Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1882-12-13
To THE EDITOR OF THE HOUSEHOLD:
Sense and Sentiment,
Love in a hut with water and a crust.
Is-love forgive us-cinders, ashes. dust"

A@ufe III nut Win wafer anu crust
Is-love forgive us-cinders, ashes, dust"
l expect the young ladies OF the "house-
hold" will hold up their hands in horror
when they read my text, and declare that
| am dreadfully sordid and unsentimental
and vote me an old fossil tina has outlived
youthful romance and sentiment. Well,
it isn't any particular matter if they do
consider me as old as Methuselah if they
will only let me preach my little sermon
and-heed it.
There is a great deal written nowadays
about girls selling MISUNDERSTANDING
their youth, beauty or whatever charms
they may chance to possess, for wealth
and position.
Now, am convinced that three -fourths
of this talk Is arrant nonsense, without
more solid foundation than the sensational
story paper or dime novel. There are, of
course, occasional instances where girls
are dazzled with the prospect of wealth
and the social position that wealth gives
its possessor, yet the instances where n
girl will discard the man whom she loves
and marry man repugnant to her. for
financial reasons, are rare, even in this
luxury loving generation.
On the other hand the cases where
girls rush blindly into matrimony, when
the object of their choice has nothing
wherewith to support them and barely man.
ages as single man to support himself.
are as common as cases of measles. In
fact, it almost seems sometimes rs If there
we're matrimonial epidemics that come
around about as often as the measles, and
are about as contagious.
/ believe in matrimony with all my
heart; | believe that a true marriage is
productive of more happiness than any
other state can afford; and 1 also believe
that unwise and ill assorted marriages are
productive of more misery than you, my
dear romantic young lady, can have any
conception of. believe this because
have seen practical illustrations of its
truth too many times to entertain doubts
about it.
A young girl meets one of the opposite
sex; both are young and susceptible;
each exerts all their powers of pleasing,
unconsciously it may be, and the result is
they "fall in love-" or fancy tina they are
in love with each other, when it may be
only passing fancy that bo-h will out
grow.
1t does not m tttet so much if they are
not too hlsty in taking vows upon them
selves that, later on, may bec>n, intoI"r-
able to them. If it be genuine Aft mton,
and not mere passing f.ncy, it will not
grow less by waiting; and in either event
It is safer not to be hasty.
But true love is not the only condition
of happy marriage, though no marriage
can be happy without it. Unhappily we
mortals are not ETHEREAL enough in oul
| natures to live on smiles and caresses
alone. Our practical wants will assert
themselves, and the old problem of ''wha
shall we eat, and wherewthial,shall We be
cothed?' has to be worked out by every
family. If the larder is empty the smiles
will grow scarce or cease altogether, 70
the old adage is truer than we are apt
think, "when poverty comes in at tn
door loves flies out of the window" thoug
not altogether true; but want is a crucia
test which only genuine affection vii
bear.
If man loves woman he has no RICH
to ask her to marry him unless he can Civ
her comfortable home. lie need no
have great deal of money, if he has it
equivalent, the ability to earn money; bu
the girl who hastily or Acknowledgment
a man without fortune, who is too lazy c
100 incapable to support her in reasonabl
comfort will find too late that she ha
sacrificed sense TO sentiment.
LAURA B. BoYcE.