Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1878-06-08
LONG ENG fGEMENTS,

Every one must know an impecuniouS
couple hopcleSSly in love h0peeSSy poor. The
years glide on, half the lovers income 90 $ IN
postage stamps, but he never seems Aarer
matTlmOny. After a certain time, Su n an
engaged couple acquiesce in the newt tble.
They attain brevet rank in the eyes of their
friends. Chaperons are hardly required for
me lady. she is already regarded as good as
over form OF marriage by usual fiction OF
society is theirs; they are almost as free as if
they were actually married, and yet they pos
<ess none of the drawbacks and responsible
les Of marriage. 1t they would but think SO.
,he.r life is like perpetual Honeymoon. In
ordinary cases they can see as much of each
Other as they choose, while the lady has none
OF tie anxiety of ordering dinner, and the gen.
ltman is never troubled with butchers bill.
They possess AL the luxury of love without a
single care; yet so reverse is human nature
Gene immunity for the poor Benedicts lJt,
eight small children given to Group an
ricketts,: and sickly wife who must have daily
elves with Millions " grisly porter, who, hav-
ing drawn men and wisest men by subtle al
lurement within the train of an unhappy mat
as sas as he gate But nores
and country idyls would be grievously poorer
were the world robbed of these cOnfding
pains. They maintain the fidelity of hopeless
love, and exhibit some OF the rarer virtues of
humanity. Every. one is the better for know
ing tlem though few would care to exchange
lives with them.
Some long engagements languish until few
and brief letters tell the too truStful Dido that
her hero is cooling in his attachment d.
telmined titude and violent outbreak Oh the
gard in The spirit of the Terentian aphOrism
But it may quite as easily produce lifelong
rupture, and engender wretchedneSS with
many painful memories for both. A polite
woman can generally tell to which side the
balance will incline. An alienation after a
three years cOurtShip was, in one case within
cur experience, followed by happy marriage
after the same period of silence; while in an
other case the breach was rendered irrepar-
able by one of the parties marrying fresh
love: How far the separation of twil-souls is
ton often raised. The point is nice enough to
have exercised the skill of AddisOn's love
casuist.
An instance lately came to our knowledge
in which the lady, after cOmplacently resting
in an engagement of actually 20 years, had the
strength OF mind to refuse matrimony when
pressed upon her, and strengthened beyond
amy reasonable objection by the acquisition of
the long coveted Sufficiency of income, on the
plea that her health was now not equal to mar
rage OF course the unfortunate lover warm
" eXpOStulated. and expressed his entire will
ingness to take the lady spite of her heath,
but it was of no avail. We are of opinion that
he was grievously wronged, and hold that a
woman who should draw back after so antedi
luvian a pei iOd of betrOthal is as tickle as if
she had broken her troth year after the en-
gagement commenced: Having ''turtled" it
81 lOUS ktO uoc tuc WUIuS vi ITlllCe Ill Tile case
of Devon Worthy, il is unlikely, to say the
least of it. that be could procure second
mate; beside hich. his confidence i'm wOman'S
love must be considerably shaken, and he is
probably glad to find the sentiments of Euri-
pides and Milton on misOgyny so much in har-
mOny with his own. The offending LADY in
such case may rest assured that she has not
only made man miserable who deserved
much better fate, but has also created a deter
mined enemy to her own sex.
SOME SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS IN THE PHONo-
GRAPH LINE.-A few simple experiments will
satisfy any one as to the power of the voice:
l. Take silk hat, and, placing one hanl on
th3 crown, talk with the opening towards the
mouth. The vibration of the crown of the hat
corresponds to the movement of the phOno-
graphs disk.
2. Place the hand on a glass or thin board
partition, and talk in a strong voice. The
vibration of the Partition will be plainly felt
3. Listen in room separated by a brick
parti ion from another in which a loud con-
versa ion is being carried on. Much that is
said will be understood and this can only be
by the vibrations of the air in one room being
impaired to the wall itself, which again impIrtS
them to the air in the second room.
Words, spoken with powerful voice, Will
frequently drive t ,, the monograph needle
SO delicate is the instrument that indenta
lions not visible to the naked eye yibrate the
Gi and give out the original sound
1t is not strange that there should be much
increduli relative to the performance of such
a marvelOusly simple in, trument which per-
machansmS in the human body.
There has probably never been so important
an invention made available for practic al uSe
in such short time as will be the case with the
plonograph.
HrJO,r Bright, in his recent sneech at