Woman's chronicle. (Little Rock, Ark.) 1888-1???, 1889-02-09
Written for WoMAN's CHRONICLE.
Six Letters to GirIs.--No. 8.

DEAR GIRLs-In this last letter want to talk to
you for little while about the time which should,
and is to most girl the most interesting and pleas
ant period in their lives, and this is when girls get
married.
True marriage is not failure. Marriage was
instituted by God, and God never planned fail
ure. But there are great many so-called mar
riages that are only marriages, inasmuch as the
cold form of the law makes them marriages, and
as it is only the law that makes them marriages it
only takes the law to break the bonds of matri-
mony; hence so many divorces.
Love is what makes the true marriage, and no
marriage is true marriage without love, yet no
girl ought to marry man unless she can see some
prospect of getting something to live on besides
love. No true woman can be happy unless she
possesses the love of her husband, and although
mans nature differs greatly from womans, do
not think good man is really happy without the
love OF his wife, But there must be something
else besides love to make marriage success.
There must be respect and confidence. Perhaps
some of you who will read this letter think that
confidence and respect belong to love and go with
it, but that is not always the case A great many
girls marry immoral, wicked men, whom none
could respect, under the spell of some strange in
fatuation they think is love- Then sometimes girls
marry men whom they really love, to reform them.
This is risky business and nearly always fails in its
desired results. 1t may seem for a time to work
all right, but, as rule, if a man does not care
enough for woman before he is married to give
up his bad habits at her asking he will not after
ward
There is some strange infatuation about getting
married. Fancy and Imagination paint the future
bright, and every girl who gets married thinks that
no matter what the future may hold for others, it
can hold nothing but happiness for her. But this
Intoxicating sense of pleasure does not last very
long after the novelty of getting married begins to
wear off, The old practical side of life takes its
place. .De1a-'
You get used to the company of him you chose
to be your husband, and although you may be
happy when he is with you, and lonesome when he
is away, yet that indescrbable fascination that took
possession of you at his coming when you were in
love before you were married. is gone Often,
alas, too often, it is not until the honeymoon is
over, and the ups and downs that trouble so MANY
married lives beset them, that girls for the first
time realize the solemnity Of the marriage VOWS
and the responsibility they have taken upon them
selves in getting married.
Wnen girl gets married she should remember
that she is not the only one to suffer if her mar
riage does not prove success. The little ones
that God will send her in the after years have rights
that ought to be respected and rights that should
be looked after by she who is to be the mother be-
fore she puts herself in place where she cannot
well help them. No woman or man, who respects
the rights of others WILL when he or she know
themselves to be the victim of some dreadful dis
ease or appetite, take upon themselves the respon-
slbilty of bringing children into this world to
suffer, or lead miserable sckly lives and fill early
graves.
The day has long since passed Gf there ever was
such day. when it was disgrace to be an old
maid. Some of the grandest, most noble women
of the age are women who have never married, and
they are doing work for humanity which they
could not do if they were burdened by the cares