St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-06-27
EARLY MARRIAGES.
why They are Sometimes a SOurt
of Domestic Woe.

!
! Philadelphia Record.
! One OF the questions relating to women
which have lately absorbed much of the
attention OF writers is at what age girls
ought to marry. The diversity of these
opinions, ranging as they do over the entire
| period of girlhOod, from IS to 80, render
| them of little value in point of advice, and
| there is no hope that they would be needed
| if they were. When it comes to affairs of
the heart, all the advisory councils in the
world are of small account. Girls are pretty
apt to take the reins in their own hands
when the subject under consideration is
matrimony. And it is right that they
should when it happens they are blessed
with well-balanced heads, OF have arrived
| at years of discretion. But the well-bal-
anced head is not always the result of age,
neither do years always bring discretion.
The world is full of insists which can be
attributed to various sources. Not all of
them can be laid to the folly of youth, al
though early marriages are undoubtedly a
fruitful source of domestic wo. The mar
rage de CONVEYANCE must bear it's share of
the burden. A fine establishment is often
considered of paramount importance to the
necessary accompaniment in the form of a
husband, who is, indeed, not infrequently
looked upon in the light of an incumbrance
at the very outset, when, if ever, there is
some glamour of romance. But the age has
nothing to do with this sort of matrimonial
compact. The discreet" young woman
who forms such an alliance generally does
so with her eyes wide open, and, what
ever be her measure of misery, is deserving
of little sympathy. Of very near kin to
her case is that of the woman who sees
''her shadow grow long at her feet" and
with old-maidism, with its attendant hor-
rorS, staring her full in the face, makes up
her mind to marry, and does marry the first
man who offers, mere for the privilege of
writing Mrs" OH her visiting card The
chit Of Is could hardly be guilty of greater
folly, to call it by no harsher name, al
though it can hardly be reckoned short of
crime when committed deliberately. The
priest has no right, even had he the power,
to look down into hearts; and such mar
riages, if marriages they are, are every day
consecrated and sanctioned by the law
And it is in accord with the universal rule
of retributive justice that they carry with
them consequent bitterness.
do not mean to say that there are no
happy marriages consummated in early
youth, but the chances are against it. Diana
| of Poictiers at the age of Is married a wild
over of so, and there is no record that her
twenty years of married!life did not hold its
full measure of bliss, although her subse-
| quent years would seem to attest the con-
| trary. However, it was a dangerous ex-
| pertinent. 1t is the law of nature for CAV
youth to love gay youth, and wide dis
| crepancy in point of years is quite as likely
q wild
| in point of taste. 1t is not often
that a girl of 25 has the same tastes
she had at IS. The heyday
of romance is not so strong within her. She
| looks beneath the handsome exterior for
some inward graces of mind and heart, and
the chances are in favor of her happier
marriage. Love is proverbiaily blind; he
is more-he is willfully blind-and should
be made to open his eyes. A little common
| sense mlngles adyantageously with every
thing, and, so far from being out Of place.
it is absolutely essential to safety in affairs
of the heart. And in this the mature
maiden has an immense advantage. She
will have struck the plane of her life, and
| the man whom she fancies and who
fancies her will be very apt to be har-
monious to the highest degree. 1t is SOL
emn thing to get married, and, if it is a
''solemner not to-" it is better In this mat
ter to ''bide vice." Undue haste in
matrimonial alliances often results in I'M
speakable misery. marry in haste and
| repent at leisure" is no myth. as thousands
of venturesome unfortunates will testify.
Go slowly. The summer is soon ended
| and life-married life, at least-is not one
perpetual holiday. Patience, forbearance,
faith and the sort of love that will make
one happy in making concessions to the
other, are necessary to that true union of
souls without which there can be no COM
plete marriage-no marriage that can with
stand the blight of winter days.
There is another side to the question
The children-and there are still sometimes
children, even in American families-will
have as their birthright stronger and finer
brains if born of a mother who is full-grown
in mind; and. as they pass from the ami
NAL stage of their existence and advance in
hook-lore and become wordlywise, if the
mother-mind is of such grain that it can
enter into their pursuits. they will not grow
away from her and home.