Omaha daily bee., 1888-01-29
Plighting TrOths,

We look-and she Is gone.
Plighting Troths.
Mrs. Dodge gives in Harper's Bazaar
some kind and mother!y advice on the
subject of engagements, which young
men and women may profit by. She
deprecatcs the haste and apparent non
chalance with which troths are SEEM
ingly often plighted ana as readily
broken, and speaking from the stand
point of a good middle aged lady" who
may perhaps be looking on the little
drama, says:
In her eyes contract is contract.
and her engagement of marriage would
be binding according to her belief, sim
ply as q contract; and although she
might find it absolutely necessary at
last that it should be broken she would
reach that point only after long delay
and hesitancy and reluctancy, and never
as she would tear OFF "A faded corsage
bouqut and fling it to the gutter driving
home from the ball. For girl to have
broken an engagement of marriage is
in her eyes not at all a trifling thing,
but something that causes the girl to be
looked at askance, either as a per-
son of unstable mind and dis
loyal faith, or as one whose
character had been found wanting by
her lover on her further acquaintance.
In her day, when young lady broke
her engagement, or had it broken for
her, she went into retirement for q sea-
son like a young widow, and did not
brazen it out as if she had done no more
than promise to go to u picnic and had
then thought better of it. There seems
to the quiet if critical onloOker a singu-
lar profanity about the business. and she
feels this the most in remarking the
careless way in which the engagement
Is formed. as if one rushed into the
holy of holies and, without removing
the shoes from ones feet.
Better, an inlinity of times, She con-
fesses, are all the broken engagements
in the world beforehand, than broken
marriage and divorce aftcrward. But
in her code of morals there should be
neither. The very idea of marriage
should be approached with as much
reverence as an altar. and the observer
feels it possible that neither youth nor
maiden would advance so gaiy
upon the sacred adytum had
he or she any idea of the
holiness of the shrine within. In some
countries, she remembers, the betrothal
is felt to be nearly as binding, as formal,
ceremonial and religious an act as the
marriage itself, as the marriage
which, IN one form of religious
sacrament: and in some parts of our
country she knows that the affair is so
modestly conducted that an engagement
is never spoken of until preparations are
making for the wedding, although this
may be going as much too far on the
other side. And while this is beyond
the censor's strictest idea, she would
yet have q little Of the church-going
feeling about the maiden's heart in ac-
cepting her lover, and she would have
the affair taken so seriously that no
lover should be received as such just
for the convenience of the seasons
pleasure and attendance, just to lift the
reproach from vanity, or because So
und-SO had n lover, but received only
when he had come to stay, and where
he was so worthy that the intention was
to keep him.
Could Not Have His Wife.
Kansas City Correspondence St. Louis
Post-Dispatch: He has never seen his
wife," This was the statement which
fell on the ears of the POst-Dispatch
correspondent as he was slowly walking
down West Sixth street. Two gentle
men were standing in Il doorway, en-
gagged in conversation, and it was the
remark of n tall, well-fed, elderly gem
tleman which was heard.
The idea certainly savored of the
queer, and the curious correspondent
stopped, determined to find out, if pos
slble. the story of the man who never
saw his wife. The tale was drawn out,
and u strange one it proved to be. a
gentleman who was not blind, who was
in full possession of all his faculties,
and who had been married for over two
years, had never seen his wife.
We will call him Frank Green. Were
his real name known many friend and
many n business acquaintance would
start in surprise. Likewise we will call
the lady in the case Miss Black, for it
would be decidedly unpleasant for her
high connections in this city, and il
would afford too much gossip at the
club, were her true name used. Miss
Hortense Black was once the idol OF
society here, for she was beauti.
ful, intellectual and refined. She
moved in the highest circles, and nc
fashionable entertainment was consid
cred u success without her presence
Admirers she had by the score rich and
poor, handsome and homely, but non,
did she favor. In July, 1855, in company
with her parents, who seemed to TAKE
pleasure in indulging her in every
caprice but who had some wild notions
of high marriage for her, she wen
north and stopped for two weeks in tn,
pleasant city Of st. Paul. On the las
day of her stay there while riding from
one of the resorts in the city she lost he
portmanteau, which contained nearly
800 in money and half dozen cabinc
photographs of herself. The next morn
ing in the principal papers she otfere'
$40 reward for the return OF the article
and before 8 o'clock il was sent up Il
her room with q handsome little note