Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1888-02-11

|
teel villains are to be expurgated. Instead
of being welcomed into respectable society
because of the amount of stars and garters
and medals and estates they represent, they
ought to be fumigated two or three years be-
fore they are allowed without peril to them
| selves to put their hand ON the door knob OF
| moral house. The time has come when a
masculine estray will be as repugnant to good
| society as a feminine estray, and no coat OF
arms or family emblazonry or epaulet can
pass q LothariO uncnallenged among the
sanctities of home life By what law of God
| or common sense is an Absalom better than
| Delilah, q Don Juan better than MeSsalina!
| The brush that paints the one black must
paint the other black. But what spectacle
| it was when last summer much of "watering
| place" society went wild with enthusiasm
over an unclean Foreign dignltary, whose
name in both hemispheres is a synonym for
| profligacy, and princ,sses of American society
| Gom all parts of the land had him ride in
their carriages and sit ut their tables though
/ they knew him to be portable laZaretto, a
charnel house of mortl putrefaction, his
breath typhoid, hiS foot that of a Satyr,
| and his touch death. Here is an evil that
/ men cannot stop but women may. Keep all
| such out of your parlors, have no recognlti on
| for them in the street. and no more think OF
| allying your life and destiny with theirs than
| ''gales from Araby" would consent to pass
| the honeymoon with an Egyptian plague
| All that money or social position bad man
| brings to q woman in marriage is splendl0
| despair a gilded horror, a brilliant agony,
prolonged death, and the longer the marital
| union lasts the more evident will be the fact
! that she might better never have been BORN
| Yet you and have been at brilliant weddings,
! where, before the feast was over. the BRIDE
| grooms tongue was thick, and his eyes CLASSY,
and his step stagger as he clicked glasses
with jolly comrades ill going with lightning
limited express train to the fatal crash over
4 the bankmp1lf of n ruinp1 life and a lost
| eternity.
Woman, join not your right hand with
such right hand, Accept from such a one
no jewel for finger or ear lest the sparkle of
| precious stone turn out to be the eye of
< basilisk, ard let not the ring come on the
| finger of your right hand lest that ring turn
out to be one link Of a chain that shall bind
| you in never ending captivity. In the name
| of God and heaven and home, in tie name OF
J all time and all eternity | forbid the bansl
| Consent not to join one of the many regi-
ments of women who have married for
worldly success without regard to moral
| character.
| If you are ambitious, oh woman, for noble
afiiancing, why not marry a King! And to
that honor you are invited by the monarch
OF heaven and earth, and this day voice
| from the skies sounds forth: ''As the bride
| groom reioiceth over the bride so shall thy
God rejoice over thee" Let Him put upon
| thee the ring of his royal marriage. Here is
an honor worth reaching after. By repent~
ance and faitn you may come into a marriage
with the emperor of universal dominion, and
| you may be an empress unto Sod forever,
and reign with him in palaces that the CEN
turies cannot crumhle nor cannonades de-
molish.
High worldly marriage is not necessary for
woman, or marriage of any kind in order to
your happiness. Celibacy has been honored
by the best being that over lived and his
anOcfla
higher honor could single life on earth havei
| But what you need, oh woman, is to be affl. |
anced forever and forever. and the bands Of
that marriage l am this moment here and
now ready to publish. Let the angels c.
/ heaven bend from their galleries of light to |
I witness while | pronounce you one-a loving
God and n forgiven soul. One OF the most |
stirring passages in history with which am |
acquainted tells us how Cleopatra, the exiled |
queen of Egypt, won the symL athes of Julius |
Caesar, the conqueror, un5il he became the |
bridegroom and she the bride. Driven from |
her throne, she sailed away on the Mediter- |
ranean sea in a storm, and when the large |
ship anchored she put ont with one womany |
friend in a small boat until she arrived at |
Alexandria. where was Cesar the great gem |
eral Knowing that she would not be per. |
mitted to lanG or pass the guards on the way |
to Caesars palace, she laid upon the bottom
of the boat some shawls and scarfs and rich |
ly dyed upholstery, and then lay down upon |
them, and her friend wrapped her i'll them |
and she was admitted ashore in this wrap
ping of goods, which was announced as
present for Caesar. This bundle was permit |
ted to pass the guards of the gates of the
palace and was put down at the feet of the
Roman General When the bundle was un |
rolled there rose before Cgasar one whose |
courage and ,e.uty and brillancy are the
astonishment of the ages This exiled queen |
of Egypt told the story of her sorrows. and
he promised her that she should get back her
throne in Egypt and take the throne of wifely |
dominion in his own heart. Afterward they
made a triumphal tour in a barge that ths
pictures of many art ga.ieries have called
dCleOpatras Barge" and that barge was COW
cred with silken awning, and its deck was
soft with luxuriant carpets, and the oars
were silver tipped and tho prov was gold
mounted, and the air was redolent WIN tine
spicery of tropical gardens and resonant
with the music that made the night glad as
the day. You may rejoice, oh woman, that you
are not Cleopatra, and that the one 10
whom you may be at1anced had none of the
sins of Cesar the conquerOr But it suggests
to me how you, a soul exiled from happiness
and peace, may find your way TO the teet OF
the conqueror of earth and sky. Thoughlt
may be a dark night of spiritual agltationiIn
which YOU put out, into the larbor OF peace
YOU may sail and when all the wrappings OF
fear and doubt and sin shall be removed you
will be found at the feet of Him who will put
YOU on a throne to be acknowledged as His
IN the day when all the silver truInpets OF
the skv shall proclaim Behold the bride
groom cometh,h and in a barge OF light you
sail with him the river whose source Is the
foot of the throne and whose mouth Is at the
coo NJ 0Iaee minpled with fire.