Daily Republican., 1886-07-26

at 25 than at 30; and thai
nine-tenths of our girls would
doubtless be happier should they wal,
until the maturer period Two coz
| siderations would influence me TO a
preference for marriage later than
early, In the first place is the GER
taintY that girl of any brains would
know a great deal better what she
needed, by way Of companionshiE
through lite, at 26 than she could pos
sible know at 20. In the second place
l would fain secure to girls the natural
healthful delights of girlhood; that
time when the bud is not quite opened
to the sun and holds at heart the morn
ing freshness. And yet, the remem-
brance OF certain girl brides, full of
nope and trust, and entering on the
new life with the fresh enthusiasm of
girlhOod, constralns me to wond er
whether something may not be lost
from the glory Of love when the glory
OF youth is passed.
In the two very happiest marriages
can just now call to my mind one
wife married at the age of IS, the other
at that of so. And these marriages
seemed to me ideally perfect. To these
happy pairs would apply my favorite
quotation from Jane Eyre, where Jaro
says, after her marriage with koches-
Yer, For us to be together is to be as
free as in solitude, as gay as in COM
pany." But | would be very lar from
deducing from these two ideal mar
riages the conclusion that a young wo
man should not marry under the ma
ture age of 2S.
Tie terrible danger is in the early
marriages OF people in state, when.
before the wings have sprung from the
shoulders OF Pegasus, he may be
mated all unknowingly with the plod-
ding plow-horse. Unshared aspira
tons-these are fatal to conjugal hap
piness, | know, for instance, man in
nigh official position, educated largely
by contact with the world, by the
very duties that have developed on
nm and the attention of every days
experiences, whose petty, empty
headed wife must shock him by her
very accent every time she opens her
lips. He does his duty manfully, this
man-but does any .one suppose he
Wou d not be happier with different
wi G?
Louisa M.Alcott writes as follows:
my reply to the question, When
shail our young women marry?' is
from % to %, as few girls are ready
for the duties of married life before
them, either physically or mentally.
Many are never fit, owing to the seri-
GUS defects in our modern education
and inherited ills"
"When shall our young men marry?"
is a still more important question to
my mind, because the sins of the
father visited upon the children are too
often the cause Of TIL 1t feebleness which
is usually attributed to the mothers.
When young people are wisely pre-
pared for marriage d taught its sane.
tity, it will cease to be the leap in the
dark it is now to both part es and the
beauty and vigor of youth wi make it
what 1t should be-saie and happy.
AS teacher, nurse, author and conf
dant to both young and old, have
had many opportunities of looking be-
hind the curta Il, and am convinced
that books on the health of our boys
are much m re needed than any addi-
ton to the library and aiv ce our poor
girls are supplied with Begin at the
right end, gentlemen, and do not visit
upon Ewes daughters the sins of
Adams sons, making it unsafe to marry
at all.