Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-02

AOh women D6IOT6 luO OSCldId
tion of Independence was signed or the Con
stitution WAS adopted, their union was akil
to that Of Eden In its bliss. Andrew Jack
son was married at 25 to divorced woman
and yet he had a larger share o
domestic happiness, according to his owl
account, than falls to the lot of most men
She was plain woman, with no style abou
her as might be said now, but she SUITED
jackson, and he loved and admired her de
Votedly to her latest day. He had no hap
pier, brighter days than those he spent with
her in their old home in Tennessee, where
In company, they smoked contentedly theil
corn-cob pipes, amid the country comforts
of the Hermitage" Henry Clay married
at % and Daniel Webster at 26. Both mar
riages were full of love and affection.
GRANT AND LINCOLN.
General Grant was taken prisoner BY
Cupid at 26, and owing to his lack of cash
in their early days, he and his wife had a
! pretty hard struggle to keep the wolf from
the door. But though he did not strike his
gait toward fame and fortune until he got
into the army, love survived the cottage
and the tannery and poverty, and his do
mestic life was to all appearance most felic-
| itOus.
As the story of his life is told by his
friends and biographers, Lincoln's marriage
might be set dowu as failure as far as his
| happiness was concerned. At the age of SO
he was united to an ambitious woman, but
one who was not his match in taste, temper.
ament or character. Diseord and unhappi-
ness made his home a sad one, and marked
his brow with carking care. Even when he
had reached the summit OF his ambition, his
lite, with its vast weight of RESPONSIBILITIES
and arduous public duties, was darkened
and saddened, not only by the cloud OF war,
but by domestic infelicities behind the
scenes.
One of the worst things about early mar
rlages for men is the tact that the fancy of a
young man is most frequently caught BY the
pretty, giddy, empty-headed girl, brilliant
in the ballroom, gifted with the CAB and
possessed of the art to fool a man with
tiattery. II, before his mind has grown or
his judgment has seasoned, be mar
ries her, he thus signs the warrant for
his own unhappiness and the tragedy of
miscarriage. Life is full of such
mistakes-men of great powers and noble
achievements united to dull and brainless
women, whom they married in their youth
for beauty, which is now resolved into stu
pidity, and women of intellect and culture,
with soulless clods or selfish Doors, whom
they married in the first rosy flush of loves
young dream as heroes and as kings
POLITICALLY speaking.
A CASE OF HIT Or MISS.
Love-matches, says a: philosopher, are
usually unhappy, and it must be because
they are entered into hastily, unadvisedly
and without proper consideration. If per-
chance they happen to hit they are all right,
but if, as so often occurs, they miss, the re-
suit is disastrous. Early marriages some
times prove to be quite as fortunate and
felieitous as those contracted when time has
given judgment, and common sense tempers
ardent love into careful consideration of
pros and cons, but neither man nor woman
should marry until well assured that the
love of the present will not turn into sad
repentance as the years go by. An early
marriage is full of poetry and romance Just
at first, but words would fail to tell how
prosy it becomes when the fond young lovers
having Settled down" and gone to house
keeping find that things are not what they
seem.
That there is lack in leisure has been dis
covered by many people who never cease to
congratulate themselves on having missed
their first love. eff had married the man
to whom was engaged at Is, should have
been the wretchedest woman alive" said a
lady not a hundred miles of, who has
husband to be proud of, and home full of
comfort when I look at the creature
now, whom l loved with fiery, untamed de-
Votion then, I can never be thankful enough
to my good old father for preventing nv
making fool of myself and wrecking nv
Iife."
The weight Of opinion and experience is
opposed to early marriages. Even those
who have married young, and had good for
tune, do not desire their children to
follow their example. The general
sentiment Of women, as expressed
even by those who have married much
younger with notable success, Is in favor OF
70 years as the proper age for a bride, to
which might be added that from % to 30 is
the most suitable for both men and women,
and the nearer they are to the same age the
better. But after all, the age in marriage
is not of so much Importance as that the con-
tract should be we'll understood and faith
fully and honestly carried out on both sides.
Some men there are who tondly fatter
themselves that at any age they are fit COM
panions for wives however young, but the
precedents and testimony are against any
such assumption. When May weds Decem-
Der she is likely to encounter winter of
discomfort though her count of cash may be
sustained. Such bargain and sale is
leniently looked upon by society, but when
a masculine May weds a feminine De-
eember then the Grundies howl and
the gossips furiously rage together. But
why? One case is not a whit worse than
the other. In fact, coolIy considered. the
chances of happiness are better in the latter
than in the former. Baroness Burdette
Coutts, IN her mellow sixties, welded
young man, and their life together flows
smoothly on without ripple, as far as the
world knows. George Eliot, at go, married
a man 20 years younger, and no husband
could have been more devoted. But the
chances OF winning prize in marriage are
more in favor of equality than in disparity
of age. BESSIE BRAMBLE.