The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1888-02-15

siderate swain, who, for loves sake, has
proposed the wrong, finds himself in the
posiaion of Traddles, when, after Jacobs
seven years of waiting, he offered the
humble homo wrung from Fate's tight
fist to the "dearest girl in the world"
81 give you my word, Copperfeld. 1
felt perfect bird of prey toward tho
fimily."
The parental instinct of providing for
the child overpasses tho ignorant trans
ports OF the marriage day, and takes
trlVance," plnching economies and un-
pleasant surprises in the shape of debts
aud duns, which are natural attendants
upon the early welded lie of two people
whose fortune-if they ever have one-is
to be made and saved by themselves.
The folly OF marrying upon nothing is
so easily demonstrable that the girl of
the period, albeit trihe romantic in
some respects, does not need to have it
explained to her. Not oven Traddes
of our generation dreams of bringing
Sophy home as his wife on 81 900 q year,
no capital except love and stout heart,
and no stocks except those taken rashly
IN Faith and Hope. Consequently, the
number OF marriages in the solid middle
classes decreases yearly, people marry
later In life; there are more childless
couples and fewer housekeepers. Our
girls know this, and our young mon ap-
preciate it to the full. The former look
1or husbands who can support them
well; the latter take their choice between
cynical bachelorhood and hunt for
rich wives. Both sexes "look to it that
they gac where siller is."
One OF tho patented all rights secured
sayings of unworldly minded moralizers
Is that the man whose riches have bought
his wife, and the woman whose husband
has sought her for her money, are much
to be pltied in their splendid misery,
These unsophisticated essayists, laying
to the warped outlines the rule and
plummet of sensitive rectitude, assume
that suspicion of the truth must lurk in
the bottom of Sevres coffee cups, and
sit, bodkinwise, between the welded
pair on satin sofas and carriage cushions,
They are represented as
GAZING THROUGH dILDED BARS
at the frank, innocent Joys of those who
are chosen and beloved for themselves
alone, as Adam and Eve might have
sought unguarded crevices in Eden's
wall, and made of them wailing places
over what they had forever forfeited. If
the innermost heart lining of Crnsus
and Baroness Burdett- Coutts were turn
ed out to microscopic examination, We
might find definite traces of the corrod-
ing suspicion aforesaid. The average
millionaire does not dissociate in his most
secret thoughts his riches from his in
dividual personality. Purse pride runs
through every vein, is assimilated by
every organ. Inconvenient as were the
consequences of Midas touch to his
daily bread, he doubtless retained in his
prayer to be saved from starvation a
strain of pride in his unique accompl sh-
ment. Our Wall street Midas ia not
chagrined that the beautiful schUolmis-
trcss elected to grace his table, carriage
and mansion should be won by his mil
lions. He loves her tho more intelli-
gently for her appreciation Of what is
himself.
Who ever saw an heiress to whom the
dread OF being married for her money
was the fretting pea under her fourteen
feather beds? The yellow reflection of
virgin gold becomes her rs ornaments
the bride. She values her possessions as
inherent, not extrinsio charms. She
knows as well as you and [ that q rich
girl mover lacks for suitors, and she is
grateful to benignant Providence for
making her future sure and bright.
One OF the vaineet women [ ever knew
portioned oil her handsome, obsequious
lord, month by month-so much for
cigars, SO much for horses, so much for
tallors bills, so much for sundries- and
so far from being ashamed of tho one
sided copartnership, reminded him of it
IN playful threatening when others were
by in such terms as:
"Don't be saucy, my love, or / will
stop your allowance" Or, "Dear! dear!
what expensive luxuries husbands arc!
Here's payday ags in."
She had her 1atterers and court, for
she was pretty, flippant, lavish and rich
and in society! Her money was but
one element of her power, as essentially
part of the woman who had attracted
and won her impecunious Adonis as were
her conversational gifts and fine eyes
The conscious possession of wealth i'm
parts sense OF mastery that intoxicates
steadier brains than hers.
MATRIMONIAL ETHICS.
Admitting all this, as tho candid OBJ
server OF society's ways Of reasoning and
action must, there is an ugly substratum
of truth, realistic and stubborn, that
TRUSTS up n granite shoulder through
sophistical iroth and sparkle. Let the
woman who has q prospect of marrying
we'll, according to the definition already
given, denude her betrothed of the
golden fleece draping his moral and
mental being; put behind her the visions
of thouses and vineyards, gardens and
orchards and pools of water" (represent-
cd by Saratoga and Baden. Baden), "sil-
YER and gold, men singers and women
singers" Il. g., the German and French
opera), "great possessions of great and
small cattle" Thoroughbred horses and
poodles), "all the peculiar treasures of
kings and OF the Provinces" and ask
herself, ms in the honest hour of death,
| "Would j become this mans wife, for
better and for worse, for richer and for
poorer. in sickness and in health,
through good report and evil report,
until death do us part if he had none
OF these things? II, in their place, no
could offer me only heart full of love,
pair OF hands able and ready to do