Wichita eagle., 1888-06-15
WORDS TO THE UNWISE.
MOTIVES WHICH SHOULD COVER
THOSE WHO MATE FOR LIFE.

Every Consideration Weighed Except tn,
Laws of Heredity-Crime and Diseas,
Transmitted from Generation to Gener-
ation-Importance of Sanitary Marriage.
every consideration rather than the natural
and scientific laws Of heredity. They form
alliances from motives OF comfort, convent
ence, business, influence, riches, pique-in
fact, for well nigh every purpose under the
sun except that Of securing the most perfect
offspring. Strict reasoners hold that even
the passion Of love should weigh as nothing
sanitary parentage shall have been thor
oughly mastered and systeratized and become
generally known and acted upon, then we
may look for that marked amelioration of
our kind Of which poets and philosophers
/ have dreamed. Let the reader ask himself
/ how many instances he has known where the
sole reason for remaining single was actual
I'll health, or the suspicion that some faint
bad boon inherited which was likely to de-
velop into disease some time in after life
He must acknowledge that If be knows of
any such cases they are very few indeed.
The reasons for marriage are evident to all
There are, too, sufficient reasons why some
people should not marry. The latter, how
ever, weigh but little against the former To
secure partner to share their labors is what
influences many men to take unto themselves
wives.
MARRIED FOB HOME
How often we hear it said that this one
and that one married for home" The
impression would imply lack Of sentiment,
and certainly does sound eminently practi-
cal And yet, undoubtedly, many happy
marriages have been contracted by those
whose first prompting was desire for that
comfort and peace one rarely finds except in
"a home Of his own" That this is a selfish
world, none can deny. Each seeks to use the
other for purposes Of his own, and life with
us all is one constant struggle, or we are soon
left behind in the headlong scramble Only
in our homes can we find rest. A yearning
for sympathy prompts many to marry,
and naturally we choose mates with
kindred hopes and aspirations with
ourselves If one does not marry,
he sooner or later learns to feel that the
world has little interest in him beyond what
he contributes to its welfare and selfish ends
Man and wife labor for each others good;
always the first reason for marriage is the
qualification Of love. As has been said:
''This is the highest sentiment of the human
heart Intellect pales before it. The sacred
book could have said nothing more exalted
when it avowed that God is love- All hui
man hearts have somewhere and sometimes
desire to love and be loved. A loveless life is
a starved life Love warns human nature;
70 b y
development only in marriage The loves
between friends are very beautiful, but the
love between man end woman in q perfect
marriage is divine"
These are some Of the reasons for marriage.
Others might be given, but it is purpoSeless
to consider them. Any one of the many
weighs sufficiently in any case where the ten
denoy exists. The child of consumptive
parents rarely hesitates to enter the holy
state. Nor does the young man or woman
with a mother or father in the madhouse
often feel that it is duty to remain single
lest that terrible misfortune be theirs by in
heritance. In fact, Notwithstanding some
grave and fatal malady has reappeared down
the line for generation after generation, sell
dom, if ever, is a member of that family de-
terred from marrying, although be could
b
so. Hence certain diseases are perpetu-
ated which might otherwise possibly become
extinct, and children are brought into
the world to drag out sickly existence, and
eventually succumb, after months, if not
years, Of intense suffering. In the human
race there is a process Of natural selection
favorable to the improvement of the race,
"but, i" says one writer, sit is interfered with
by other infiuences-money, caste and other
social considerations. Choice is in this way
restricted a rich husband is preferred to a
handsome or healthy or clever one. A large
dowry may induce man to put up with a
scrofulous wife. A consumptive young lady
may have good connection. An exhausted,
broken down roue may have title or an es-
tate. We know what people mean by good
match It never means health or beauty or
intellect. It may not even mean good morals
or disposition.
THE HEREDITY OF CRIME.
seriously, people who think Of getting
married ought to think little moro about
it. There are persons who ought not to
marry. There are persons who would be
criminal If they handed down to postertty
the physical, moral or mental results of a
bad organization or of their vicious demon
that drunkenness is hereditary; that many
crimes are hereditary; that madness, murder
and suicide are hereditary Our criminal
population Is composed Of the children of
criminals The prisons are filed with a
criminal race as the warehouses are filled
with q race of paupers. Change of condi-
lions, no doubt, may redeem such a race,
but it would be safer to discourage its
oyA
themselves when they should marry for their
posterity. The greatest gratitude man can
owe to his grandfather is for giving him
good, wise, healthy grandmother, and vice
versa Shakespeare makes one Of his char
ecters thank his mother fervently for giving
him such a father How many O man and
woman have earned the curses OF their chill
dren for giving them bad fathers OF moth
ers"
Says one writer: MANY think love between
tEo persons justifles their marrying This
is not 30. Beautiful Is this passion is,
heavenly as Is its source, it does not justify
doing wrong to offspring which may curse
generations Yet unborn. We use the word
curse advisedfy, for disease Is the greatest Of
all curses and indirectly leads TO crime A
majority Of all criminals are either diseased
or have Oh imperfect physical development .
Those who have spent much time in criminal
courts must have observed that a majority
Of persons convicted of crimes are inferior
in their physique. They cannot earn an
honest living by honest work, and so they
try to do it BY light fingered ernployrnsnts. /.
Besides, there is acquired quite enough dis /
ease on Efes journey, without transmitting
the inirnlities OF one generation TO another
We repeat, the subject of sanitary mar
rage is one on which the world sadly needs +.