The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-05-02

MARRIED PARTNERSHIPS.

One OF Tue Ouu pOiuCS III tho Se
case is that the wife Of the prisoner APP
peared, asserting that her marriage was
legal, but that on account OF her Deing
older than her husband, she had been con-
tented that he should live apart from her
flor a consideration, and even to have him
marry other women In unamiable con-
tradiction to this extraordinary complais-
ance, another case before a Philadelphia
court offered itself on the same day, in
which a woman sued her husband TOR
maintenance for herself and child, having
been deserted by him shortly after m'-r-
rage. The defendant ayerred that he had
no objection TO his wife, except that he
had been deceived by her as to her age,
she stating herselfto be only nineteen, when
she was twenty-four. Here were two men
who took up their burdens; not many
married people would care to vindicate
their rights by such wretched folly and
crime. But, after all, how are these rights
10 be settled2 When two men go into
partnership as brokers, sugar or pork
dealers, every item Of the mutual risk and
deposits is clearly understood beforehand
So much capital so much influence, such
business capacities on either side If one
partner is ignorant of any Of the deticien
cies of the other, it is his own fault, and
contrary to ordinary common sense and
business usage. But when a man and
woman enter into this most important and
indissoluble of all partnerships, embracing
the most enduring and constant personal
relations, their knowledge of the very hab-
its and peculiarities, the every day manner
of which they are to be lifelong witnesses
and sharers, il, with few exceptions, ex-
ceedingly slight. During courtship the
lover finds his sweetheart, even in her
most private moments posed for his eyes.
She is not to blame it is her love makes
her uncOnsciously an actress. She is deli
cately pale how is he to know that three
days of the week she is plunged in the
depths Of sick headache ,shawls, and emet-
les? Her violet eyes look pleadingly into
his through their long lashes; can he fore
see that they will continue so to summer
themselves in the face of every man she
meets until she is gray? On the other
hand she is rigid church member. The
theater is the vestibule of hell to her, and
q prima donna only a painted denominations
he rates music and the drama among the
great purifying influences of the world
She is painfully neat F.; his ragged house
coat reeks of tobacco aud his boots
Of the stable. She had loved him
for his warm domestic feeling ;
but did she know that she was TO be
bedeviled at every meal, not only by his
sointed mother, but by the ghosts OF MI
her buildings and pies and the hams she
Cured2 Any eHamored John and Jenny
who may read this will cry out that these
are but petty trifes, mere straws to be
swept away on the current of love. On
the contrary they are the poisonous gnats
which make life wretched on the fairest
flood or brightest Summer day. Crime in
each other usually draws husband and
wife closer to each other; both courage
and love bring them shoulder to shoulder
TO meet the great chartered judgements of
God it is these little gnawing discrepan-
cies Of character or opinion, these antipa
ihies OF taste and habit that, like a stead
lily driven wedge, urge them day by day
further apart When children are ready
to be educated and trained, these differen
ces become more CALLING and insupporta-
Bile; aud are worse IN proportion as the
parents are conscientious and strive to
rear their children in the nurture and ad-
mOnitiOn OF their own notion of duty.
What is to he done in this difficulty
There is not household in the land where
the question is not of more interest and
importance than the contraction of the
currency la France, where marriages
are arranged ST. frequently by third par
ties, and no previous knowledge OF tastes
and habits is possible, or indeed held de-
slrable, there is NJ attempt ut accOmmuda-
ton atterward; hence comes all the lat
tude OF French married life In England
or Ireland the primal idea of marriage is
the sweet voluntary subsection of the
wife i'll all minor details. A marriage be-
tween an Irish or English man and an
American woman is seldom happy one
With Us the question has been too much
tangled in all the confusion Of woman's
rights and divorce suits to reach any aC-
curate solution. Some Of these days. per
haps, John and Jenny will rub the rosy
glamour from their eyes before the we'd
ding day enough to see that their sweet
dream OF absolute unity is vain, as long as
John prefers broiled beef and Jenny fried:
that the enraptured scheme of incessant
mutual concession is ridiculous while they
have separate stomachs aud digestive
organs, and that the wiser plan would be
TO loosen the yoke in the beginning, that
each may pull with his own natural gait
and motion. When John and Jenny un-
derstand that they are marrying, not a
second self, but separate human being, |
with opinions, tastes, and idiOsyncrases
of his or her own, and a right to have
them, they will lay the sOundest tOunda-
MT in r.t,