Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1880-03-10
From Our Regular Correspondent
Washington Letter.
WASHINGTON, D. C., March 6. 1885,

The marked absence of matrimonial en-.
terprise in Washington is at present a
common complaint. The threadbare plea
of depression of trade may cover multi
tudeof shortcomings and sin, but it is an
insufficient explanation of the fact. II
may be that, as is said, fall in bread is
Immediately followed by an increase in
banns. But the principle, if applicable to
a struggling proletariat, can scarcely be
extended by the most charitable of inter
prefers to those endowed with full share
OF this worlds goods and graces. Yet il
is over these last that the chaperons Ia.
ment most bitterly. Amid the complex
web of circumstances which give rise to
periodical cycles of anti-matrimonial pref
udice, there are certain well defined no.
tons which cloud the outlook of the eligi-
Bile bachelor, Partly passing shadows oil
latter-day conditions, they combine tc
form Il gloomy background to the SUMMER
aspects of married life. The visionary
ideal of love in Il cottage has faded amid
the common light of a toiing and moiling
humanity, fever-stricken by social rival
ries. Happiness has been defined. and
has lost its bloom in the process. married
and marred is the popular criticism
passed by his contemporaries on the occa-
sional victim to a desperate matrimonial
designer.
1t is roundly asserted that Americans in
fashionable life have lost the power OF
falling in love. Perhaps, to the fl Tutoring
heart of the doJuLdRte Miss Emma, the
partner in every dance is possible part.
ner for life. In American urban society,
homespun sentiment is past praying for.
If distance lend certain enchantment
which, should the spell remain unbroken,
might be fatal, closer inspection and more
intimate relations may exaggerate defects,
just rs the lens reproduccs but the flaw in
the brilliant The cause may lie deeper.
Frederick's fdncee must pass muster
among his friends. No longer lovesck
sonneter to his mistress's eyebrow, he
protests-perhaps too much-that Emma
is the great-niece of senator, or the
cousin of an admiral. 1t is less important
that she is pretty than that she moves on u
select social plane.
The shield has, however, another side
10 some matrimony seems sea of troub-
les, beset with shoals and quicksands,
dangerous, even if not fatal. The con-
ception Of marriage as the gateway to
liberty is not confined to France; and viz
tue has been cynically defined as the
absence Of temptation. 1t may be that
providence has happily allotted plain
wife. She talks art, and turns out Il blue
stocking-very likely Il downright bore.
If, less luckily, another is predestined to
find his fate in Il beauty, she aspros to
sail in the orbit of professional lionesses ;
and her amiable ambition results in the
total eclipse and permanent placement OF
the husband, who after many wistful re-
grets for bachelor memories, finally gray
itates towards old haunts, now half for
gotten, and the unfettered happiness Of
club tastes. The free thinking partisans
of bachelor ethics find in him ii suggestive
subject for a clinical lecture upon their
lavorite philosophy, A larger class have
prolitcd 10y the warnings issued by those
W ose engaging simplicity has found too
late that women bctray, despite II long
engagement.
Even without IN open rupture, a long
alliance is a searching ordeal for the most
loyal of lovers. The diplomacy of passion,
in an earlier stage of an understanding
not yet declared, the denoraizing effect
of uncertainties, passing storm clouds of
jealousy, the reporting at head, quarters,
if they open out only IL long vista of rather
commonplace but vigorously exacted du-
tifulness, will dissipate the volatile es-
sences of attraction which centre in the
wooed and won. Even the wedding-day,
though happily shorn of much that made
it sheer purgatory to the bridegrooms,
holds out disgusting prospect. The hero
and heroine of the ceremony no longer
stay to share the morning feast But the
wedding day is the ladies' field day. The
bridegroom and his supporters are neces
| 1,,b ipn1puopiapt in 10 l.
kept sedulously in the background during
the solemn and unbroken sacrifice to the
graces, which inaugurates Incorporating
ritual. To the diflident, and even to
stronger nerves. there is something dis
comforting in the prospect of the sequel
even if fashion kindly cuts short the
honeymoon.
1t was not so long back that men tool
The matrimonial fever, on arriving al
years Of discretion, as regularly as measles
and whooping cough at an earlier period
A competence now commands comforts
+ which tend to crystalline bachelor habits
The rapid development of clubism is IN
essential factor in the epidemic disinclina.
ton to pairing and nest building. Married
life, it is commonly anticipated, becomes
cut and dry, gray, monotonous. Perhaps,
however, when all is said it is still moo
question whether the responsibility for ;
dull marriage market does not rest will
, those most nearly concerned. None but
the fugitive are run after" and tn,
matrimonial nctrailje of the ladies il
search of husbands is an exception to the
well-worn proverb that every bullet ha
its billet If the assailed are tempted t
say of the assailans in their haste that al
women are flirts, it is full time that tht
GntrigU0nte should look to her laurels
she is to lay her account with finding ;
partner at all.
The presidents withdrawal OF Pinch.
backs nomination rs naval officer at tht
port of New Orlelns leads the Tribune t
say that he (the president) thus ENROLL