Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1889-10-04
GIRLS AND MARRIAGE.
They Should Not Go to the Altar
Under Twenty-Five.
Early Marriages May Be Desirable for
Young Mon, But Not for School Girls
just Blossoming Into Woman
hood-Some Sensible Views.

Suss piossohihB Vo"Sh-
, hood-Some Sensible Views
1t must be generally conceded that the
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 >
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 q singular one, it,
on reaching something less than middle
age, he has not dropped his wife 80 far be
hind him as TO leave himself practically un.
married, having nurse, a housekeeper, q
humble friend possibly slave, but certain.
ly no companion, no wife, in the wide sense
Of the word. His early marriage may have
been, superfcially 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
age, then the question Of that morality will
not enter into the affair at all.
But, however, the mother Of a son may
look at the subject Of early marriages, the
mother Of daughter is justified, it seems
to me, in rather decided opposition to them.
II, 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
| In 20 hot or no
| age of eighteen or twenty any preparation
has been sufficient, The age is lovely in its
tenderness, ,and enchanting with its illusions I;
but wisdom wears 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 a house, its work, or
the direction Of those who do it's work; the
| oversight Of q 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 q
family, and who has the happiness of a
| home and q husband on her heart and con-
| science But these cases are few and ex-
ceptional, and the great multitude of girls
| 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 a right, to
say nothing Of the domestic education of
| 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 Experiences; she has lived more
with dreams and ideals than with realities.
She may make IA charming wife at first,
| and tender mother always, maternal in
stinct and solicltude 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 few years, she has lost
the appearance Of youth, when she has no
more fresh color and a smooth face, when q
pretty toilet no longer becomes her, the
husband who continues to cherish her will
take credit to himself for doing so; but it
| Is evident that she encounters the danger
of this feeling on his part. Nor do l think
10 an argument worth mentioning that the
woman early married is so modedsand bent
TO her husbands will that clashing and in
compatibility become impossible, because
in marriage the rights and sacrifices shosld
be mutual, and will not so insult the hus-
band as to suppose him unreasonable
enough for this molding to be necessary
la.h 10, ,ial, ,I,,. %
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, it 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 softeniug tritie Of
the arrogance Of youth; vanity, levity, love
Of admiration, will have been so chastened
as not to play the part of deaths heads at
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 to 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 "a higher plane and her hus-
band and her children, her whole world
and the generations TO come, will have
gained by the delay. IL it were but for the
sake Of those generations TO come born of
mothers full grown in mind as well 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, IL not so touching
and appealing, is the mother to whom few
added years have given an immense added
leverage in the task OF bringing her chill
dren up and lifting them TO higher level
even than her own.
Raising the Dead.
DIR, Lackersteen, in a provisional commu-