The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-08-31
DfO Lewis on Marriage.

response TO an inquiry asking his 1udg-
ment and advice upon that important
step in life:
My DEAR SIR: receive so many
letters asking advice on similar SUBJ
Jects 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 1 intend |
this advice shall have, whatever other
graces it may be lacking in; and as
their observations will bear out the as
sertions 1 make, they will not hesitate
to indorse what l say by giving it such
circulation as they may consider the
case warrants.
Do | advise you to marry? Most
certainly do. l advise every young
man to select himself a wife and set
tie down. GA 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. Ev-
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
life is lacking in that which best de-
velops his manhood. With 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?
/ 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 roams 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, when he ought to be making
himself and his wife 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 l pity such mans
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 beings | do
pity from the bottom of my heart, it is
the class denominated "old BACHELORS
When woman remains single, she
generally makes herself a home, after
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 cid age of such
man, l don't know what it is.
Many years of observation have
proved it to be 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-five, and
''knOck about during that time, you
are doing the very worst thing you
ever did. You are putting off 1.-THE
day of salvation" and ''sinning 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 a
man who has kept his eyes open for
more years than you have lived, prob
ably, and don't "knock around" If
you think | have overdrawn the pict-
ure, look around you and out Of the
men you know, select those who have
"knocked around" and see if they do
not bear witness to the truth of every
assertion have made concerning the
class they represent. Are they men
you envy? l tell you, boys, "knock-
ing around makes a man good for
nothing else, and l take it you have
desire to be good for something higher
in life.
Young men say to me, 81 can't af-
ford to marry" l always get out of
patience when they say that. If you
can support yourself you can support
a wife. | don't mean fashionable
young lady, l mean wife. A young
couple who go to housekeeping, and
exercise common sense and economy,
will get along better on less amount
than it took to support the husband be-
fore marriage, even if he was careful
of expenses. This excuse of not being
able to marry is no excuse at ALL If a |
young man will work before marriage, |
he will work more and better after. |
He has something to work for, and |
will make the most of his time and |
opportunities. And true wife will |
do her share and be more of help |
than he had ever had any idea a wife
could be. Getting married is a stroke
of economy.
And young man, don't get the in
sane idea in your head that you ought
to go to the city. If you have farm
or can buy one, and know more about
farming than any other profession stick
to it. The trades are overcrowded.
Only superior talent pushes its way
up in them. Young menare apt to
get grander notions than they are capa-
BILE of backing up. Don't bother to
think of what YOU would do if Won