Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1888-02-02

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the Shrew." He. found out when too
late that he had not married into the
family of the ''Graces," but into the fam
lily of the 'Furies." Te the day of his
death the murder OF his first betrothal
followed him.
The Bible extols one who s'sweareth to
his own heart and changeth not" That
is, when you make promise keep it at all
nasards. There may be cases where de-
ception has been used at the time of en-
gagement, and extraordinary circum-
stances where the promise is not binding,
but in nine hundred and ninety.nine
cases out CT one thousand engagement Is
as binding as marriage. Robert Burns,
with all his faults, we'll knew the forcs OF
marital engagement In obedience to
some rustic idea, he, standing on one side
OF the brook Ayr, and Mary Campbell on
the other, they battle their hands in the
water and then put them on the boards Of
a Bible, making their pledge of fidelity.
book to this day, in Robert Burns hand.
writing, may be found the words: "Levit.
icus, xix, -: Ye shall not swear by my
name falsely; am the Lord" And on
the cover of the New Testament, in his
own handwriting, Mathew, ", SO: Thou
shalt not foreswear thyself, but shalt per.
form unto the Lord thine oaths."
Suppose a ship captain offers his serv.
ices to take ship out to sea. After he
gets little way he comes alongside Of a
vessel with more beautiful flag, and
which has perhaps richer cargo and is
bound for more attractive port. Sup
pose he rings bell for the engineer to
slow up and the wheel stops. Now see
the captain being lowered over the side
of the vessel into a small boat, and he
crosses to the gayer and weather. craft,
and climbs up the sides and is seen walk.
ing the bridge of the other ship. pick
up his resigned speaking trumpet and
shout through it: Captain, what does
| this mean? Did you not promise to take
this ship to Southampton, England"
"Yes," says the captain, "but / have
changed my mind, and have found can
do better, and l am going to take charge
here. shall send back to you all the let
tiers got while managing that ship, and
every thing l 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 jast what a
man or woman does who promises
to take enc through the voyage
of life, across the ocean of earthly
existence, and then break the prom Sc.
The sending back of all the letters and
rings and necklaces and keepsakes can
not make that right which is in the sight
of God and ought to be in the sight of
man, an everlasting wrong. What Amer
| lean society needs to be taught is that bs-
trothal is an act SO solemn and ire
| mendous 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 promise of lifetime companion.
ship any amount of romance that you
| wish, any ardor of friendship, any com :
ing and going. Bat espousal is gate, a
| golden gate, which one should not pass
unless he or she expects never to return.
Engagement is the porch of which mar.
riage is the castle, and you have no right
in 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 realm of frvolity and joke,
and considered not worth sermon or
even serious paragraph. And so 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 unmis taxable
and thunderous protest on this subject of
infinite Importance. We put out into
thin poesy and light reading the material
engagements of Petrarch and his Laura,
Dante and his Beatrice, Chaucer and his
Philippa, Lorenzo de Medici and his
Luerelia, Spencer and his Rosalind, Wal
Ter his Saucharissa, not realizing that it
was andthe style of their engagement that
dec ded their happiness or wretchedness,
their virtue or their prof1gacy. All the
literary ard military and religious glory
of Queen Elizabeth's reign can not blot
out from one Of the most conspicuous
pages of history her Infamous behavior
toward Seymour, and Philip, and Mel
vile, and Leicester and others. All the
ecclesiastical robes that Dean Swift ever
rustled through consecrated places can
not hide from intelligent people of
all ages the fact that by promises
of marriage which he never fuI.
filled he broke the heart of Jane
Warning after an engagement of seven
years, and the heart of Stella after an en-
gagement of fourteen years, and the
poetic stanzas he dedicated to their ex-
cellences only make the more immortal
his own perfidy.
"But suppose should make a mistake"
says some man or woman, "and find it out
after the engagement and before mar.
riage" My answer is, you have no ex-
cuse for making a mistake on this sub
ject. There are so many ways of finding
out all about the character, and
preferences, and dislikes, and habits
of man or woman, that if
you have not brain enough to form
a right Judgment in regard to him or her,
rimonial altar as you are for an idiot asy-
lum. 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 il
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 my
self or to others, why is not this land
built on? 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 / un-
derstood the title was settled, and now
buildings are going up all over it. Do
not build your happiness for this world on
a character, masculine or feminine, that
has not settled and undi sputed title to
honor, and truth, and sobriety, and kind.
ness, and righteousness.
o woman, you have more need to pause
before making such an important promise
than man, because if you make a mistake
it is worse for you. If a man blunder
about promise of marriage, or go on to an