The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-10-03
aHIersun gnteIIigenter.
Married Daughters.

e -
The Wonders of American marriage
would, if they could be truly described,
Interest European people more than the
rude and boisterous life described by
Bret Harte. Itwould astonish French
man for example, to know that American
fathers rear their daughters in luxury,
Ssnlilc on thei. marriages with penniless
clerks, and make absolutely no provision
ofa steadfast kind for the future of these
daughters. The Frenchman might ask
in amazemeut, not why poor husband
Is accepted, but how the daughter of
luxury Is to be provided for, and on what
resources her children are to leanf He
+ would probably be told that the fathers
mission ended with sthe- daughters mar
riage he would .seesa compiacent smile
on the fathers face as his friends con.
graduated him, ana would slowly gather
in that this complacency had t1c fators:
Tlhave done my duty by her. and it is
over at last"
For our part, we have ceased to pity
poor girls growing up in scanty homes
and marrying penriless young men.
These girls are trained for the life that
awaits them. They must be- content
with little all their lives; but all their
youth has been Appropriation tor such
content. But daughter bred IN lux
surious idleness, taught none of the econ
omies that belong to humble life, and
then married without dover, deserves
more pity than men usually bcstow upon
her. And her husband, full Of enter
prise and capacity, takes MP burden
whose weight love may tighten but cam
not carry. Business failures, broken
homes, miseries, and crimes, lie behind
this curtain.
Common sense is our boasted Ameri-
can virtue; but there is one subject to
which weEarely apply it. If we did, we
should sec in strong light this simple law
of duty it is a. fathers solemn duty to
secure to his daughter, as far as lies in
his power, that state in life to which he
has bred her. IF he is poor, he has no
right to give her the luxuries of wealth
mo right as between her and him. 1t
he is rich, his wealth ought to be taxed,
and his forethought more seriously taxed,
to provide for her permanent income,
which will procure for her that degree OF
luxury to which she has been accus-
toned. ~----------,.-,---..-.- .-.--:--;--. :
The doctrine, that the fathers duty
ends when the husbands begins, Is
fearful delusion, full of the miseries
which sometimes reveal themselves in
I divorce courts. y This husband may be
more than asfather in gwatchfuE sohci-
tude; but experience warns Us from
every page Of life, that he may utterly
fail in his duty. Nature gave the daugh-
ter q father, and has appointed no hour
when his duties cease. It is afearful
misleading of Scripture which finds.such
limit in Gods word.
There Is no satire so keen, II we had
ewes to see and ears to hear, as that
which is enacted when q fond father
gives the penuiless youth, to whom he
also gives his daughter, q sum of money
to be invested in business. AS though
any of us could overlook for q momept
the perils of business-the fact that,
Judged By experience, failure is the rule
and success the exception. IL, few years
the business will bresk down, and the
youne wife. with children at her knees,
will realize little what it is to be poor;
and the husband, whose business has
broken under the strain of living ex-
penses, will realize little what it is to
marry g portionless child of luxury.
For she was really portionless. The
European system of dover would have
invested her fortune in the most secure
way, would have kept it religiously Sc
cured to her and her children, 80 that
whatever vicissitudes attend the business
of her husband, her living would have
beenzsecure. A better and kinder way
than the usual one would be torear these
girls in kitchen and shop; to keep from
them the, sight of fine clothes and costly
dinners-to train them for the hard work
of life. We have recently looked in
upon one of these tragedies of our Amer
ican life-the waste of wife,s fortune BY
her husband. We saw no shame in the
mans face. "Her father trusted me with.
it." he said, when questioned; but there
was absolutely no sign that he felt one
twinge of dishonor, and yet he had done
the one meanest thing man can do.
There is no excuse for those who devour
widows houses, unless it be that the men
unblushingly commit the greater crime
of putting the fortunes of their wives in
peril.
Women have many just causes of COM
plant ;,but the cries some ofthem utter,
do not touch their proper woes. IF those.
of them who know the real evil should
speak, they would say: sour fathers
rear rs .tenderly; but they marry us
without giving US practical advice, or
means Of independence, or security for
the manner of life into which We were
born. Our husbands take our portion of
goods, and treat it in all respects as their
own. Neither fathers nor husbands ex-
ercise any sufficient forethought for our
helplessness and that of our children" !"
We are speaking of the rule; there are
many honorable exceptions, and as we
advance in real civilization, there will be
more of these exceptions Methodist. /.