The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-02-14


Rebekah makes. and the greater the risks OF her
expedition on the backs of the camels the more
thoroughly is Isaac bound to be kind and indul-
gent and worthy.
promised to make her happy. Are you making
her happyg You are an honest man in other
things, and feel the Importance of keeping a
contract If you have induced her into con-
Jugal partnership under certain pledges of kind
ness and valuable attention, and then have
failed to fulfill your word. you deserve to have a
SUIT brought against you for getting goods under
false pretenses. and then you ought to be
indicted in a large amount Of damages. Review
uow all the fine, beautiful. complimentary,
gracious and glorious things you promised her
before marriage. and reflect whether you have
kept your faith. Do you say, ''Oh, that was all
sentimentalism, and romance, and joke, and
that ''they all talk that way"
WE'LL let that plan be tried ON yourself Sup
pose am interested in Western lands, and fill
your mind with roseate speculation, and tell
you that city is already laid out the farm
that propose to sell you, and that new rail-
road will run close by and have depot for
easy transportation Of the crops, and that eight
or ten capitalists going to put up fine resi-
dences close by and that the climate is delicious,
and that the ground, high up, gives no room for
malaria. and that every dollar planted will grow
up into a bush bearing ten or twenty dollars,
and my speech CLOVIS with enthusiasm until you
rush off with me to an attorney to have the deed
drawn, and the money paid down, and the bar
gain completed You can hardly sleep nights
because of the Ell Dorado, the Elysium, upon
which you are soon to enter. You give up your
home at the East, you bid goodbye to your old
neighbors and take the train, and after
many days journey you arrive at a
quiet depot, from which you take a wagon
thirty miles through the wilderness and reach
your new place. You see man seated on wet
log in the swamp and shaking with his fifteenth
attack Of chills and fever, and ask him who he
is. He says: 81 am real estate agent. having
in charge the property around here" You ask
him where the new depot is He tells you that
it has not yet been built but no doubt will be
II the company get their bill for the track
through the next Legislature. You ask him
where the new city is laid out. He says, with
chattering teeth: IF you will wait till this chill
is off will show it to you on the map have in
my pocket" You ask him where the capitalists
are going to build their fine houses, and he says:
Somewhere along these lowlands, out there by
those woods. when the water has been drained
off," That night you sleep in the hut OF the real
estate agent, and though you pray for everybody
else, you do not pray for me. Being more for
tunate than many men who go out in such cir
cumstances, you have money enough to get
back, and you come to me, and, out of breath in
your Indignation, you say You have swindled
me out of everything. What do you mean in
deceiving me about that Western property2"
''Oh," l reply, that was all right that was sem
timentelism, and romance and joke. That's
the way they all talk"
But more excusable would be in such decep-
ton than you 0 man. who by glow of words
and personal magnetism induced a womaniy
soul into surroundings which you have taken no
care to make attractive, SO that she exchanged
her fathers house for the dismal swamp Of mar
ried Observation-Disclosures, iowerless. shelterless.
comfortless and Goddess. l would not be half
much to blame in cheating you out of farm
as you In Cheating a woman out of the happiness
of lifetime
My brother, do not get mad at what say bat
honestly compare the promises you made, and
see whether you have kept them Some of you
spent every evening of the week with your be-
trothed before marriage. and since then you
spend every evening away, except you have in
fuenza or some sickness on account of which
the doctor says you must not 60 out You used
adulation. and now you think it sounds silly to
praise the one who ought to be more
attractive to you as the years 60 by,
and life grows in severity Of strug-
gle. and becomes more sacred by the
baptism of tears-tears over losses, tears over
graves. Compare the way some of you used to
como in the house in the evening" when you
were attempting the capture of her affections.
and the way some of you come into the house in
the evening now. Then what poiteness what
distillation OF smiles. what graciousness. sweet
as the peach orchard in blossom week.
Now some Of you come in and put your hat on
the rack and scowl and say: 'Lost money to-
day!n and you sit down at the table and crticise
fore the others are done eating, and snatch up
the evening paper and read. oblivious Of what
has been going on in that home all day. The
children are in awe before the domestic autocrat
Bubbling over with fun, yet they must be quiet
and with healthful curiosity, yet they must ask
no questions The wife has had enough annoy
ance in the nursery, and parlor, and kitchen to
fill her nerves with nettles and spikes. AS you
have provided tho money for food and ward
robe You feel that you have done all required
IL
gent improvement, and the moral entertainment
of that home, which, at the longest can last but
a few years. you are doing nothing. You seem
to have realization of the fact that soon these
children will be grown up or in their sepulchers
and will be far removed from your influence
and that the wife will soon end her earthly mis-
sion, and that house will be occupied by Others
and you yourself will be gone.
Gentlemen. fulfill your contracts. Christian
marriage is an affectional bargain. In heather
lands man wins his wife by achievements In
some countries wives are bought by the pay
ment Of so many dollars, as so many cattle or
sheep In one country the man gets on horse
and rides down where group of women are
standing and seizes one of them by the hair and
lifts her struggling and resisting on his horse
her before she gets to the jungle she is his lawful
wife, In another land the masculine candidate
for marriage is beaten by the club of the one
whom he would make his bride. II he cries out
unuef the pOuuotuS, no Is rtJ6CLeu. II ne re-
ceives the blows overwhelmingly she is his by
right Endurance. and bravery, and skill de-
eide the marriage in barbarous lands but Chris
tian marriage is q voluntary bargain in which
you promise protection, support, companionship
and loye.
Business men have in their fre-proof safes a
file of papers containing their contracts, and
sometimes they take them out and read them
over to see what the party Of the first part and
the party of the second part really bound them
selves to do. Different ministers of religion have
their own peculiar forms of marriage ceremony,
but If you have forgotten what you promised at
the altar of wedlock, you had better buy or bor-
row an Episcopal Prayer-book, which contains
the substance Of all intelligent marriage cere-
monies when it says:
hold from this day forward for better or worse for
richer for in sickeness and in health to love
and to cherish till death do part according Gods
holy ordinance, and thereto pledge thee my troth
Would it not be a good idea tn have that nrint-