Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-08-31
DiO Lewis on Marriage.

Iue 1OllOWInS very interesting lebIeI
on the subject of marriage is from the
pen of the celebrated Bostonian, Dr..
Dio Lewis. 1t was written, says the
Green Bay wis AdUoeate, to a young
gentleman in this part of the State, in
response to an inquiry asking his judg-
ment and advice upon that important
step in life:
My DEAR SIR: I receive so many
letters asking advice on similar sub
iects to those you mention, that have
concluded to write you letter which
shall be a general answer to all such
inquirers. After you have read it you
can send it to whatever paper you see
fit to, and thus it will reach the class it
most concerns. Editors are keen fell
lows at discovering basis of common
sense in an article, such as [ intend
this advice shall have, whatever other
graces it may be lacking in; and as
their observations will bear out the as
sertions [ make, they will not hesitate
to indorse what 1 say by giving it such
circulation as they may consider the
case warrants.
Do advise you to marry? Most
certainly [ do. I advise every young
man to select himself a wife and set
tie down. "a man unmarried is only
half what he might be with a wife,"
DR.. Hall used to say, and he was right
God intended every man to marry
when he became man, and if he fails
to do so, he loses the best Of life Ey-
cry young man should make himself a
home. When he has that, he is an
chored. He is king in the best king
dom on earth. Until he is married his
lie is lacking in that which best de-
yelOpS his manhood. With a wife to
love and work for, and to cheer and
keep him he begins to be what God
made him to be.
You ask me what | think about
"seeing the world before marrying?
l don't think much of it. Travel is
travel, and knocking about" as they
say, is quite another think. 1t is a bad
thing. What do you expect to gain by
it? The young man who knocks
about" for few years never lays up
anything. He'roanas from one place
to another, and gets into an unsettled,
restless way of living, which becomes
habit, just as hard to break up as any
other bad one. In the best years of
his life, wien he ought to be making
himself and his wife a home, he is
squandering his manhood, and the
chances are that he will not settle
down and go to work as he ought to if
he marries, but will be eternally NOV
ing about, and pity such man s
wife and him too, for that matter.
Life, to be ENJOYABLE, has got to have
something settled about it.
If there is any class of baings / do
pity from the bottom of my heart, it is
the class denominated cold bachelors.
When a woman remains single, she
generally makes herself home, after
a certain fashion, though it must nee
essarily be lacking in the chief ele-
mentS of what constitutes a home.
But the bachelor" is but little better
than an Outcast. He is a wanderer in
the world. He has made shipwreck of
his happiness on the rocks of single
life. If there can be anything more
desolate than the old age of such
NAN, / don't know what it is.
Many years of observation have
proved it to be a fact that
nine out of every ten who have never
married have been those who ''knocked
about during the years in which they
ought to have been laying the founda-
ton of a happy home for their old age.
Young men, don't be bachelors! When
you conclude to live single until you
get to be thirty or thirty-fve, and
''knock about during that time, you
are doing the very worst thing you
ever did. You are putting off ''the
day of salvation" and shining away
the day of grace. Seeing the world
as the young man does who has to earn
his living as he goes along amounts to
very little. What he does see is moth
ing that helps him fight the battle of
life more successfully. 1t only keeps
him from habits which are in direct
antagonism to a correct and happy and
successful life, and when he gets
through knocking about he has
nothing to show for his misspent years
save the habits which he must over
come if he would make anything Of
himself. Do you call that gain or loss !?
So, young man, take the advice of
man who has kept his eyes open for
more years than you have lived, prob
ably. and don't ''knock around" If
YOU think I have overdraWn the pict-
ure, look around you and out Of the
mon Won know. select those who have