The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-06-26
BILL ARP.
he Eliminates Over Love, Courtship and
Marriage.

BILL AMI.
He Eliminates Over Love, Courtship and
Marriage.
atlanta Constitution.
Married and gone. 1t is the same old
story. Love and courtship. Then comes
the engagement ring and blessed inter.
val of fond hopes and happy dreams and
then the day is fxed-the auspicious day
that is never TO be forgotten-a day that
brings happiness or misery and begins a
new life. Then comes the license. the
permit of the law which says you may
marry, you may enter into bonds. The
State approves it and the law allows it
and it will only cost you dollar and a
quarter. Cheap, amt it, and yet it may
be very dear. Then comes the minister,
and the happy pair stand up before him
and make some solemn VOWS and listen
to prayer and benediction, aud they are
one. In a moment the trusting maid has
lost her name and her free will and is
tied fast to man. Well, he is tied fast,
too, 80 it is all right all round reckon,
but somehow always feel more concern
about the woman than the man. She is
q helpless sort of a creature and takes
the most risk, for she risks her all.
We gave him cordial welcome into
the family. and we kissed her lovingly
and babe them goodbye, and the chill
dren threw shower of rice over them
and an old shoe after them, and they
were soon on their way to the land of
flowers. She was not our child but was
almost, for Mrs Arp was the only mother
she ever knew and we love her.
I sat in my piazza Illuminating over the
scene and I wondered that there we're as
many happy marriages as there seem to
be. Partners for life ought to be congo
nial and harmonious in so many things.
When men make partnership in bust.
ness they can't get along we'll if they are
unlike in disposition or in moral princi-
pie, or in business ways and business
habits. But they can't dissolve and sepa.
rate a. pleasure and try another man.
A man and his wife ought to be alike
in most everything. 1t is said that folks
like their opposite, their counterparts, aud
SO they do in some respects. A man
with blue eyes goes mighty nigh
distracted over woman with hazel eyes.
/ did, and I'm distracted yet whenever I
look into them. But in mental qualities
and emotional qualities and tastes and
habits and principles and convictions
and the like they ought to class together.
Indeed it is better for them to have the
same politics and the same religion. And
so I have observed that the happiest
unions as a general thing are those where
the high contracting parties have known
each other for long time and have as.
simulated from their youth in thought
and feeling. When man goes off to
some watering place and waltzes a few
times with charming girl and falls des-
perately in love and marries her off hand,
it is long shoot and narrow chance
for happiness. Why, we may live in the
same town with people and not know as
much about them as we ought to. I
never made any mistake about my choice
of partner for the dance of life, but I've
thought of it thousand times that if
Mrs. Arp had known I loved Goldfish and
got up by daybreak every morning she
never would have had me- 1t was nip
and tuck to get her anyhow and that
would have been the feather to break the
camel's back. Well, I'm mortal glad
she didn't know it, though I am free to
say that if I had known she slept until
the second ringing of The first bell for
breakfast and was fond of raw oysters, it
would have had a dampening effect on
my ardor for few minutes, only few.
But I have seen some mighty clever peo-
pie eat oysters raw and sleep late in the
morning. But still man and his wife
can harmonize and compromise a good
many of these things, and it is beauti-
full illustration of this to see Mrs. Arp
cooking Goldfish for me and fixing it all
up so nice with eggs and cream, and it
is touching evidence of my undying
devotion to her to see me wandering
about the house lonely and forlorn every
morning for an hour or two. and forbid.
ding even the cat to walk heavy while
she sleeps. That Goldfish business comes
to me honestly from my fathers side, and
my mother put up with it like good,
considerate wife, and we children grew
up with an idea that it was good. I've
heard of young couple who got married
and went off to Augusta on tour, and
the feller stuck his fork into Goldfish
ball and took bite. He choked it down
like hero, and when his beloved asked
what was the matter, replied: Don't
say anything about it, Mandy, but as
sure as you are born there is something
dead in the bread"
Well, we can make compromises about
all such things as habits and tastes, but
there are some things that won't compro.
mise worth cent. If girl has been
brought up to havinga good deal of free.
dom and thinks it no harm to go waltz
ing around with every gay Lothario who
loves to dance, and after she gets feller
of her own, wants to keep at it and have
polluted arms around her waist, she had
just as we'll sing farewell to coniugal love
and domestic peace, for it is against the
order of nature for loving husband to
stand it, and he ought not. There is
another thing that ought to be considered,
and that is age. A few years makes no
difference, but an old man had better be
careful about marrying young wife.
He won't be happy but about two weeks,
and then his misery will begin and it
will never end. 1t may be better for
woman to be an old mans darling than
young mans slave, but she had better
be neither. When young girl marries
an old man for his money she has gone
back on herself, for money don't bring
happiness. Money helps, but money
with dead weight is curse-an aggra.
vstion. l was talking one day to an old
man, Frenchman, who had made a
hermit of himself and was living all alone
in the woods, and he said: "Mine friend,
l bav make one grand meestake. Mine