Milford chronicle., 1888-01-27


nine cases out Of a Thousand engagement is
as binding as marriage. Robert Burns with
all his faults well knew the force of a marital
engagement. In obedience to some rustic
idea he, standing on one side the brook
AYR. and Mary Campbell on the other, they
bathed thair hands in the water and then
nut them on the boards Of the Bible, making
their pledge Of fidelity. On the cover Of the
Old Testament Of that book TO this day,
in Robert Burns handwriting, may be found
the words: sLeviticus, xix, II. Ne shall
not swear by my name falsely; l am the
Lord And on the cover of the New Iesta-
ment. in his own handwriting; Matthew,
V, 80: Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but
shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths."
Suppose a ship captain offers his services
to take a shipout to sea- After he gets lit
tie way he comes alongside of a vessel with
more beautiful Gag, and which has perhaps a
richer cargo and is bound for a more at
tractive port. Suppose bo 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 walking the
bridge Of the other ship. pick up his
resigned speaking trumpet and l shout
through it: Captain what does this meant
Did YOU not promise to take this ship to
SOUTHAMPTON. Englandr' 'Yes,n 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 letters got while managing that ship
and everything got from your ship and it
will be all right You tell me that the worst
fate for such a captain as that is too good for
him. But it is just what man or woman
does who promises to take one through tho
vovaqe Of life, across the ocean of earthly
existence, and then breaks the promise. The
sending back of all the letters and rings
and necklaces and keepsakes 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 bethrothal
is an act so solemn and tremendous 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 companionship any
amount of romance that you wish, any
ardor of friendship, any coming and going.
But espousal is a gate, a golden gate, which
one should not pass, unless he or she expects
never 10 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
pass into the castle.
The trouble has always been that this
whole subject Of alliance has been relegated
to the realms Of frivolity and joke, and con-
sidered not worth a 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 unmistakable and
thunderous protest on this subject of in
finite importance Weput clear out into thin
poesy and light reading the marital en-
gagements of Petrarch and his Laura, Dante
and his Beatrice, Chaueer and his Philippa,
Lorenzo de Medici and his Lucretia, Spenser
and his Rosalind, Waller and his Sacchar-
issa. not realizing that it was the style of
their engagement that decided their happi-
ness or wretchedness, their virtue or their
proaigacv. 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
PbiIip and Melville and Leicester and
others. All the ecclesiastical robes that Dean
Swift ever rustled through consecrated
places cannot hide from intelligent people Of
all ages the fact, that by promises Of mar
riaee 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 excel
lences only make the more immortal bis own
perfdy. 50
saws some man or woman, tand find it out
after the engagement and before the mar
riageF Ny answer is, you have no excuse
for making a mistake on this subject. There
are so many ways Of finding out all about the
character and preferences and dislikes and
habits of a man or woman, that if you have
not brain enough to form a right Judgment
in regard to him or her, you are not so fit a
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 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 I said 10 myself or to
! ]
found out afterward that the title to the
land Yves in controversy and no one wanted
TO build there until that question was de-
cided. Afterward understood 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 a settled and undisputed title to
honor and truth, and sObriety and kindness
and Righteousness.
Oh woman, you have more need pause be
fore 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 can spend his evenings
away, and can 60 to the club or the Republi-
can or Democratic headquarters, and 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
respectability. 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 t.
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 the number of scalps be has taken
II man will lie to a woman and a womsa
will lie to aman apout so important mat.
ter as thaSof lifetime's welfare, they viii
lie about bill Of goods and lie about finances
and lie about anything. Society today is
brimful Of gallants and man milliners, and
carpet knights, and coquettes and those mos.
God forsaken Of all wretches-hirts. And
they go about drawing rooms and the parlors
of watering places, simpering and bowing'
and scraping and whispering, and then re
turn to the club rooms il they be men, OF to
their special gatherings if they be women, to
chatter and giggle over what was said to
them in confidence Condign punishment is
apt to come upon them, and they get paid in
their own coin. could point you to a score
whom society has let drop very hard in re-
turn for their base traffic in human hearts.
IL a ana NaaHH