Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-01-25

sxpec,ed 10 marry 10 please thetT parents,
Dut 20 please themselves. Given good
morals, means Of livelihood, appropri-
atc age and quality Of social position, aud
no parcnt has right to prohibit a union
that Seems deliberate and matter Of the
heart
Rev. Philip Henry, eminent for pioty
anG good sense, used tn say 90 his chill
drcn: "Please God aud please yourselves,
ssd you shall never displease nv
Dnring our civil war msrriagc was |
about TO be celebrated &C Charleston, /
S. c., between Lieut. de Rochelle and I
Miss Anna, the daughter OF ex-Gcy. Pick |
ems. AS the ceremony was about to be |
solemntEed, shell broke through the |
roof and wounded nine Of the guests, and
the bride fell dying, aud, wrapped In her
white wedding robe. her hetTc thed kn-el- |
ing " her side, in two hours she expired. |,
And there has been many o. bright a union
of hearts as that proposed, that the b0int~
shell OF parental indignation has wounded
ard slain.
II the hand offered In marriage be
blOtched Of intemperaDce, If the life OF the
marital cand date has been debauchcl, II
he has no visible means OF support, and
poverty and Abandonment seem only
litble way ahead, v the twain seem eE-
tiTcly unmatched "a disposition, protest
and forbid and reisiorce your opinion rs
that Of others, and put all lawful Oh
'9acles IN the way; but do not Join that
company Of parents who have rsiuedthcir
children by q plntocfaey of domestic
crlukiness which has caused more than
one elopement. ! know of few cases
where marriage has been under the red
hot anathemG Of parents aud al the
n,ighhors but God approved, end the
homes established have been beautiful
and positively Edepic
But while we have admitted there are
real cases OF justitlsbie rebellion, In
ninoty-nine cases out OF a hundred, yea,
In 800 cases out Of thousand, these nm
licensed departures aud decampments by
moonlight are ruin, temporal and eter-
nal. II Is safer for woman 10 Jump off
the docks Of the East river and depend on
being able TO swim so the other shore or
get picked up by ferryboat. The posi-
! bilities are that she may be rescued, but
the probability is that she willnot Read
the story OF the escapades in the news
papers tor the last ten years, and find me
a half dozen that do not mean poverty,
disgrace. abandonment, police court, dt-
vurce, death and he'll. Stolen waters
are sweet, and bread eaten In secret Is
dead are there" Satan presides over the
escapade. He Introduces the two parties
To each other He gets them to pledge
their to h. lie appoints where they
shall meet. lie shows them where they
can dnd officiating minister or squire
He points out TO them the ticket Office for
the rail train He puts them ABOARD,
and when they arc going at
! forty miles the hour, he jumps OFF
aud leaves them in the lurch; for while
satan has genius Of getting people into
trouble, he has no genius for getting peo-
/ pie out He induced Jonah to take ship
/ for Tarshish when God told him to 30 10
! Ninevah; but provided for the recreant
/ prophet no better landing place tuan the
middle Of the Mediterranean sea.
The modern novel rs rtspun, iDle Tor
many OF these abscondnes. DO you think
that young women would sit up half u
night reading novels In which the hero
and heroine get acquainted in the usual
way and carry on their increased friendli-
ness, until, with the consent of parents.
the day OF marriage is appointed, and
amid the surrounding group OF kindred
the vows are taken? OH no! There
must be Eight and pursuit, and narrow
escape and drawn dagger, ali ending In
bliss uRalloyed and gorgeous. In many
OF the cases ot eschpade the idea was i'm
planted in the hot brain of the woman by
a cheap novel, ten cents worth Of unadul-
teratcd perdition.
These evasions of the ordinary modes
of marriage are to be dep'ored, for the
reason that nearly all of them are pro.
posed Icy bad men. IL the man behave
well he has character 10 which he car
refer and he can say "h you want u
inquire about me there is Il list of thu
names Of people IN the town or neighbor
hood where | live" No; the her res Of
escapades are nearly all either bigamist,
or llbertines, or drunkards, or defraudors
or tlrst-class scuundrels of some sort
They have no character TO lose. They
may be dressed in the height Of fashion
mag be cologned and pomatumed an(
| diamond'ringed aud ilamboyaut-cravatteC
until they hewitch the eve and intoxicatt
the oliactorles, but they are double
distilled extracts Of Wllainy, moral dir
, and blasphemy Beware Of them. "Stoler
waters are sweet, and bread eaten il
secret Is pleasant. But he knoweth no
that the dead are there"
Fugitive marriage IL to he deplored be
cause II almost always implies woman
descent from a hI her social plane To
lower If the InSu was not of highe
! plane, or the marriage on au equality
there would be no objections aud hence
! no inducement 20 clandestnily Ia al
! most all cases II means the lowering o
womanhoOd. Observe this law; MAJ
marrying woman beneath him ia snciet,
may raise her Ia any emluence that b,
himself may reach; but II u woman MARI
man beneath her ia society, she always
goes down To his level That is n law In
, exoraDle and there are DO exceptions. IL
any woman SO high up that she can at
! ford TO plot for own drhasement? There
is not q state In the American Union thai
, has not for the last twenty years fur
] nished an instance OF the sudden depart
+ uro of some Intelligent woman from M
atilurnt home to spent her life with some
Que who can make SO q day provided he
keeps very busy. Well, 'many man has
lived on 81 a DAY aud been happy, but h,
} undertakes big contract when, with ~
, a day, he attempts 10 support someOn,
who has lived In a home that cost $50 0n(
= per annum This has been about IN,
history of most of such coniuactiOus al