Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1889-09-10
GIRLS AND MARRIAGE.
They Should Not Go to the Altar
Under Twenty-Five.
Early Marriages May BE Desirable for
Young Men, But Not for School Girls
just BIossoming Into Woman
bood-Some Sensible Views.

Just BIossoming Into Woman
bood-Some Sensible Views.
It must be generally conceded that tht
married state is that in which the greatest
happiness is possible; and 1t might be in
ferred, then, that one could not enter it toe
early. But, says the Philadelphia Press
those who NAV recall the son Of Matthew y
in Pilgrims Progress" who made himself
i'll by eating green apples green apples
which might have been wholesome and de
licious had he waited until they were ripe -
can recall an illustration quite contradictory
Of such inference.
Fortunate for him, as IL may seem to the
mother of a son, il her boy shall marry
early, yet his instance Is a singular one, it,
on reaching something less than middle
age, he has not dropped his wife so far be.
hind him as to leave himself practically un-
married, having a nurse a housekeeper, a
humble friend possibly slave, but certain
ly no companion, no wife, in the wide sense
Of the word. His early marriage may have
been, superficially considered, an advant-
age to his morality, and so to his health
but when the mother has brought up her
boy, as it is her duty to do, to understand
that the same personal purity is required of
him that is required Of her girl,at whatever
| aBCS buch buC 1ucSliOI VI IllhJ AMY VIII
not enter into the affair at all.
But, however, the mother of son may
look at the subject of early marriages, the
mother of a daughter is justified, it seems
TO me, a rather decided opposition to them.
If, instead Of being great and happy por-
| tion of the school of life, marriage constI-
tuted the whole of it, or life existed only for
| the sake Of marriage, still those entering its
| portals must be the better for suitable prep
aration am unable to suppose that at the
| age Of eighteen or twenty any preparation
has been sufficient, The age is lovely in it's
tenderness, and enchanting with its illusions; !;
| but wisdom wears a severe face, and mar
| riage deals with stern facts. Some girls
there may be, of rare ability, who are COM
| petent to take upon their young shoulders
the responsibility of house, it's work, or
the direction of those who do its work; the
oversight of husbands wardrobe, the
bearing and nursing of children, the phys
ical attention to them in health and in sick
ness, and the daily direction of their moral
and mental education, together with all the
other indoor and outdoor cares incidental
TO the position of one who is the head of a
family, and who has the happiness of a
home and husband on her heart and con-
science. But these cases are few and ex-
ceptonal, and the great multitude of girls
under twenty are not equal to such a strain
upon nerve and muscle without an arrest of
development. A few years later they may
remember themselves at that age as still
children; they may feel some reproach to-
ward those who laid upon them then bur-
den greater than children should bear
Before twenty girl has hardly had the
chance to receive the complete instruction
from textbooks to which she has right, to
nothing nf tho IompStin at ~
the kitchen, the needle, the sick ROOM she
has had little chance to learn any thing of
the world of human nature; she has intui-
tions, not ex periences; she has lived more
with dreams and ideals than with realities.
She may make charming wife at first,
and tender mother always, maternal in
stinct and solicitude taking the place of all
the superiority that added years might
have given But she must stop there
taxed to the utmost; she has no time nor
strength, and, perhaps-as inclination
grows by use-no inclination to read, to
study, TO keep pace with husbands ad-
vance, or even to appreciate 1t. l will not
say that when, in a few years, she has lost
the appearance Of youth, when she has no
more fresh color and n smooth face, when
pretty toilet no longer becomes her, the
husband who continues to cherish her will
take credit to himself for doing so; but 1t
is evident that she encounters the danger
of this feeling on his part Nor do l think
II an argument worth mentioning that the
woman early married is so nodded and bent
10 her husbands will that clashing and in
compatibility become impossible, because
in marriage the rights and sacrifices shoSld
be mutual, and l will not 50 insult the hus-
band rs TO suppose him unreasonable
enough for this molding to be necessary,
or selfish enough to wish thus to suppress
Individuality unable TO find pleasure him.
self in remuneration, or negligent of civil
lied, not TO say Christian duty.
Charming wife and tender mother as she
may be, however, il is not TO be doubted
that when her education is more thorough
and her experience more extended she will
be nobler wife and far better mother.
She will have lost some softening trife of
the arrogance Of youth; vanity, levity, love
OF admiration, will have been so chastened
as not 10 play the part of deaths heads ut
the feast; she will have learned self-sacri- /
fee and forbearance; she will have acquired /
tact and discretion and the sacred art OF |
silence; she will have become harmonious; |
and she will know how 10 order home as she .
did not know how before
Her knowledge will have opened avenues /
and outlooks Of which her family will have |
the advantage; her judgment will have |
ripened, her whole nature deepened; she
will take life at higher plane, aud her hus-
band and her children, her whole world
and the generations 10 come, Will have
gained by the delay. II II were but for the
sake Of those generations to come, born OF .
mothers full grown in mind as we'll as IN
body, the delay would be worth while.
A young mother, with her children about
her, is often lovely sight; but as lovely
sight in different way, II not so touching
and appealing, is the mother TO whom few
added years have gwen an immense added
leverage in the task Of bringing her chill
iren up and lifting them TO u higher level
sven than her own,
Raising the Dead.
DIR. Lackersteen, in a provisional commu-
a.. a., /