The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-09-17
Unhappy Marriages.


AS rule, marriages are unhappy.
So says the New York Sun.
It is safe to say that fully twenty-five
per cent. of married people would lead
and laugh at this assertion. Others
would sigh and look melancholy, as if
they knew from bitter experience that
the statement was too true; while others
still would brighten up and look cheer
full, and feel comfortable over the reve-
iation that a large proportion of hus-
bands and wives we're as miserable as
themselves. If the writer had said
that marriage, as q rule, is disappolnt-
ment, he would have come nearer the
truth. This is, perhaps, fact, and for
very plain reasons. The anticipations
of q pair of sentimental lovers-and
where are the lovers who are not senti-
mental pare impossible of realization
outside of paradise. The realities of
married life cannot by any possibility
reach the transport of Joy looked for
ward to, and, therefore, though couple
may be we'll and evenly matched, and
as happy as mortals can be IN this world
of uncertainty, yet the lofty heights of
their vision cannot be scaled by flesh
and blood, and disappointment more or
less woful usually succeeds. 1t is after
a husband and wife have learned that
they are mortal, and not angelic, that
each has foibles that must be borne with
patiently by the other, that the true
happiness of married life begins.
Domestic troubles usually commence
early, and nine tenths of the divorces
are obtained by those whose married
life has been short. Long association,
community of interests, thoughts natur-
ally drawn into the same channel by the
same surroundings, a common love for
the same children when children have
blessed the union-these, and hundred
other things, naturally draw married
couple together, and make the union
stronger as the years advance, until
they are practically one in feeling,
thought, sympathy and action Even
when broils are frequent, and love, in
the better sense, cannot be said to exist,
there is after all a feeling closely akin
to it which bursts forth at the most I'M
expected times, and proves that few
men and women can pass much of their
lives together in pursuit of the same
object without growing into an affection
strong if not tender. It is this which
almost invariably causes the benevolent
man who interferes between a quarrel
ing husband and wife to get curses if
not blows from both parties for his
pains.
In one dramatization of ''Rip Van
Wrinkle" the feeble old man totters back
to his home, and with fearful eyes and
trembling voice asks for his wife. He
is told she is dead. He opens his faded
eyes in wonder at the news, and then,
as he remembers the harsh words she
has given and the cruel blows she has
l.. - IL E1oI-
smile of satisfaction overspreads his
face as he triumphantly exclaims
''Velll her clapper ish stopped at last p
But then comes visions of their younger
days, when he led the hkeliest girl in
the village away from her other admir-
ers and married her on the green at
Falling Waters; of the ups and downs
of their after life, and of Gretchen ten
derness as we'll as cruelty, and at re
membrance of these come kindlieT
thoughts, till the supplemented Dutch
man bows his head and speaks his hui
manity by saying TREMENDOUSLY: "But
she vas my wife for all that. That was
the secret. She was his wife in spite OF
all, and it is an honor to the race that
these tender thoughts of days that are
dead thus come back to us.
Whoever speaks of marriage being
unhappy, as rule, must have had 8
limited, as we'll as unfortunate view OF
society. 1t has become quite common
of late years to refer to the misery and
tyranny of marriage as a very common
thing; but nothing could be more false
or unjust. As a rule, unhappy maria
ges come to light and are blazoned
forth to the world with loud trumpet
ings. The noise thus made attract:
wide attention, and creates among the
| thoughtless the idea that domestic hap
piness is rare; but such persons forge
that while the details of one unhappy
family's experience are given to the pub
lie, thousands are living happy lives
blessed and strengthened by that ten
| derest of all relations.