The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1880-02-20
ENGAGEM ENTS.

Ought engagements to be long or short ?
1t has often been said that nothing helps so
much steady young man as the being en-
gagged to the girl whom he loves and for
whom he VOWS to prepare suitable home.
The soictude of David Copperfeld's friend,
pots and such like for the house where he
and his betrothed were to dwell was pretty
thing and much to be commended ; but on
the other hand it is undeniable that long en-
gagements have their drawbacks, especially
if the young people see much of each other
during the period of probation. In this case
much of the bloom is taken off the poetry of
courtship and no less gliding off the pros
poets of marriage There may be great
deal to say against the policy of wedding in
haste, but young people who take each other
for better or for worse, in all the illusion of
mutual trust and admiration, go through
time Of ecstasy unknown to those who marry
quite nationally The honeymoons Of such
pairs are hacyon epochs to be remembered
all life long, aud if the after period seem
dull and oveless by comparison, yet it is
something to have lived for however brief a
time up to the highest ideal of felicity. Be
Sides there is no little sweetness in having
faced the first hardships of life together II
young couple have to encounter poverty,
and if they conquer it side by side, tightening
all their labors by sharing them and dimin-
ishng their troubles by mutual consolation
and engagement, they forge links which must
bind their hearts closer and closer together.
| like to see a Snug young man stacking up
money in Il bank against his wedding day,
while his future ife looks on complacentiy
at the operation, as who should say, Thomas
must earn good many more pounds before
he can furnish house good enough to lodge
me :: but like still more to see young hus-
band and wife who have feathered their little
nest together. 1t is pleasant to hear smil-
ing woman remark 'We had nothing at all
when we married but see now how cosy we
have made our house This means that
there has been cheerful hard work on the one
side, thrift and self denial on the other-in
fact union After all, the yoke of marriage
is an apparatus that should sit on two pairs
of shoulders and there is nothing very SEEM
ingly in seeing girl wait to wear her own
part of it until it has been nicely padded with
quilted satin
My advice to young people who must pass
through long engagements is to see as little
of each other as possible, and likewise to cor.
respond sparingly. Quarrels are easily hatch.
ed, even on paper, and they arc almost sure
to rise if an exchange of love-letters be com.
menced at the dangerous rate of one day
or week. This pace is too fast to last.
should say that one letter fortnight was am
pie. If this wise abstemiousness from thu
use of pen and ink be tried if the loving
pair see each other but two or three times
year-at Christmas, at Easter, for perhap
half week during the summer and if, dur
ing their separation, they remind one anoth
er prettily of their reciprocal affection b,
gifts Of flowers, trinkets, nicely hemmet
pocket handkerchiefs and well worked slip
pers in worsted, then the rocky time of a loDi
engagement may possibly be sailed throug
without accident. Nevertheless, all this lead
up to repeating that, when young people hav
made up their minds to marry, the soone
they do so the better. .-LondOn Truth.