St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-01-30
that nothing hut a funeral can relieve IL.

COUPE are pour ToouiuS SASopo Iva "AAoo0
who write them. Pray that you be de-
livered from irrevocable mistake.
Avoid Alliance with despiser of the
Christian religion. whatever else he may
have or may not have. do not say he
must needs be religious man, for Paul
SAYS the unbelieving husband is sanctihed
by the wife; but marriage with a man who
hates the Christian religion will insure
YOU a life of wretchedness. He will carl.
cature your habit of kneeling in prayer.
He will speak depreciatingly of Christ. He
will wound all the most sacred feelings of
your soul He will put your home under
the anathema of the Lord God Almighty.
In addition to the anguish with which he
will fill your life, there is great danger
that he will despoil your hope of Heaven,
and make your marriage relation an inf
mite and eternal disaster. If you have
made such an enga cement, your first duty
is to break it. My word may come just IN
time to save your soul.
Avoid union with one supremely selfish
or so wound up in his occupation that he
has no room for another. You occasionally
find man who spreads himself so widely
over the path of life that there is no room
for any one to walk beside him. He is not
the one blade of a scissors incomplete with
out the other blade, but he is a chisel made
to cut his way through life alone, or lille
full of roughness, made to be drawn across
society without any affinity for other files.
His disposition is lifelong protest against
marriage. Others are so married to their
occupation or profession that the taking OF
any other bride is case of bigamy. There
are men so severely tied to their literary
work, as was Chatterton, whose essay was
not printed because of the death of the
Lord Mayor. Chatterton made out the fol-
lowing account "Lost by the Lord Mayors
death in this essay, FL lis Cd. Gained in
elegies and essays, e5 5s." Then he
put what he had gained by the
Lord Mayors death opposite to what
he had lost, and wrote under it:
Sand glad he is dead by e3 lbs 3D."
Amid so many possibilities of fatal mis-
take, am not right in urging you to seek
the unerring wisdom of God, and before
you are infatuated? Because most mar
riages are fit to be made convinces us that
they are divinely arranged. Almost
every cradle has an affinity toward some
other cradle. They may be on the opposite
sides of the earth, but one child gets out
of this cradle and another child gets out
of that cradle, and with their first steps
they start for each other They may diverge
from the straight path going toward the
north, or south, or east, or west. They may
fall down, but the two rise facing each
other. They are approaching all
through infancy. The one all
through the years of boyhood is going to
meet the one who is coming through all
the years Of girlhood to meet him. The
decision OF parents as to what is best con-
corning them and the changes Of fortune
may for a time seem to arrest the two
journeys, but on they go. They may never
have seen each other. They may never
have heard of each other. But the two pill
grims who started at the two cradles, are
nearing. After eighteen, twenty or thirty
years, the two come come within sight.
At the first glance they may feel dislike,
and they may slacken their step; yet
something that the world calls fate, and
that religion calls providence, urges them
on. They must meet. They come near
enough to join hands in social acquaint-
ance. after awhile to join hands in friend
ship, after awhile to join hearts. The
delegate from the one cradle comes up the
east side of the church with her father.
The delegate from the other cradle comes
up the west aisle of the church. The two
long journeys end at the snowdrift of the
bridal veil. The two chains made out of
many years are forged together by the
golden link which the groom puts upon the
third finger of the left hand. One on
earth, may they be one in heaven!
But there are SO many exceptions to the
general rule of natural affinity, that only
those are safe who pray for a heavenly
hand to lead them. Because they depend
ed on themselves and not on God there are
thousands of women every year going to
slaughter. In India women leap on the
funeral pyre of dead husband. We have
a worse spectacle than that in America
women innumerable leaping on the funeral
pyre of living husband.
Avoid all proposed alliances through
newspaper advertisements. Many women,
just for fun, have answered such adver-
tisements, and have been led on from
step to step to catastrophe infinite. All
the men who write such advertisements
are Williams and lepers-all, without
single exception. All! All! Do you an
swer them just for fun? will tell you
a safer and healthier fun. Thrust your
hand through the cage at a menagerie,
and stroke the back of cobra from the
East Indies. Put your hand in the mouth
of Numidian lion to see if he will bite.
Take glassful of paris green mixed with
some delightful henbane. These are safer
and healthier fun than answering news
paper advertisements for a wife.
My advice is: Marry a man who is
fortune in himself. Houses, land and
LARGE inheritance are well annuoh hui