Matrimonial Designs"-by which we may be
permitted little respectful attention, little
of the light from laughing eyes and winsome
lips, little of that softer, gentler fellowship
which smoothes the angles of the world, and
that without the disagreeable necessity of
taking anybody for better or for worse till
death do us part?