St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-12-02
Bachelorhood Tolerahle, But
Not Very Good for Man.
kind.
There Is Too Much Expected
of Husband and
Wife.
She Confesses That Neither
Men Nor Women Are
Angels.

of husband or wife. and the woes at
tendant upon misalliance. 1t would be
waste OF words to adduce proofs of the
existence of this natural law. 1t is coe-
val with the race and will last while
time endurcs. In the assertion OF Its
might, the law of love and loves union
when perverted piety has WithStOOd it,
mghtier than a superstition which is
mistaken for grace.
Thus stands the eternal truth. 1t
may be tolerable, but it is never good
for man to be alone. The highest form
of human happiness, and that which
tends most surely to the symmetrical
development of character and DISPOSE
ton, is TO be found in right marriage.
Thus far it is all plain sailing, and our
talk euphemistic. truthful and plati-
tudinal.
Imagination. heated and colored by
love. makes of the welded state an i'm
possible Eden, such as was guarded
from sinful man by the flaming, whirl-
ing sword.
After tomorrow" exclaimed an
ardent youth on the eve Of marriage,
Il shall have no past, and expect no
future. / shall live in one blissful,
eternal NoW!"
That man was doomed to disappoint-
ment with the inevitableneSs of the
downward plunge of the rocket-stick.
Ii people will stake life's happiness
MICS, they have only themselves to blame
when the blaze goes out i'll SulphurOus
smoke.
Marriage is not transformation. John
will be as cross when he is hungry, as
glum when distraught with business
aDxieties, as uncomfortable when his
Collar chafes his neck-in a word, as
human and fallible John welded as
single. He is good son and brother.
vet betrothed Mary has heard him
speak impatiently to his mother and
tartly to his sister. He will, upon
what he reckons as sufficient
occasions. be both curt and petulant
with his wife when once the "new-chy"
has worn off. Were this not true he
would be an angel, and angels do not
wear tweed business suits and Derby
hats, or have dyspepsia and smoke more
than is wholesome for nerves and
pocket. Bills are never presented to
cherubim at most ingenlOuSly incOh-
venient times, and seraphim have no
will not brook wifely criticism.
me-heaven-are triad
of the sweet words in the English
language. Yet the last is the only one
that has never deceived, and will never
disappoint the trusting heart. The
gentiest, least selfish of mothers has her
moods and whims, which are, with diff
Guilty, tolerated by dutiful children.
Every home has its clouds and thunder
showers. and each individual heart its
hidden bitterness. There are as many
Ideal marriages" as ideal associations
between parent and child and between
brothers and sisters.
When one takes into consideration
the strength of blood ties in these last
named relations, and of habits of
liberation continued from Infancy to
maturity in the household, as. con-
trasted with the, by comparison /, slight
and prosecuted under f1attering con-
ditions between the young couple in
dissolubly united, the miracle is that
they ever get on or even rub on' So
comfortably together. Courtship has
been described as ga period of
varying length, pleasantly spent
by two people in deceiving one
another" Let us consider for one in
slant their differences in breeding, edu-
cation and habits, the abrupt change
from the drawing room cOurtShip afore-
said to the working-day intimacy of
bread-winner and bread-maker, and
marvel that love, hope, faith and JOY
do not go down quick into the pit Of
disenchantment within fortnight
after the day which was to begin the
"eternal now"
The apostle of matrimony may well
tighten his hold upon the everlasting
verify pronounced by the Creator In the
earliest marriage ceremony.
Heaven forbid that one written or
spoken word of mine should 60 to con-
firm the vulgar prejudice against SPINS
terhood! Sweet and holy souls there
are in every community-almost in
every home-living for, and in others
that highest form of mortal existence,
the bleSSedneSS that tranScendS happi-
ness. The household is hardly perfect
which has not in it and of it an old maid
who is everybody'S aunt or cousin. She
may be said slightingly to have been
sent into the world Ito fill up chink,"
put it is much to have her always at
hand with trowel and mortar.
The old maid can knead her person
atty into the daily bread of the house
hold. and, in many cases, become the
gentle leaven that makes light and pal
atable the whole lump. The confirmed
bachelor can not be mixed in any,
where. He may have apartments
luxurious and aesthetic beyond what
his income, shared with wife and baby,
would warrant him in keeping up.
Society may claim his even
ings, while he can preserve a
show of youth, and his club
dinners be all his epicurean soul de-
sires. The best appointments of his
habitation. be they expensive or simple,
can only convert it into place in which
to stay. He lives nowhere. 1t was
never intended by the benefcent
Father of us ALLIE who knew what
was in man-that anybody with heart.
soul and mind should dwell for
ever upon the circumference Of
home. In the deliberate for
fixture of his birthright to
be the center and founder of a house
hold he narroWs and belittles himself.
He becomes wanderer in the wide
spaces of creation, an asteroid shivered
from the parent planet, gathering moth
ing by accretiOn or fusiOn-a spark of
humanity. whose place and name are
alike unimportant in taking stock of the
forces of society and the world.
MARION uARLAND.