Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-08-09
the following question; (which kind Of love
10 better to begin married life with, an ardent

10 better to begin married life with, an ardent
or reasoning one?"
unhesitatingly reply, q reasoning one. Why
are tnere so many cooled of married couples
in life together meet with the most ardent pas
sion, OFTEN come to find time drag heavily
When IN each others company, and this in spite
OF common tastes and sympsthes? Simply, in my
opinion, because these two beings have said all
they had to say to each other in the first few
weeks OF their married life: because, like
greedy children, they have eaten up all their
jam, and there is nothing left but bread and but
ter and sometimes not even much butter,
Tor part OF that had gone with the Jam. Ar
DENT love does not reason-it spends in the
honeymoon the joys tina. reasoning love knows
how to spread over a lifetime. marriage Of
ardent lovers is comparable to five-act play.
the author Of which. having put all that ne had
to give US into the first act gives US four others
SO tame and dragging that for very WEAKNESS
we fall asleep or go away. Let him tire US q
little in the first act, while he carefully pre-
sents to us the idea which he means to develop.
but let him interest US more and more until
the tfth act is reached, and we listen to him
with pleasure and quit the theater with regret.
SO with married life. There is no better be-
ginning than
PATIENT AND SYMPATHETIC STUDY OF CHAR
ACrgR.
When the character is understood, then
ornament and perfect it. 1t is greet thing
not to beg lin with famiiarities. which. little by
little. engender, if not contempt at least
certain Indifference in an intercourse in which
the interest should always be kept not only
alive but on the alert \ man must have
enough empire over himself to enable him to
play a multiple role before his wife. He must
know how TO inspire i'll her by turns respect,
gratitude, admiration and finally love; must
make her feel that he is the stronger vessel
but that there Is no pleasure. intellectual or
other, which he does not desire to share with
her. lie must never tire in showing her those
thousand and little courtesies which a
well-bred man pays to any lady. With diplo-
macy. which reasoning love is alone capable of,
the sacred torch may be kept alive through
the longest married life. but Il strikes me that
the success or failure OF the whole undertaking
depends entirely upon the start. The respon-
slbilty that one accepts at the altar is very
tremendous, and can almost understand the
feeling or the Norman peasant who often gets
drunk after the wedding feast, 80 as not to be
responsible for his actions.
FRENCH MARRIAGES.
Why are the bulk of French marriages far
happier than the bulk of English ones? In my
opinion it is simply because according to the
French system man has to win the affection
of his wife after the wedding The French
married couple begin at the first act whereas
the English one has generally got through all
but the firth by TIE time the wedding bells
have stopped ring ne. Then in come the pro-
sale cares Of life and cover everything up Out
so the lights and prestol the glamor is gone,
too, and nothing remains of it all but a sleepy
numbness and a sort of wonder that the comedy
should enjoy such Il world wide reputation
1es. IN matrlmony there is way of eating
your cake. aud yet having it. but you must
not take your bites too large in the beginning.
AS clever wit says: when you are dead,
it is tor long time, but when you are mar
rled, ii lis forever"
A lire broke out few days ago in town in
hungary and the account of it which appeared
IN the newspapers said that the mayor called "a
meeting of the chief inhabitants to consider
whether 1t might not be advisable to pull down
a house or two to prevent the possibility OF the
haines reaching certain quarter of the town
where the buildings were all of wood. This
would read strangely to Americans, who, if
their houses take fire, have but to touch an
electric button OH their own premises and To-!
all the doors at the fire station fly open, a
whip touches the horses and sends them for
ward, the harness comes down on them as they
pass out and N twenty-five seconds the engine,
1uIiy equipped, Is on its way to the scene of the
hre. which has been shown on an indicator,
also connected with the button pressed by the
householder. | saw the whole performance
for myself AT Pittsburg, and it was the nearest
approach to phantasmagOria that expect to
ever to see on this planet.
STAGE RESCUE.
The action Of that Hungarian mayor reminded
me of a scene in an old opera comique called
Lies Mousquetaires dc la refine" When the
curtain rises "a crowd of burly men and buxom
maids are making merry in some ornamental
grounds. News is brought that some one has
fallen into the lake hard by and you naturally
think thai some OF those able bodied men will
rush to the rescue. Not so. The crowd seems
very distressed to hear OF the accident but no
one budges. What happens is this: They all
begin TO sing at the top of their voices. Let us
fly, let us fly, let us fly to his help" In their
shrillest notes the sopranos scream, LET us
hy;' IN sonorous lower notes the baritones
shout, Let us fly Let us fyr' pipe the
tonors; Let us hy," respond the contraltos
Tho trombone booms out three notes which
clearly indicate his intention to be Of the res
cue party, and the flute chirrups a mellow
echo of the same sentiment Then they all
join in together again. When the poor fellow
in the lake has had plenty of time to drown
they stop singing and presumably go to his re-
lief MAxO'RELI.