Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-04-01
HUSBANDS AND WIVES,
Marriage the Pivot Which
urns q Mans Destiny.
sonE NOTED INSTANCES CITED

wives Frequently the Arbiters OF
Their Husbands Fate-Dif-
ferent Sides Of Life.
Have you ever had an interest in
HE 70 deep and engrossing that it
mixed itself up with your very being
and formed, as it were, the object for
which you were purposely created
nnd before which all other objects
pa1od and seemed insignificant? OF
course you have. Almost anybody
with any strength Of character and
dopth of feeling knows what mean,
but will not stop here to enumerate
The varied interests which have COW
ersd the existence of millions. l will
cunfine myself to one species alone.
/ viii address myself to you individ-
ually, the tender, the loving, the
anxious, in whose fond heart through
ont lifetime an image has been en-.
nhrined which is your beau ideal OF all
that d most amiable, most noble and
moot worthy to be beloved. Perhaps
Won are his mother. You have
; watched him through every phase OF
his life--thrcugh his babyhood, his
boyhood and his manhood. You
have seen him grow daily into what
you fondly deem state of perfection,
I'll the time came when you began to
wonder what his future would be, and
You naturally connect that future with
another life, which would walk side
By side with his, and most probably
BE- the arbiter of his fate. You dread
lest he should fall into hands unwor-
thy Of him, and you know that
his happiness, his welfare, and per-
haps even the success or failure of
his career, must depend entirely
ON one person - the woman he
married. Perhaps you were his
mothers sister-the devoted aunt to
whom he was consigned on his
mothers deathbed; or perhaps you
were his mothers bosom friend, who
had looked upon him ever since his
birth as almost q child of your own !;
VI E9Nu1eD OtOA you WoAO hAS V"A
elder sister, fifteen or twenty years
older than himself; never mind what
pou were to him-all three Of you
know very well that there will some
day be one circumstance of his life
over which you will have no possible
control, and yet will influence that
precious life for good or for evil to his
very last day, the motive power hav-
ing been throughout the woman he
married.
No wonder, then, that as soon as he
is we'll launched into the world you
look anxiously around to find some
puitable attraction to put in his way.
No wonder that, with almost painful
interest, you scan his countenance
when he comes back to you after some
long absence, and try to find out by its
expression whether, as the poet says,
1.-THE spirit" has passed that leaves
''the SPELL"
You know 80 many nice young girls.
In the hands of one, or even two, OF
these, you could so safely trust his
: happiness if he would only take your
gentle hint. Alas poor deluded
mother, or sister, or aunt, or bosom
friend, il you live long enough to see
him settled" as it is called, do you
believe that any one of these nice
young girls will be the woman he
married?
The pivot on which mans destiny
turns, either for good or for evil, for
happiness or for misery, is marriage.
II you live to see the end Of his life
he will perhaps confess to you-or
perhaps he will not, but he will know
It al the same-he will tell you that
the magnet which first attracted him,
and then guided him with master
hand either to the one or to the other,
was the woman he married.
/ remember many years ago hearing
Of the death-bed Of a very distin.
guished man, a general whose mill
tary career had been so brilliant and
80 invariably fortunate, that the world
looked upon him as q perfectly happy
man. He had earned his honors. he
had served his country well, and he
knew on his death-bed that he had
done his duty. His queen had re-
warded him, and his honors had
fallen fast and thick upon him, yet
what were his last words?
As he gave the friend who was with
him the last clasp of his hand, and
the last look of his dying eyes, to that
friends intense astonishment, he
said: II thank God that my misera-
BILE lifs is ended" There was one in
his regiment who had known him
from boyhood, had been educated
with him, had served under him, and
was supposed to know everything
about his past life; to this man the
friend, who had heared the dying
words, appealed: "How could he
have been miserable? Did you ever
suspect that his life was not one
series of triumphs and perfect con-
tentment! Flattered, followed, prais-
ed and envied, how could he have
been miserable" "To the outward
world" was the answer, she appear
cd all you say, but there was an
inner life that no one saw and few
knew Of. That life was blighted and
its happiness wrecked, his affections
chilled and his temper soured by the
woman he married. She was cold,
unsympathetic and selfish. Two
years after she had accompanied him
TO India, she declared the climate
did not agree with her and came
home. She professed openly that she
ahould 60 her own way and he might
20 his. She spent his money; she
Kept him q poor man all his life, and
she broke his heart. That is the
story. but he never told it, and if the
near approach of death had not
wfenched it from him, you would
never have known the state of mind
in which he went to his well-earned
rest. "
But to turn to another instance. Go
with me into that crowded assembly
whore all the great and the grand Of
Lond0n have cpngregated, and look at
that little fair man who ia threading