Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-05-11
Written for Gazette.

A.Ypgp/ * \ n res' enter o1e it t0 too
'THaEesss>s<@ early. But those
who may recall the son Matthew in Pill
grim's Progress, who made himself Ill by
eating green spples-green apples which
might nave been wholesome and delicious
had he waited until they were ripe, can
recall an Illustration quite contradictory
Of such inference.
Fortunate for him, as 1t msy seem to
the mother OF 8 son, Ii her boy ehsH
marry early, yet his instance is singular
one, if, on reaching something less
thsn middle age, he has not dropped his
wife 50 far behind him as to leave
himself practically uumsrried, having
nurse, S housekeeper, 3 humble friend,
possibly slave, bnt certainly no COM
panicn, no wife, in t wide sense Of be
word. His early marriage might hsve
been supel ficislly considered an ad-
vantage to his morality, snd go to his
health; but when the mother has brought
up her boy, as il is her duty to do, to un
derstsnd shat the same personsl purity is
required az him that is required Of her
girl, snd that his passions are to be under
the same control that his SISTERS are, At
whatever age, then the question of that
morality will not enter into the affair
at all.
But however the mother of son may
look ct the subject of early marriages.,
the mother Of daughter is justified, it
seems to me, in g rather decided opp0si-
| ton to them. II, instead OF beng great
and happy portion of the school Of life.
marriage constituted the whole of it, or
life existed only for the sake Of marriage,
still those enteri its portals must be
the better for suitable preparation. an
unable to suppose tbst at the age OF eigh-
teen or twenty any preparation has been
sufficient. The age is lovely In its ten
derDess, and enchanting with It's illu-
sions; but wisdom wears So
verer face, and marriage deals
with stern facts. Some girls
there msy be, Of rare ability, who are
competent to take upon their Young
shoulders the responsibility of house.
its work, or the direction Of those who
do its work, the oversight Of s husbands
wardrobe, the bearing and nursing OF
children, the physical attention to them
in health and sickness, and the daily di-
rection OF their moral and mental educs-
ton, together with all the other indoor
and outdoor cares Incidental to the POSI-
ton Of one who Is the hesd Of family,
Snd who has tie happiness OF home ano
husband on her heart ard conscience.
But these cases are few sId exceptional,
and the great multitude of girls under
twenty are not equal to such strain
upon nerve ard muscle without an arrest
OF development. A few years later they
msy RENE mber themselves st that age as
Ill children; they msy feel some re-
proaca toward those who laid upon them
then burden greater 'hSn children
should bear. Even were skill, experience,
discretion, well established, industrious
habits formed, 8 universal belonging of
| the msiden Of eighteen or twenty years, |
think it would be as much cruelty to de-
msud sill this exertion OF her as it would
be II she were six or eight years younger.
Before twenty girl has hardly had the
chance to receive the complete instruc-
ton from textbooks to which she hos a
right, 10 Say nothing Of the domestic
education OF the kitchen, the needle, the
sick room; she has had little chance to
lesrn anything of the world Of human
nature; she has intuitions, not expert
ences; she has lived more with dreams
aud ideals than with realities. She may
make charming wife at first, and ten
der mother always, maternal instinct and
solicitude taking the place OF Gil the su-
periority that added years might
have given. Bat she must stop
there, taxed to the utmost; she
has no time, nor strength, and
perhsps-ss inclination grows by use
no inclination to read, to study, to keep
pace with a husbands advance, or even
to appreciate it. L will not say that
when, in few years, she has lost the
appearance of youth, when she has no
more a flesh color snd smooth face,
when pretty toilette no longer becomes
her, that the husband who continues TO
cherish her will take credit to himself for
doing so; but 1t is evident that she en-
counters the danger of this feeling on his
part. Nor DO 1 think it an argument
worth mentioning that the woman early
married is so moulded and bent to her
husbands will inst clashing and incom-
pa.ibility become impossible; because IN
marriage the rights and sscrinces
should be mutual, aud will not so insult
the husband as to suppose him unreason-
able enough for this moulding to be nec-
esssry, or selfish enough to wish thus to
suppress individuality, unable to find
pleasure himself in renunciation. or neg
ligent OF civilized, not to say Christian
duty.
Charming vile and tender mother as
she maY be, however, it is not to be
doubted that when her education is more
thorough and her experience more OK
tended, she will be nobler wife and
far better mother. She will have lost
some soitening trifs Of the arrogance OF
youth; vsnity, leyity, love OF admiration
will have been SO chastened as not to
plsy the part of DEATHS heads at the
fesst; she will have learned self-s6criflce
and forbesrance; she will have acquired
tact and discretion snd the sacred art OF
silence; she will have become harmon
ious; and she will know how to order
home as she did not know how before.
Her knowledge will have opened ave
nues and outlooks Of which her fam
ily will have the advantage; her iudg-
ment will have ripened, her whole nature
deepened; she will tske life at higher
plane, and her husband end her Children,
| her whole world and the generations to
come, win have gained by the delay. IL
it were but for the sake OF those genera
TOES TO come, born CT mothers full
grown In mind as well as in body, the de-
Law would be worth while. A young
mother, with her children about her, is
often lovely sight; but as lovely sight
|