The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1888-02-02

ary Campbell on the other, they bathed
leir hands in the water and then put them
II the boards Of the Bible, making their
edge of fidelity. On The cover OF the
I'D Testament Of that book TO this day,
n Robert Burns handwriting, may be
ound the words: &Leviticus, xix, IL; Ya
hall net swear by my name falsely; am
ne Lord" And on the cover of the New
4 testament, in his own handwriting:
Matthew, v, SO. Thou shalt net forsweax
hyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord
hine oaths."
Suppose ship Captain offers his services
take aship out to sea. After he gets q
title way he comes alongside Of vessel
With more beautiful flag, and which has
perhaps a richer cargo and is bound for a
more attractive port. Suppose he rings a
lell for the engineer to slow up and the
wheel stops. Now I see the captain being
lowered over the side of the vessel into a
small boat, and he crosses to the gayer and
wealthier craft, and climbs up the sides,
and is seen walking the bridge Of the other
ship. I pick up his resigned speaking
trumpet and shout through it: captain,
what does this meanp Did you not promise
| to,take this ship TO Southampton, England?"
EYES," says the Captain, "but have
changed my mind and have found I can
do better, and I am going to take charge
here. l shall send back to you all the let
ters l got while managing that ship and
and everything got from your ship, and
\ it will be all right" You tell me that the
worst fate for such Captain as that is too
good for him. But it is just what man
or woman does who promises to take one
| through the voyage of life, across the ocean
| of earthly existence, and then brakes the
promise. The sending back of all the
letters and rings and necklaces and keep
sakes cannot make that right which is in
the sight of God, and ought to be in the
! sight of man, an everlasting wrong. What
American society needs to be taught is that
betrothal is an act 80 solemn and tremen-
| dous that all men and women must stand
| back from it until they are sure that it is
| right, and sure that it is BEST and sure that
! no retreat will be desired. Before that
pror lise Of lifetime companionship any
amount of romance that you wish, any
ardor VI friendship, any coming and going.
But espo1sal is gate, g golden gate, which
, yue should not pass, unless he or she eX-
| poets never to return. Engagement is the
! porch of which marriage is the castle, anL
! you have no right to the porch if you do
not mean to pass into the castle.
| The trouble has always been that this
| whole subject Of alliance has been rele-
gated to the realms of frivolity and Joke,
and considered not worth q sermon OF
! even serious paragraph. And 30 the
massacre of human lives has gone on and
| the devil has had it his own cruel way, and
! what is nightly needed is that pulpit and
! platform and printing press all speak
word of unmistakable and !hunderous pro-
test on this subject of infinite Importance.
We put clear out into thin poesy and
7 light reading the marital engagements of
, Petrarch and his Laura, Dante and his
Beatrice, Chaucer and his Lucretia, Spen-
ser and his Rosalind, Waller and his Sac
charissa, not realizing that it was the style
of their engagement that decided their hap
piness or wretchedness, their virtue or
their proAigacv. All the literary and mill
tary and religious glory of Queen Eliza
beths reign cannot blot out from one of
the most conspicuous pages Of history her
infamous behavior toward Seymour and
Philip and Melville and Leicester and
others. All the ecclesiastical robes that
Dean Swift ever rustled through conse-
Grated places cannot hide from intelligent
people of all ages the fact that, by prom
ises of marriage which he never fulfilled,
he broke the heart of Jane Waring after
an engagement of seven years, and the
heart of Stella after an engagement OF
fourteen years, and the poetic stanzas he
dedicated to their excellences only make
the more immortal his own perfidy.
"But suppose 1 should make mistake"
says some man or woman, "and find it
cut after the engagement and before the
marriage?" My answer is, you have no ex.
cuse on this subject. There are 80 many
ways Of finding out all about the charac-
ter and preferences and dislikes and hab-
its of q man or woman, that If you have
not brain enough to form a right judg
ment in regard to him or her, you are not
SO tit 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 unsolVed
mystery about the person under consider
alton postpone all promises until the mys-
terry is solved.
Jackson's Hollow, Brooklyn, was part
of the city not built on for many years,
and every time crossed it l said to myself
or to others, why is not this land built on?
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 1 understood 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 set
tied and undisputed title to honor and truth,
and sobriety and kindness and righteous
ness.
Oh, woman, you have more need to
pause before making such an important
promise than man, because if you make a
la Ia
blunder about promise Of marriage, or go
on to an unfortunate marriage, he can
spend his evenings away, and can go to the
club, or Republican or Democratic head
quarters, and absorb his mind in city or
state or national elections, or smoke him
self stupid, or drink himself drunk. But
there is no place of regular retreat for you,
oh woman, and you could not take mar
cotics or intoxicsnts and keep your respect
ability. 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 neighborhood those who boast Of the
number of hearts they have won, as the
Indian boasts of scalps he has taken. If
q man will lie to woman and woman
will lie to a man about so important mat
ter as that of lifetimes welfare, they will
lie about bill of goods and lie about
finances and lie about anything. Society
to-day is brimful of gallants, and man
milliners, and carpet knights, and CO.
q1ettes, and those most Collaboration of
all wretches-hirts. And they go about
drawing-rooms and the patlors of water
ing places, simperinR and bowing, and
scrapinR and whispering, and then return
to them in confidence. Condign punish
ment is apt to come upon them, and they
get paid in their own coin. could point
you to score whom society has let drop
very hard in return for their base traffic in
human hearts. As to such men, they
Ill. a.,.... Il l.. Il. ..liI..a.. -. a.