Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1874-08-19
MATCH MAKERS.

last number of Appleton's Journal thu
writes Junius Henri Browne of q yer,
numerous class in the society Of th,
day:
Marriage, IS at present managed, il
so much Of an experiment that tn,
person undertaking to bring it abou
necessarily assumes great responsibility
-Sentimentalists like to talk of tn,
matches made in heaven. Many O
these confronting us on earth are SO ill
made as to reflect little credit on tn,
place of their supposititious origin
Heaven, 1t is to be suspected, is falls,
ascription for what, in most cases, j.
merely human and very fsllible agency
Men and women. even when left tc
themselves, have little difficulty in per
petrating serious coniugal blunders
For these they should have themselve.
alone to blame. If they fail of discreet
election, the cause of failure should be
sought within; and to be honestly &C
sought, they must direct their OWL
destiny.
How few there are who do, however
One would think, since marriage chiefly,
if not exclusively, concerns the persons
entering into it, that they would be
permitted to exercise their own judg
ment in such regard. But they are not.
As rule, all their relatives, friends
and ordinary acquaintances, are more
active. more outwardly interested. than
the contracting parties. This activity
and interest, though often commend
I able, are oftener impertinent and prag-
matte. Relatives and friends cannot
well be Indifferent to so momentous a
matter as the nuptials of those they
esteem and cherish but ordinary ac-
quaintances have no call for the solici-
tude they atfect-wherefore, perhaps,
they affect SO much.
Certain minds, especially feminine
ones, seem to have a constitutional be-
lief that the majority of men and women
are unable to marry properly without
their aid. They are constantly acting
on this belief, appointing themselves
emissaries of Juno, ministers of Hymen.
Benevolence may prompt them to this
at first, though by indulgence a habit
is fixed, and the habit ultimately be-
comes a passion. These are profes-
sionsl match makers. They never see
a bachelor or maiden, q widower or
widow, without feeling an urgent desire
TO change his or her celibate condition.
Neither he nor she, in their opinion,
ought to be consulted about the change.
Few mortals--thus they reason-know
what is best for them such knowledge
is generally reserved for outsiders,
whose discernment should be clear be-
cause disconnected with the sympathies
or affections. They have a vague
apprehension, In opposition to Nautilus,
and the demonstrated facts, that the
planet will cease to be peopled, unless
they lend themselves indirectly to the
cause of propagation. The first duty
of both sexes is, as they conceive, to
marry and be married-not once only,
but as often as is legally possible. You
cannot make them see that they are
liable to error that many things are
needful TO matrimony that the wisest
course is to let the delicate question
arrange and answer itself.
The masculine match maker is rare
yet he exists. He never has the tact,
energy, perseverance and ingenuity of
his feminine fellow. He confines him
self mostly to the practical and his own
sex deals largely in his counsels with
facts and figures, and adroitly, per-
chance unconsciously, misrepresents
them. He is invariably a husband and
he never tires of making this statement
AS If there were nothing else than his
word to show for it. Any objections
which may be offered he is ready to
overcome. If a bachelor put forward
poverty, he is told, in the face of the
plainest arithmetic, that two can live
as cheaply as one; no reference being
made to the corollary that one and one
in coniugal circumstances commonly
make three, four, five or six. Having
been for some time spouse, he is pre-
sumed to know of what he speaks
nevertheless, he speaks untruth. Only
in certain conditions, rather exceptional
than otherwise, can one person subsist
for the same price as two. In these
days matrimony is likely to more than
double expenses. Howbeit, when the
exact contrary is affirmed by those who
have had experience, it is not strange if
the falehood is credited. If the bache-
lor should say that he is unscquainted
with anybody whom he wants to wed,
the matchmaker Immediately proposes
to introduce him to a score of girls, go
full of physical, mental, and social per-
fections that they might be thought to
have had their birth in q contempora-
neous romance.
There is Clara, for example. She is
a charming creature, abounding in |
sweetness and beauty as rose itself. |
She has no money, to be sure but she
is letter than fortune to any man.
Jane is not so lovely in person as she
might be, albeit she is pattern for her
sex, modest, discreet, generous, high |
Entirely domestic, she would
render the humblest home happy
would consecrate herself to wifely du- |
ties.
Kate is simply magnificent, trife
forward, mayhap, because she has been
so much flattered and petted, but loyal
and loving at heart, replete with superb
possibilities. She is the kind of woman |
whose affection, once fixed, knows no
shadow of turning, who loves once and
forever.
In this sort of recommendation, how
ever, the masculine match maker is not |
an adept. He bestows on it little in
being conscious that it is an
on the feminine domain. |
As has been said, facts and figures, or a
of them, are his spe |
ciality, and he never feels quiet secure
while dealing with sentiment. He is
skilled in spreading a mist over the in
evitable, and in disposing of unwelcome
particulars by pleasant generalization.
What he is ignorant Of he asserts with
dogmatism what he cannot even guess
at he predicts with complacent RASH
ness, as befits the foolhardy mortal who
advises marriage on abstract principles.
The true and temperamental match
maker is feminine. She seldom bun
giles, seldom gets put into quandaries
from which she is unable to extricate
herself. She instinctively avoids facts,
or their semblance, for she feels she is