The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-01-24


i've foft. Suppose hc rings bGil for ile
engineer 70 SOW up ana tao Wlee s;ors @tG~
see The cnptain being loHnrea oftt the saa
Of the vessel into small boat, AID e crosses
10 the gayar and Wta'H Ter craft. aud c,lub5
~ ihe aidcs aad & aecn walking the bridge u
tho otheg chip / p.cil up Ills Iasicacd a.ca'.-
ing Trumpet and Shout through it "Ca tain.
what docsii5 mean . DID yOx NOT promise
70 take NJ. ship through 10 Sot!thaaiton,
England" Yes" Says tho c&r,aia. "luf
have CHANGED my mind, and I ayo toJ.ud l
oan do better, and / atl going 10 tal.o charge
here | shall send b0ck 70 Foa aii
the letters l got while mnnegin5
that ship and ever ding gol from your ship.
and II win bc al right Won tell ME tnatIbe
worst fate Tor such a captain, IS IhGt IS too
good for him. Bat il is inst what nan or
woman does who promises 70 take one tarougi
the voyage Of lie, across the ocean Of earthly
existence, and then breaks the promise TITS
sanGing back Of ali the letters and fiug and
necklaces and beepSahes cauHOt make that
right which is ~ the sight OF Gud, ana ought
70 he in the sight of man, an everlasting
wrong. What American society needs 10 he
taught is that bctrDihal is an act 50 solemn
and tremendous that all men and women must
stand buck from it until they are sure t'lat Il i5
right, and sure that II 10 best, and sure That 10
retreat win be desired. Before that promise
OF lifetime cOInpaHicHship any amount o. rD-
nance that you wish aHy ardor q friendship,
euy coming and going But esp3u5al is q gate,
u golden gate, which one should not pass Un-
less he or she expects never to return. En-
pagnuent is the porch OF which marriage is
tie castle ard you have no right IN the porch
il vou do not mean 10 pass INTO the castle.
The trouble has always been that this whole
subject Of alliance has been relcgatcd to the
realms Of irivolity and joke. aud considered
not worth n sermon oreYen serious paragraph.
4 md so the massacre Of human lives has gone
on and the devil has had il lis own cruel way,
and what is mighty needed IL that pulpit, and
platform, and printing press all speak a word
Of unms;akabe and thunderous protest OH this
subject Of infinite Importance. We put clear ont
into thin poesy and light reading tie marital
egagement 81 Perrarch and his Laura Dante and
his Beatrice, CHANGER and his Philipa, Lorenzo
dc Medicl and his Lucrctia, Spencer and his
osa!ind, Waller and his SHCcharissa. notdeal-
iZlng that 1t was tho style Of their engagement
that decided their happiness or Indebtedness,
their virtue or their prohgacy. All the liter
airy and military and religious glory OF Queen
Elizaboth's reign cannot blot out from one Of
the most conspicuous pages of history her IN
famous behavior towards Seymour and philiD
and Melville and Leicester and others. Al the
ecclesiastical robes that Dean Swift ever
TuStied through consecrated places cannot hide
from intelligent people OF all ages the fact that
by promises OF marriage which he never full
filled lie broke the heart of Jane Warning after
an engagement of seven years, and the heart
OF Stella after an engagement Of fourteen
years, and tho poetic stanzas he dedicated to
their eXcellences only make the more immor-
tai his own pcrfidy.
"BEt suppose / should make mistake"
says some man or woman, land | find 1t out
after the engagement and before marriage ?'
My answer Is, you have no excuse for making
q mistake on this subject. There are so many
ways OF finding out all about the character and
preferences and dislikos and habits of a manor
woman that if You have not brain enough to
form a right Judgment in regard to him or her
you are not SO fit candidate for tho matri-
monial altar as you are for an idiot asylum
Notice what society your especial friend pre-
fefs whether he is industrious or lazy, whether
she - neat or SlgttcTnly, what books are read,
what was tho style of ancestry, noble or de-
prap ed, and il there be any unsolved mystery
about the person under consideration, post
pOne all promise until the mystery is solved
Jackson's Hollow Brooklyn, was part OF the
city not built ON for many wears and every
time ! crossed it / said to myself or to Others
why is not this land built on? i found out
aftcrward that the title to the land was in corr
troversy, and no one wanted to build there I'M
I'll that question wns decided. Afterward I
understood the title was settled, and now
buildings arcs going up all over it. DO not
build your happiness for this world on a char
aojer, masculine or feminine, that has not q
settled and undisputed title to honor and
truth and sobriety and kindness aud right
eousnesS.
O, woman you have more need to pause be-
fore making such all important promise than
man, because ii you make a mistake il Ia
worse for YOU If a man blunder about prom-
Use OF marriage, or so on to an unfortunate
marriage, he can spend his evenings away,
and can 20, TO the club or the republican or
democratic headquarters, and absorb his
mind IN city or state or national elections, or
smoke himself stupid or drink himself drunk
hut there is no place of regular retreat for
YOU O woman, and You could not take mar
cotics or intoxicants and keep your respecta-
bihty. Before you promise, pray and think
and study and advise There VIII never again
in your earthly history be a time when YOU so
much need God
# seems to me that the world ought to
cast ont from business credits and from
of tho number of hearts they have
won, as the Indian boasts of the number of
sealps he has taken. II man will lie to a wo-
man and woman will lie to a man about so
important n matter as thHt Of a lifetime's vel
fare, they viii lie about bill Of goods aud lie
about finances and lie about anything. Society
today IS hrlm full of gallants and man-mili-
nerS and carpet knights and coquetteS and
those most God-forsaken of all wretches--
fiiIts. Aud they go about drawing-rooms and
the paols of watering places, simpering and
bowling and scrapng and Whispering,
and then return to the club
rooms il they be men. on to their
special gatherings If they be women. to chat
ter and eigglo over what was said to them in
confidence. Condign punishment is apt to
come upon them, and they get paid in their
own coin, l could point you 10 a score whom
society has let drop very hard in return for
their base traffic IN human hearts As to such
men they walk around i'll their celibacy. after
their hair is stre0ked with gray, and pretend
ing they are naturally Shorl-sighted. when
their eyes are SO old i'll sin that they need the
spectacles Of a septuagouaiian, an eyeglass
about No, S, and think they are bewitching
IN their stride and oyerpowering in
their glauoes, although they arc
simply laughng-Stocks for all mankind And
il these base dealers in human hearts be fe-
males, they are lett after a while severely
alone, striving in a very desperation Of agony
of cosmetics 10 get back to the attractiveueSs
they had when they used to Drag how many
affections they had slaughtered.
Forsakcn OF God and honest men and good
women, are sure 10 be all such masculine and
female tritters with human and Yet Immortal
affections man, o woman. having plight
ed your roth stick 10 il
And here my idea wjdcus and have 10 say
not only to those Who have made mistake in
solemn promise Of marriage, but 60 those who
have already at the altar been pronounced one
when they are two, or in diversity of tastes,
and likes and dislikCS are neither one nor two,
bat Uozeu make tho best you can of an sw-
full mistake. And hero let me answer letters