New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-07-31
ONE OR TWO ASPECTS OF MdRRIfCg.

In these midsummer days, when the social
aspects of American life como most plainly
into Wow, marriage is probably, il the truth
were known, the foremost consideration in all
classes. 1t is considered. but not talked Of
1t is the basis Of every mans future, good or
bad. Yet nobody, oddly enough, discusses it
except the young people, who know nothing
OF it but by hcarsay. Their contemplation
and arguments upon it are interminable.
There are fewer early marriages in this coun-
try now than in any previous generation. Ono
reason for this is that women are more self
supporting now, and less likely to marry Young
and without duo considerations for a mainte-
nance. Tho other is that the style of living i'm
each class IL so much more costly than it was
forty years ago that young men will not ven
ture to marry on as small incomes. Our fathers
brought up families of u dozen boys and girls,
educated and started them in life on an in
como which will now barely dress and feed %
clerk or medical student But our fathers
were not members of clubs, and Our mothers
knew little OF nothing Of high or low
art; the word aesthetic will not be
found in any dictionary of those days
IA fact which closed several currents
of expense that drain our incomes now, with
or against our will. There were, too, larger
families in those days. Now, whether it
argues that the social condition was healthier
then, when the dwellings were poor and bare.
the table was plain, and the heads Of tho house
holdw rich in nothing but sturdy, hard work
ing sons and daughters, than now, whom thelux-
urious homes have but few tenants, who have
moro leisure and ability to scan and understand
different and wider OutlOoks into life, than
that of labor, is matter for discussion. THE
TRIBUNE has no verdict to give. Moro can
be said, however, on each side Of the question
than is at first sight apparent.
In one respect, we undoubtedly have tho
advantage over tho generation which went
before us. Marriages made after tho first
flush OF early youth is past are less likely to
prove at middle ago uncOngenial. Especially
is this true Of the upper grades OF men and
women. Your intellectual plebeian, man Of the
mass, tho commonplace, unreasOning, coarse
grained husband or wife, is likely to DO much
more creature of habit than the man of
finer nerves and higher mental calibre. He
or she picks out q mate by d violent sudden
impulse cherry lip, a pleasant SMILE
becoming dress-presto! the thing is
decided. Love and marriage are material mat
tors, because they themselves are chiefly mat
ter. This impulse gratifed, other material
wants come to the front in their life-food,
clothes, the bringing up OF children; the man
and woman go to work, precisely from the same
sense OF physical needs which drives the hawk
afeld after he has chosen his mate and built
nest. The hawk does not concern himself
about an intellectual sympathy with his mate;
he does not Outgrow her mental limit or feel
immortal longings of which she knows moth
ing. He feeds her. She tends the Young ones,
and, barring an occasional squabble, they are
happy. There is the history of eight-tenths of
married people.
There is smaller class in whose loves men
tai development and spiritual needs are of much
more momentous import than physical needs
and money making. Such men and women, if
they marry unwisely, are apt to grow away
from, or beyond, each other, and beneath that
ver-increasing gap lies q soundless hell of
human misery. The structure Of American So
ciety opens the way to this especial sort of do
nestle tragedy The man of force and intel
lcct has every opportunity to rise but he cannot