National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-10-09
gatinnal gepabIitan

BENEDIcT7S NOTES ON LL4RRL4GE
lFIentiee MulfOrd's Letter IN the San Francisco
Bullstin.I
! aH sun married and intend remaining so
Ior some months to come But marriage is q
fearful and risky business. No one knows
what may turn up on either side. Temper and
temperament are such peculiar things. How
ever, all as yet is quiet on the Potomac. The
I marriage service has never been fully written
out. People who marry don't know what
they are promising. The bond sborId rad =.
'You promise to take this man or this woman
for life; you mast not after this walk mr. talk
with any other Vssaan, If you are man. or
any other man; If yO# are a woman, save in
the most eircumspect and guarded maDpsr-
you must not become interested in any Other
woman, if you are Interested you must NOT
show it; you must consider 3our wife or your
husband as the Incompatible man or woman
in the universe; there must be HOne other like
unto him or her; if there be, oryou think there
be, you must if possible not belieSe it, or try
not to believe it; you must now BE wholly de-
voted to each other; you must also now lay
aside all remembrance of your old flames; you
must get rid of the idea that you ever had any
regard for them; if you had, you must try and
make yourself believe you had not, and If such
a notion will stick to you, you must never
mention it to each other, or there will be
row."
Young man and young woman! YOU think
that the divine intOxicatiOn Of cOurIship is to
last forever You think it is always going to
be an eessatie pleasure to trudge a mile
through m9d and FSSn to buy Seraphine Ann
paper Of plas. But this state of things can't
last. It's too high pressure. It must cool
uoWn. hheR you are married, and she is
yours and you are keTS, and the novelty of
Ine aualr Is oy:r' and you are fairly settled
aoWn INTO 'old married folks" then comes
the test. Then If you have been grabbed
cid bachelor, full of little whims, habits and
peeullarltles, as IS the fFetfuI pOrcupiue of
q1Ills, then will cSme the tug Of war. Don't
yea recollect how, when single and Won came
home after some tedious business heated.
tired, irritable and disguised with the world,
and got alone in yOUs5' room, that YOU used to
fling books and blacling-brushes about, and
swear and thrash around. for an hour or two
before you simmereG down into comparative
calmDsss? Well, matTignODy won't cure this
at least at first. But you mustn't cut up so
now. Even a temporary rayiRg maniac is not
proper ora pleasant person. foF any young
woman IS be shut up alone with. And if, on
entering, she sees trouble written on YOUR
face, and asks you ''What's the matters' and
you reply, sob, nothing" because you don't
want to be spoken to, and above all things,
it annoys and irritates you. TO. be so interro-
gated, and still she persists masking ''What's
luC uldltGE! anu SElll YOU 10 say, ''Ol.
nothing" as nildly as you can, OILY it won't
be said mildly and it comes of your tongue
like q pistOl-ShOt, and you would Just then
like to bite somebody's head. Off Oh, won't
you at such q time wonder whose the anna
bility, the oil, the sugar, the honey, the sun
shine OF courtship. has all gone toa And how
will you feel, you who have been accustomed
to go in and out of your vile bachelors den
without inquiry or hindrance? How will YOU
feel as you start to go out for the purpose of
getting drink around the corner.to hear her
say, "Where are you goingP' and this a dozen
times day; and every time, it is. asked YOU
must stand and rack-yOur brains, fox new lie.
And those girls on the opposite. side of the
street, you are always at the window, and
with whom, before marriage, you carried on
sort of optical filtration, which, to be sure
went no further than the eyes-how do you
feel now as you catch yourself locking into
those windows and find your wife regarding
you in a peculiar manner, and. you know that
she knows that you know how she-knows all
about your goings on at those windows!
have learned great deal during my short
career. 1. would not have re-
manned single if only for the sake of the infor-
nation rVe gained. know new, in the first
place, that ones wife is never in the least
wrong. If there's row. it's YOU, all YOU,
every bit your fault You may labor by
The hour trying to make her own up that there
being one pound aYOrdupOis or sixteen ounces
Of blame between you, you are willing to take
fifteen ounces of that blame, provided she will
but shoulder the remaining ounce, and she
won't. When she says she will be only five
minutes getting ready to go out. it means an .
hour, and when she says she's all ready it
means fifteen minutes more for putting on the
final touches. She may never be considered
really dressed until fairly out of the house and
round the corner, and even then the chances
are that she's forgotten. gloves or handker-
chief. If there was bedroom a mile long,
and her entire wardrobe could be packed in
oandbox, still you'd find portions of that ward
robe scattered along the whole mile of dress
ng-rOom. She's nice thing to lock at when
put together, but this wonderful creation is
evolved from a chaos interminable of pins, rib
oons, rags, powder, thread, brushes, combs
and laces. If there were seven thousand
lrawers in your room, and you asked but for
one to be kept secret and inyiolate for your
1Wn private use, that particular one would be
Tul of hair-pins, ribbons and soiled cuffs
some provision, some protection. in this mat
sbOr1l1 ha fnSarta1 n the ma rriau saryyica