Omaha daily bee., 1889-10-14
PUTTING hYMEN IN HARNESS.
Some Reasons why Certain People
Shouid Not Wed.
C,,oc,ol 10 IN, Do.

Gays turned much upon the strange ana
important subject OF heredity. 1t is,
perhaps, Of all subjects, the most en-
crossing, as it is, beyond question, the
most important; especially with regard
to the relations existing between the
sexes.
Marriage, where there is decided
lmpurity in the blood on either side,
should be forbidden by parents or guar
dians. Insanity, scrofula, consumption
another form OF the last named disease),
all should be regarded as bar to mat
rimony.
A severe dictum, no doubt, destroying
the happiness of many, but If faithfully
adhered to for half century or so,
would certainly.stamp out great deal
OF the disease that now decimates and
renders miserable the homes OF many.
The happiness of the few should give
way to the good of the many, and if
those unfortunately marked out by ma
ture to be the modern lepers of society
could have the courage to sacrifice
themselves, unspeakable would be the
benefit to mankind.
But to preach to others is an easy
thing; when it comes to ones own turn
to be sacrificed, we find "the whole
head is sick and the whole heart faint"
and we rebel violently against the Fate
that would chain us to circumstances.
In truth, when man loves woman
with all his heart and mind 1T is cruel
rending of soul and body to separate
him from her; yet, if he or she carry
within them the sad and destructive
seeds OF madness, or any of those other
well-known hereditary diseases that de-
stroy humanity, surely it is an iniquity
on their part to deliberately transmit
them to posterity.
1t is the little children, the flesh of
their flesh, who sutfer-irresponsib
brought into the world without desire
OF their own, without even their per-
mission being asked. Poor little chill
dren! ofttimes doomed from their birth
to suffer mournfully, and without re-
proach, the cruellest indignities that
nature has in store for her offspring.
Andit is not only they who suffer. The
mother, the father, whichever it may
be that has given the terrible curse,
how keen must be their remorse as they
see the child of their love dwindle
slowly into consumptive grave ere
yet life has opened its full charms for
1T, or else, dragged from their despair
ing arms to'an asylum. to end its life in
secresy and non-comprehension of any,
thing that makes our daily life bear
able!
There are, however, other hindrances
to marriage more easily disposed Of
want of money. We all know melan-
choly instances of those married lives,
begun in all good will on love alone,
without penny to support that airy lit
tie fellow whose wings are so suggestive
of power to fly away and rid himself of
all responsibility and uapleasantness at
moments notice. These melancholy
instances should be a warning to ,and
L hope, sometimes are, but in spite of
all warnings, improvident marriages
are as frequent still as they are univer-
sally disastrous.
Love is delightful-the one real gift
OF life, but it should not be abused. For
young man to marry a young woman
with no settled means of sustaining her
throughout the sixty odd years or so
that Providence may allot them on this
terrestrial plain, approaches almost to a
crime IN the estimation of any thought
full person.
Here again, the children come in
They throughout must be the real suf-
ferers-thOse fragile beginnings of a
mighty end" as Mrs. Norton has it.
What wanton cruelty it is to bring
into the world little souls that should be
saved, to expose them to nothing but
the bullets and lnisfortunes of world
that has sympathy only for the rich and
"well-to-do," as the phrase goes. No
money to educate them, scarcely enough
food to rear them heartily, n chance of
college forever in the background, oven
hn fat hn, al
lege man in his day, and therefore
cogni2ant of all the advantages to be
derived therefrom. How sad for the
father, how doubly sad for the child. A
bright boy, perhaps, who would proba-
bly, have distinguished himself had op-
portunity been given him. Surely the
mother and father of that child, who
have deliberately willed him to life of
poverty and insignilicance, must feel
the strongest pangs of remorse rs they
gaze on him and note the dawnings of a
genius that mi ght have made his name
ring gloriously in the arena of the
world had they the means to hel p him
forward in his career.
OF all kinds of selfshness, the man
who makes an improvident marriage is
guilty of the greatest. For the mere
indulgence of his desires he condemns
TO misery many soul. When the
world is little more perfect, | hope
there will be a law forbidding people to
marry unless they can show sufficient
income wherewlth to keep up the dig
nifty OF the married state.
Another strong hindrance to matri-
mony is Il difference in religion. Peo-
pie of opposite religious beliefs would
do well TO avoid each other. If one is II
Roman Catholic, the other a protestant,
an unspoken and often a carefully con-
cealed, but neverth eless strong an
tagonism, must exist in either bosom.
Each thinks the other is wrong; each
feels eager to defend his or her own re-
ligion. One with each other as they
may be on all other points, there is ever
a reservation in the background, a Sc
crct differing that destroys the har-
mony, the perfect confidence that should
be the mainstay of the relations that
bind together the man and his wife.
Sadder still, however, is it for the
man or woman with strong spiritual
beliefs to wed an atheist. Two atheists
welded will probably pull along together
pretty well Though what guides them,
heaven alone knows), but for one hu-
man creature with an earnest sense of
the reality attaching itself to the di-
vine, to elect to spend long life with
another who thinks only of the eXtinc-
tion that, in his estimation, awaits the
lower and higher animals alike, must
L IL. r