The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-02-02

1
tteslgned speaking trumpet and | shout
Ghrough 1t: Captain, what does this mean!
r Dlu You not promise to take this ship to
southampton, England I" YES" says the
captain, but have changed my mind and
have found | can do bettef and | am going
to take charge here. shall send back to you
all the letters got while managing that ship
and everything got from your ship, and It
will be all right You tell me that the worst
Tote for such captain as that is too good for
him. But it is just what man or woman
does who promises b take one through the
voyage OF life, across the ocedn Of earthly
existence, and then breaks the promise. The
sending back Of all the letters ani rings
and necklaces and keepsakes cannot make
5nat 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 bethrothat
an act 80 solemn and tremendous that ali
men ana 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
promise Of lifetime companionship any
amount OF romance that you wish any
ardor of friendship. any coming and going.
but espousal is n gate, golden gate which
one should not pass. unless he or she expects
never to return, Engagement is the porch
OF which marriage is the castle, and you have
no right in the porch if you do not mean to
1
The trouble has always been that this
whole subject of alliance has been relegated
to the realms of frvolity and joke and con-
| sldered not worth sermon or even a serious
| paragraph. And SO the massacre of human
lives has gone on an1 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
thnnderous protest on this subject of in
1 fnlte lmnOrtanca Wa mt fs1aor nt,t i,,to
poesy and light reading the marital engage
ments of Petrarch and his Laura, Dante and
his Beatrice. Chaucer and his Phlippa,
Lorenzo Do Medlci and his thcretla, Spenser
and his Rosalind, Waller and his Saachar-
issa, not realizing that it was the stvle Of
ness or wretchedness. their virtue or their
prodig ICY: All the literary and military
and religious glory of Queen Elizabeth's
reign cannot blot out from one of the
most conspicuous pages Of history her in
famous behavior toward Seymour and
Philip and Melville and Leicester and
others. All the ecclesiastical robes that Dean
| Swift ever rnsted through consecrated
| places cannot hide from INTEL gent poople OF
| ell ages the fact that by promises of mar
| r1age which he never fulfilled, he broke the
heart Of Jane Waring after an enyagem,nt
If seven years, and the heart Of Stella after
an engagement of fourteen years. and the
| FoSoAS ocdhZdo lie uellCdUou ID Glef excel
lences only make the more immortal his own
rerfidy
But suppose l should make a mistake
says some man or woman, "and 1 find it out
after the engagement and before the mar
rlage!' My answer is, yor have no excuse
Tor making mistake on this subject There
are many ways of finding out all about the
character and preferences and disikes and
habts OF man or woman. that if you have
not Drain enough to form right Judgment
IN regard to him or her, you are not 50 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, whas was |
the style. of ancestry, noble or depraved, and
II there be any unsolved 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 mys,lf or to |
others, why is not this lanl built on' | |
found out afterwarl that the title to the |
land was in controversy and no one wanted |
to build there until that question was de- /
clded. Afterwari understood the title was
settled, and now buildings are going un all
over IT. DO not build your happiness for this
world on character, masculine or feminiue
that has not settled and undsputed title to
honor ami truth, and sobriety and kindness
and Righteousness.
Oh, woman, you have more need to pause
before making such an important promise
than man, because if you make mistake it
is worse for you. If a man blunder about
promise of marriage, or go on to an unfortu-
nate marriage he ca1 spend his evenings
away, and can go to the club or the RepubIi-
can or Democratic headquarters, aud absorb
his mind in city or State or national elections,
or smoke himself stupid, or drink himself
drunk But there is no place Of regular re-
treat for you, oh woman, and you could not
take narcotics or intoxicants and keep your
and think and study AMI advise. There will
never again in your earthly history be a
time when you SO much need God.
1t seems to me that the world ought to
cast out from business credits and from good
neighborhoo1s those who boast of the number
Of hearts they have won, as the Indian
boasts OF the numbsr of scalp5 he has taken.
II man will lie to a woman and woman
Will lie to man about 50 important mat,
ter as that of a lifetime's welfare, they will
lie sbout bill Of goods and lie about financ
and lie about anything Society to-day is
carpet knights, and coquettes and those most
tod forsaken of all wretches-arts. And
they go about drawing rooms and the parlors
OF watering places, slmpering and bowling,
and scraping and whispering, and then re-
turn 70 tne club rooms if they be men, or to
6oolOi ihBo IL GIcy Dt "OTen, 10 |
chatter and giggle over what was said to
them in confidence niign punishment is
apt 10 come upon them. and they get paid in
their own coin, could point you to score
whom society has let drop very hard in re.
turn 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 !
shortsighted when their eyes are SO old in
SIN that they need the spectacles of a sep.
tuagenarian, an eyeglass about No. 8, anil
think they are bewitchng in their stride and
overpowering in their glances, although they
are simply laughing stocks for all mankind
And il these base dealers in hum an hearts be
females, they are left after while severely
alone, striving III a very desperation and
agony OF cosmetics to get back to the at
tractiveness 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 female triflers with human
and yet immortal affections. Oh man. oh
to it,
And here my idea widens, and I have to :
say not only to those who have made a mis- /,
take In solemn promise of marriage but to
those who have already at the altar bsen pro- ,
nounced one when they are two, or in diver
sity of tastes and likes and disliles are !,
neither one nor two but a dozen-make the :
=
let me answer letters that come from every !,
State OF the American Union, and from /,
across the sea, and are coming year after
year from men and women who are terrific
ally ailianced and tied together in a hard
knot, very hard knot The letters run !
something like this: "What ought to do.
my husband is a drunkardn .My wife is a
gad-about and will not stay at hone.n
my companion is ignorant and hates books
and revel in them II like music and a
piano sets my husband crazy ~ am fond I
of social life and my companion is rec.use.,
'I am irving to be cool and my lifelong as.
sociate Is very bad. What shall DOR Ny
answer is, there are certain good reasons for
The Bible recognizes them.
Good society recognizes them But it must
be the very last resort, and only after all
reasonable attempts at reclamation and ad-
justment have proved dead failure. When
such attempts fail it is generally because of
meddlesome outsiders. and women tell the ,
wronged wife how she ought to stand on her
rights, and men tell the wrongei husband
how he ought to stand on his rights. And
let husband and wife in an unhappy mar
riage relation stand punctiliously ON their
rights, and there will be no read diustment,