The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-01-26

preferences and dislikes and habits of a
man or woman, that if you have not
brain enough to form right Judgment
in regard to him or her, you are not SO
| fit candidate for the matrimonial altar
as you are for an idiot asylum. Notice
what society your especial friend prefers,
whether he is industrious or lazy, whether
she is neat or slatternly, what books are
read. what was the style of ancestry,
noble or depraved, and if there be any
unsolyed mystery about the person under
consideration postpone all promise until
the mystery is solved.
| Jackson s hollow, Brooklyn, was part
of the city not built on for many years,
and every time crossed it | said to N.Y.
self or to others, why is not this land
built on9 l found out afterward that the
title to the land was in controversy, and
no one wanted to build there until that
question was decided. Afterward l un-
derstood the title was settled, and now
buildings are going up all over it. Do
not build your happiness for this world
on @ character, masculine or feminine,
that has not settled and undisputed
|
kindness and Righteousness.
Oh woman, you have more need to
pause before making such an important
promise than man, because if you make
q mistake it is worse for you If man
blunder about promise of marriage or go
on to an unfortunate marriage, he can
spend his evenings away, and can go to
the Club cl4tae Republican or Iienlcc
/ head uayters and; e1,sofbs llls aszissl a
city OF etato or national elections, or
smoke himself stupid or drink himself
drunk. But there is no place Of regular
retreat for you, oh woman, and you could
not take narcotics or intoxicants and keep
your respectability. Before you promise,
pray and think and study and advise,
There will never again in your earthly
history be time when you so much need
God.
1t seems to me that the world ought to
cast out from business credits and from
| good neighboThood those who boast of the
number of hearts they have won, as the
Indian boasts of the number of scalps he
has taken. If man viii lie to woman
and a woman will lie to q man about SO
i'm mportant matter as that of lifetines
welfare, they win lie about bill of
goods, and lie about finances, and lie
about anything. Society today is brim
full of gallants, and man milliners, and
carpet knights, and coquettes, and those
most God forsaken of all wretches-
flirts. And they go about drawing
rooms and the parlors of water
ing places, simpering, and bowling, and
scraping, and whispering, and then re-
turn to the club rooms if they be men, OF
to their special gatherings if they be wo-
men, to chatter and giggle over what
was said to them in confidence Condign
punishment is apt to come upon them
and they get paid in their own coin. /
could point you to 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 in their celibacy,
after their hair is streaked with gray,
and pretending they are naturally short
sighted when their eyes are SO old III sin
that they need the spectacles of a sep
tuagenarian, an eyeglass about No. 8.
and think they are bewitching in their
stride and oyerpowering in their glances,
although they are simply laughing stocks
for all mankind. And if these base
dealers in human hearts be females,
they are left after awhile severely alone,
striving in very desperation of agony Of
cosmetics to get back to the attractive
ness they had when they used to brag
how many masculine affections they had
slaughtered. Forsaken Of God and honest
men and good women, are sure to be all
such masculine and feminine trifers with
human and yet immortal affections. Oh
man! Oh, woman having plighted your
troth stick to it
And here my idea widens and have
to say not only to those who have made
a mistake in solemn promise of marriage,
but to those who have already at the
altar been pronounced one when they
are two, or in diversity Of tastes and likes
and dishkes are neither one nor two, but
a dozen-make the best you can of an
awful mistake. And here let me answer
letters that come from every state Of the
American Union, and from across the
sea, and aFe coming year after year
from men and women who are ter
rifically allianced and tied together
in hard knot, very hard knot.
The letters run something like
this: ''What ought l to do? My hus-
band is a drunkard. ''My wife is a
gadabout and will not stay at home. >
''My companion is ignorant and hates
books and l revel in them.'' 81 like
music, and a piano sets my husband
crazy II am fond of social life and
my companion is aresaass' 81 am try
ing to do good and mHzn8ong associate
is very bad. What sffSH do?' My
answer is, there are certain good reasons
for enforcement. The Bible recognizes
them, Good society recognizes them
But it must be the very last re-
sort, and only after all reason
able attempts at reclamation and adjust
meut have proved dead failure. Wher
such attempts fail it is generally becaust
, of meddlesome outsiders, and womer
tell the wronged wife how she ought tc
, stand on her rights, and men tell The
wronged husband how he ought to stand
on his rights. And let husband ant
, wife in an unhappy marriage relation
stand punctiliously on their rights, anC
there will be no readjustment, and only
: one thing will be sure to them and that il
, a he'll on earth.
If you are unhappily married, in mos
cases l advise you make the best you car
, of an awfully bad bargain. Do not pro
} ject your peculiarities more than is nee
essary. Perhaps you may have som,
faults of your own which the other part,
| in the marital alliance may have to suffer
! You are in the same yoke. If you pull
aside the yoke will only twist your neck
Better pull ahead. The world is full o
: people who made mistakes about man,
r things, and among other things abou
> betrothal and marriage, and yet hav
/ been tolerably happy and very useful il
the strength of God and by the grac
e promised in every time of need, i
: those who seek it conquer the dis
l advantageous circumstances. ] am aG
quainted with lovely women married t
: contemplate men, and genial men yoke
/ with termagants inspired of the devil
! And yet under these disadvantages m
. friends are useful and happy. God help
a people in other kinds of martyrdom an
$ to sing in the flame, and he will help yo
4 in your lifelong misfortune.