Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-01-05
THE HOUSEHOLD.
SENSIBLE REMARKS FROM A sENs1BLE WOMAN
'Loye IN hut with water and crust,
Is-love fnrnlvo ns-cindora. nahea. dual.n

SENSIBLE REMARKS FROM A SENSIBLE WOMAN.
'Ioye IN hut with water and crust,
ls-oye forgive us-cinders ashes, DUST
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 that has outlived youth
full romance and sentiment. Well, il isn't
any particular matter IL they do consider me
as old as Methuselah If they will only let me
preach my little sermon and-heed IT,
There is great deal written nowadays
about girls selling MISUNDERSTANDING
their youth, beauty or whatever charms they
may chance to possess, for wealth and posi-
ton.
Now I 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 q girl will discard the
man whom she loves and marry man repug-
nant 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 OBJ
ject of their choice has nothing wherewith
to support them and barely manages as sim
gle man to support himself are as common
as cases of measles. In fact, it almost seems
sometimes as if there were matrimonial epi-
denies that come around about as often as
the measles, and are about as contagious
believe in matrimony with all my heart
l believe that true marriage is productive
of more happiness than any other state can
afford and l also believe that unwise and
i'll assorted marriages are productive Of more
misery than you, my dear romantic young Ia
dy, can have any conception Of / believe
this because l have seen practical illustra-
tions 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, uncon-
sciously it may be, and the result is they
fall in love, or fancy that they are in love
with each other, when it may be only pass
ing fancy that both will outgrow.
1t does not matter so much if they are not
too hasty in taking VOWS upon themselves
that, later on, may become ntolerable to
them. If it be genuine affection, and not a
mere passing fancy, il 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. Unhapply we mortals are
not ETHEREAL enough in our natures to live on
smiles and caresses alone. Our practical
wants will assert themselves, and the old
problem of what shall we eat, and where
with shall we be clothed2" has to be worked
out by every family. If the larder is empty
the smiles will cease altogether, for the old
adage is truer than we are apt to think,
when poverty comes in at the door love
flies out of the window, though not altogeth-
err true but want is crucial test which on
ly genuine affection will bear.
If man loves a woman he has no right to
ask her to marry him unless he can give her
a comfortable home. He need not have a
great deal of money, if he has its equivalent,
the ability to earn money but the girl who
hastily, or deliberately, marries a man with
out fortune, who is too lazy or too incapable
to support her in reasonable comfort, will
find too late that she has sacrificed sense to
sentiment. -Ldura b. BQyce in the Free
man.