The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-02-24

and we have the cash paid down and the
whole thing finished. You bid goodbye to
your friends at the East; you leave your at
tractive home here; you take railtrain and
ride many days; you get out at quiet de-
pot and then by wagon you 60 thirty miles
new place. You see q man seated on wet
, log in swamp, shaking with his ff-
teentk attack of chills and fever. You ask
him WHIP he is and he tells you he is the real
estate agent for that region: You say,
"Where is the new depot" He says, 1T
will be built out here if the company secure
| their right of tract in next winters legisla-
ture.' You say, "Where are the ten or
twenty capitalists who are going to build
splendid houses? Where are they going to
put those houses2" He says, "They are going
after the water is drained off" You say to
that real estate agent, "Where is the city
laid out in this quarter?" and with chat
tering teeth he says IF you'll wait
till this chills off ri show it to you
on map in my pocket" You lodge
that night in the hut Of the real estate man
and you pray for everybody except for me:
More fortunate than most people who 60 out
on such expedition you have money enough
breath with indignation and say: ..You-you
swindled me out Of everything. Whatdoyou
mean by deceiving me about that Western
property?" "Oh," say, 'that's all romance,
that's all sentimentalism, that's joke, that's
the way they all talk !" would be more
excusable in deceiving you than the
man is who takes a woman from
surroundings which he has never taken any
care to make attractive, giving up her fathers
house for dismal swamp of married expert
ence, treeless, fowerless, shelterless, comfort
less, goddess. 1t would not be 80 bad in me to
cheat you out of farm as it would be for
you to cheat woman out Of the happiness OF
a lifetime. Have you fulfilled your contract9
Men of business have in their fre-proof safes
q pack of contracts. Sometimes they take
this pack of contracts out and read over what
the party Of the first part and the party Of the
second part bound themselves to do. Have you
forgotten your contract? Then you had bet
ter buy or borrow an Episcosal prayer book,
for though all denominations Of Christians
have different forms Of marriage ceremony,
the marriage ceremony in the Episcopal
prayer book is the essence of all intelligent
ceremonies when it says: II take thee to be
my welded wife, to have and to hold from
this day forward for better or for worse, for
richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health,
to love and to cherish until death us do part,
according to Gods holy ordnance, and thereto
I pledge thee my troth" Have you
kept the contract7 Gentlemen, fulfil
your contracts. Think Of what you promised
before marriage, and whether or not you have
fulfilled your promise Do not get mad, but
Just make comparison in your own mind
now. Before marriage perhaps you spent
your evenings with your betrothed Since
marriage perhaps you spend all the evenings
away, except when you have the influenza
or some other sickness, and the doctor tells
you it is not safe to 20 out. Before marriage
you were full Of interjections of adulation,
and since marriage you think it is silly to say
anything in praise of her, though she
ought to be more attactive to you now
than ever, since the struggle Of life has be-
come more severe and your relation is the
more sacred by the baptism OF tears-tears
over losses tears over graves. Compare tie
way you used to 60 into the house before
marriage with the way you 60 into the house
after marriage. In the former state when
you went into the ho use you were dstilla-
ton of smiles, you were all politeness, you
bloom week. Now some Of you go into the
house and you put your hat on the rack and
with scowl you say: "Lost money to-day"
You sit down at the tea table and begin
to criticize the way the food is cooked, and
you shove back from the table before the rest
are done and snatch up the evening news
paper oblivious of all that has been going on
during the day. The little children are in
awe at the domestic autocrat. Bubbling
or with healthful curiosity, but they must
ask no questions. The wife has had annoy
ances in the nursery, in the parlor, in the
kitchen until her nerves ar, full Of nettles
and spikes. You provided the money for the
food and wardrobe and you feel you have
discharged your obligation, doing nothing
for the good cheer, for the intellect,
ea oa your homa a1though
at the longest it will last only little while.
My brother, you have no appreciation of tue
fact that your children will soon be grown
up,or in their sepulchres, ,andyou will lhaveno
moro opportunity to influence them, and the
wife will soon be through with her earthly
mission and the home in which you live will
gone. Do you realize that what we do for our
homes we must do in a very short space of
time! Marriage is an affectional bargain.
In some lands people purchase their wives
with dollars, o. cattle, or sheep In one Land
man mounts horse and rides
swiftly down to where there is a group Of
women and he seizes one by the hair and lifts
her struggling and resisting to the horses
back, and if he gets to the jungle before her
brothers come up she is his lawful wife. In
another land the man is beaten by the pro-
posed bride with club, and if he resists the
beating and if he cries out he is rejected, but
if he endures the pounding and clubbing with
ont any resistance, or without any complaint
she is his lawful wife. By courage, by skill,
by absurdity, marriage is decided in some
lands; but here in this Christian. land
which the man promises pro-
lection, support, companionship and
love. Are you fulfilling your bargain? tell
you what you all know that some men seem
more interested in the wives of others than
in their own How many man there is who
will allow his wife to carry upstairs heavy
scuttle of coal and then clear the width of the
parlor with one bound to pick up some other
lady's pocket handkerchief. There is an evil
have seen under the sun and it is common
among men, namely, husbands in Irritation.
The care and attentions and kindness they
ought to put upon their wives they put upon
the wives of Others They smile, they are
coy and are arch, and with manner that
seems to say, "Oh, if was only free from that
old drudge athome. Whatan improvementyo
would be on my present surroundings!' And
late at night the man goes to his prosaic home
whistling and hilarious and finds his wife is
Jealous There are thousands of men who are
not positively immoral who need correction
in that direction. Oh, it is meanneSs inn
measurable for the husband by his behavior
to practically say: "You can't help yourself.
l will admire whom wish to admire and
will go where 1 wish to go, and will stay
as long as I wish to stay and I defy
your criticism" That is devilish. Why did
YOU not put it in the bond, you domestic Shy
lock. Why did you not have it understood
before you were pronounced husband and wife
that she should only have part Of the divi-
dend Of your affection! And when time erased
some of the bright lines from her face, and
erased some of the litheness from her form