The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1881-09-17


social aspects of American life com
most plainly into view, marriage /
probably. If the truth were known, tn,
foremost consideration. in all classes
1t Is considered, but not talked of. i
Is the basis of every mans future, poot
or bad. Yet nobody, oddly enough
discusses it except the young people
who know nothing of it but by hearsay
Their CONCENTRATIONS and argument.
upon it are interminable.
There are fewer early marriages il
this country now than in any preyiou,
generation. One reason for this is thai
women are more self-supporting now,
and less likely to marry young and
without due consideration, for main.
tenance. The other is that the style OF
living in each class is SO much more
costly than it was forty years ago that
young men will not venture to marry
on as small incomes. Our fathers
brought mp families of q dozen boys and
girls, educated and started them in life
on an income which will now barely
dress or feed a clerk or medical student.
But our fathers were not members of
clubs, and our mothers knew little Or
nothing of high or low art; the word
aesthetic will not be found in any die
tionary of those days-a fact which
closed several currents of expense that
drain our incomes now, with or against
our will. There were, too, larger FAM
lilies in those days. Now, whether IL
argues that the social condition was
healthier then, when the dwellings
were poor and bare, the table was plain,
and the heads of the household were
rich in nothing but sturdy, hard-work-
ing sons and daughters, than now,
when the luxurious homes have but few
tenants, who have more leisure and
ability to scan and understand different
and wider outlooks into life than that
of labor, is matter for discussion.
More can be said, however. on each
side OF the question than is at first
sight apparent.
In one respect, we undoubtedly have
the advantage over the generation which
went before us. Marriages made after
the first flush of early youth is past are
less likely to prove at middle age mr.
congenial. Especially is this true of
the upper grades of men and women.
Your intellectual pIebian, man of the
mass, the commonplace, unreasoninp.
coarse-grained husband or wife, is much
more likely to be a creature of habit
than the man of finer nerves and higher
mental caiibrc. He or she picks out |
mate by a violent sudden impulse; a |
CHEEKY lip, pleasant smile, q becom-
ing dress presto? The thing is de- |
cided. Love and marriage are ma
terial matters, because they themselves |
are chiefly matter. This impulse graf
fled. 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 physical needs which drives the
hawk afieid after he has chosen his
nate aud built nest. The hawk does
lot concern himself about an intellec-
ual sympathy with his mate; he does
lot outgrow her mental limit or feel
immortal longings of which she knows
nothing. He feeds her. She tends
he young ones, and, barring an occa-
ional squabble they are happy. There
the history of eight-tenths Of married
'eople.
There is smaller class in whose love
mental development and spiritual
leeds 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
rom, or beyond, each other, and be-
cath the ever-increasing gap lies a
oundless hell of human misery. The
tructure of American society opens
he way to this especial sort of domes-
g tragedy. The man Of force and in
elect has every opportunity to rise;
ut he cannot drag his wife up with
i'm. We all know the pair. We have
cen them in every condition and class
10 married her twenty years ago, 3
retty delicate young thing, ignorant
nd ill-bred as himself. He has pushed
Is way into q different social level;
aimed and broadened his life and hab-
8 Of thought in the society of books
nd of men of culture and refinement;
ne has grown more narrow, more ig-
opnnt, more weak than before in
rudging ia the kitchen and nursery.
here are thousands OF such cases in {
le country to-day. and the husband in
lch strait is as much to be pitied as :
le wife. God has not joined them to-
sther.
The number of marriages among !,
Dry young and immature people is not
,ly smaller OF late years. but those +
,tween men and women considerably I.
sst their middle age have increased. :
obody but school-children, to whom :
We is dream which belongs solely to
e giggling age, now feels inclined /.
laugh at such alliances. They are :
ten matters of convenience, founded
J motives Of respect, comfort or suita- !.
lily, which usually result as happily =
any action OF grave import, carefully : :
sighed and resolved upon by expert =
ced people, is likely to do. Why
ould not an intelligent, home loving
an and woman, left companionless
middle age, form a partnership of =,
ntual help and comfort for their old . !.