The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-02-02
SECESSION and Reconstruction

In the year 1865 thrifty and much-re-
spected citizen of Madison, Wis, who had
deliberately avoided marriage until his in
come should Justify taste as well as utility
in the selection of a wife, decided that his
worldly situation was at last compatible
with the aesthetic refnements Of matrimo-
Ey, and began a survey OF choice local so
ciety for lady suited thereto. Nearly
forty years old, and apparently even more
mature by the gravity OF his manners, his
desire was for bride at once young and
experienced at once poor and accustomed
to luxury. He wished her to possess
Youths charms without its light minded
ness. and have the accomplishments OF
one born to wealth, while,a the same time
wholly dependent upon him for future ad-
vantages of fortune. Contrary to what
might be hastily inferred from such nice.
ly exacting bill of requirements, he had
little difficulty in finding the person OF his
choice. 1t is worth nothing that the ex-
cessively practical man, who goes to tins
extreme in calculation about matrlmony, Is
usually mated with about as much celebrity
as the wholly uncalculating boyish lover,
who surrenders incontlnently to the hrst
pretty face the reason being that ooth are
alike SO devoted to an abstract ldeallzation
thereto is likely to be mistaken for its ut
termost practical realization. The ex.
tremes meet in common tatuous belief
that the ideal in the case, sentimental OF
practical, is so different from what an or
binary man would conceive that no ordina
nv woman can possibly bear any essentla
likeness to it and consequently, that 1t car
lead to no seriously insufficient affinity
Our practical wife-seeker of Madison haC
been in the market but q few weeks wheI
he became acquainted with young South
ern widow on visit from Georgia, where
during the war of the rebellion, she hat
lost husband, patrimony, and all but tn
merest thatch of home In her twenty
fourth year. sobered by the recent vicissi
tudes of her lot, reared in wealth, AM
brought suddenly to pitiable poverty, thi
lady seemed the verv person tor the crit
cal man of business, and he lost no time Il
improving the acquaintance and prosecu
ting his suit. Whether she, on her ow
side, was as practical in the matter nee
not be discussed A stately courtship end
ed in formal proposal, and that IN mar
rage. Thus the husband had triumphant
" secured the helpmate apparently exactl
suiting his ideas of what his wife should
and for two or three years the union seem
to Justify the deliberate niceties {
its establishment. There was, how
ever, something more in the ind
viduaity of the wife than had bee
taken into account by the theory of soci
fitness, and by the time their child W;
old enough to be no novelty there aroS
between the parents an incompatibility
which neither could designate the exa
beginning. Some slight difference deer
ened and spread untilit had run too far f
adjustment without material mutual col
cession, and finally took the form of tao
hostilities. Like Mr. Dombey in the move
the husband thought the injury his, an
like that wonderfully true type Of his elias
again was irritated into the idea of coercil
his insubordinate lady. To punish IN
dame into submission, if not penitence,w
his plan, and this he sought to do by s
verely contracting her supply of none
Alas for the wisdom of the wise how
ten it reaches the same end as the folly
the foolish! Not the less an impetuous
proud woman because she had as good
sold herself in marriage, the wife fierce
resented the very practical means adopt
to teach her anew that she was a depe
dent, and resolved to teach her lord |,
son in his turn. One evening in 1869
returned from business to find his hol
occupied byI the servants only, and br
note informing him that wife and child b