The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1877-09-26
+" WHY DON'Ts YOU MARRFg'
Written for the Morristown Gazette.
BY EVA WILLIAMS.


nears the terrible twenty-five that marks
her as hopeless ole maid the query is
accompanied by a look of sympathy,
such as we sometimes see upon the face
of physician who would, but cannot
avert the death of patient.
"Y es-why don't you marry doyou
not see that the years are gliding by
you have youth and beauty now; these
soon will fade. When these are gone
wherewith viii you catch husband
Now is your harvest time-now is the
good day for the fishers of men-cast in
you net and draw forth the prize before
the tide goes out" S tfEafi.f 5srt'
Thus the world reasons, and maidens
heed, since maidens sometimes seem
only made for needing. s-. -I...-,
Some heather philosophers teach that
immortality is never bestowed upon the
mate1ess woman; and, il seems to me,
the doctrine has its believers in this
Christian land. If our souls salvation
depended upon Our getting husbands,
and that right speedily-the exaorta-
tions we receive could not be more earn
est than at present. There is a hint of
heathenism lurking in our highest civil
izasion, and this insatiate mania for ev-
cry girl to marry is relic of barbarous
days. Why must she marry Is
Because unless a wife she is nothing
Her influence, her talent, her usefulness
go for nought-she must be sheltered
81, a~,,,oo
else her life is failure, no matter how
noble and true it may be in itself
In this teaching there is the minimum
of sense, and the maximum of nonsense
1t is right and good that a woman mar
ry, if she marry wisely, but it is not
right that she marry simply because she
is a woman. 1t is not to marriage per Sc
that we object, but it is to the idea that
every woman may, can, must, might
could, would, or should marry, no mat
ter what the circumstances that surround
her.
If a girl be true-hearted and pure she
wishes and intends to marry. When she
tells me she never means to do so, l
know she is telling me a falsehOod or is
not natural woman.
In the heart of every woman, deep
down it may be, yet pure and undying,
is the longing for the peace and love of
a HOme-for the heart of some true
man to glorify that Home with Love.
Most women, think, are happier, and
better as wife and mother than they
would otherwise be-prOpjded they have
chosen a man who fills their life with
love, and their home with the strength
of his presence.
But alas so many women do not
choose wisely, and I earnestly believe
that If a girl were left as free as man
in the matter of marrying there would be |
not so many cases of divorce, nor I'M
happy homes in our fair land. If she |
felt that there was no especial need that
she be in haste about choosing a hus- |
bandit she were given few years to
sound the depths of her own heart, so
as to know what were the requirements |
Of her nature, she would bring to the |
choice a wisdom and honesty that no
girl of seventeen can pos
sibly possess.
But the thought that she is expected to
marry hurries many girl into marri-
age that in her maturer years she would /
never make.
A man feels that he can marry at any
he need be in no hurry-a
woman ought to be left with as much
freedom.
1t is absurd for woman to feel that
all her education, all her beauty, every |
good gift of heart or brain are only
snares with which to catch a husband.
She ought to feel that she is being edu-
Gated to make good aooBltn, because
God meant that woman should be good /
and lovely, and not merely to attract
the opposite sex. To my thinking, the |
woman who would make the happiest
and in whose love a man
would be most blest, is the woman who
feels that, if Fate so determine, she
could go through life alone, with a
brave heart and a fearless.
The charms that are cultivated only
to catch a husband, will be laid aside as
soon as he is caught. Love should be
spontaneOus-else it is no love at all
should be the result of the
coming together of kindred souls, and
not thing of calculation or design.
A true marriage is the most beautiful
thing on earth-a marriage that proves
a mistake, what Pandemonium can com
pare with it? Next to religion there is
nothing in life so serious, and nothing
hat should be more earnestly consider
I'd, and shudder to think how thought
essly this sacred relati1n is entered into
"a loving woman finds Heaven or hell,
On the day she becomes a bride"
And yet young girls, through fear of
take upon themselves the
acred name Of wife with little thought
beyond the bridal trousseau and the
tour!
If girls would seek, not to marry early
tut well-if they would remember that
he land over which Hymen holds sway
s not land of perpetual sunshine and
far better it would be I
chen there would be more happy wives,
nd fewer sad women, who look at us
With hungering eyes that tell of life
0ng disappointment.
Rotation in crops, though now prac-
ced by every intelligent farmer, yet