Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-05-18
MERCENARY MATCHES.
Their Misery and FoIly-Marriages OF
Affection-Their Happy Results.
The Greatest Thing in the World VA Les.
son from the Life OF a King-Love Is
Enough-we Lack independence.
[cOpyrighted, ESQ b. De Author. ]

objectionable of all blunders. The
search for truth and the pursuit of hap
piness are in the judgment of most wise
men, from Moses to Socrates; from Lord
Bacon to Emerson, the two most intelli-
gent aims in life. To seek for truth in q
marriage which is in itself mockery and
lie Is evidently useless; to pursue happi-
ness in home which one has sold one IS
freedom to obtain is quite as fruitless a
task. 1t is stupid, it Is ignorant, it is
wicked 10 marry for money.
1t is stupid from so many points OF
view, it is stalking the permanent against
the eYanescent. Money Is an uncertain
commodity, fluotuating value, and q
: man or woman who exchanges his or her
best chances of happiness for that flimsey
slippery coin is exchanging the true for
the false, the real for the counterfeit.
This is always presupposing that happy
marriage is the highest prize which the
life lottery contains. If there be any
cynic who doubts this-why, this argu-
ment is not for him.
The mistake with us is the great i'm
portance which is attached by all classes
in this country to the money question.
it is also unpleasant TO be gorged and
over-fed. Observation-Disclosures is bad /,
but apoplexy and govt are perhaps
worse.
10 preach the doctrine ofIplain living
and high thinking is ut this date thank
ss,tRsk--h probably has always been.
1t istaot a very dreadful thing TO be poor.
Want is grim, but poverty is not the ug-
lest thing know in this world. When
l shall speak of the poor in this short SER
mon l must be understood not to speak
of the poverty stricken men and women
of our great cities, whose misery is our
shame, but of the men and women who
lack tie luxurles of life, add must suffice
themselves with Its necessities.
To go back little. The cause of mer-
cenary marriages'is nearly always ignor-
ance, q false standard of the values of
life. In order that we should guard our
children from this saddest of mistakes we
must beware what false doctrines thev
listen to in their nurseries and at our
tables. The false standards Of life are,
Rlasl too often acquired by our boys and
girls while they are still rolling hoops and
playing marbles.
We sometimes hear of cases of merce-
nary marriages which the friends of the
victim applaud as acts of heroic self
sacrifice. A fair young girl, in order to
save her father from bankruptcy or her
family from poverty, gives her hand to
some rich man, to whom she cannot give
her heart. Society pities her and ap-.
plauds her, and certain portion of it
keeps q sharp lookout for the time when,
the hand being already given, the heart
is given to another. Oh, what pitirul
bankruptcy is this, worse, a thousand
times worse, than the darkest financial
disaster which can overtake the family.
: Or suppose the heart Is never given.
THE WOMAN has the courage and the
power to play, her part in this mock mar
riage through to the bitter end; gives up
the hope of loving, or stfangles 1t: In its
birth, and lives at the side OF her hus-
band an honorable wife, the throne in
her heart always empty, the hunger
never satisfied; what then? Is there any
happiness for husband, wife or child in
the household, think you? None; for the
children of these loveless marriages are
born without love to their dover, ana
without the inheritance of love what is
life worth? This is no romance. Ask
the man whose opinion on these matters
you believe in-your clergyman, who
knows life at its best; your lawyer, who
sees it at its worst; your physician, who
sees it as it Is, on it's finite side-if this is
mot living fact.
] once knew man who had sold him.
self tpssTjoh woman whom he did not
3ovessfFe had been misinformed in re-
gard to the amount of her fortune under
her own control. The marriage did not
please the trustees of the heiress, finan-
cial disasters swept away most OF her
property, and after ten years he found
Himself bound to woman he did not
love, whose property only enabled them
to live in the quietest manner in COR
ner of the great world of fashion to
which they belonged. He had dropDeds
out OF the profession he had studied,
and was e mere cypher in the commun-
ity. l remember no person that 1 have
ever known that inspired me with the
profound pity felt Tor this spent world
ling. shall never forget the bitterness
in his voice as he gave me the following
advice: t'When you marry, marry for
love, for you may get something worth
having. Never marry for money; for
you are likely to get as badly fooled as
other people. -
The grandest thing in the world ls love.
There is no happiness, there is no con-.
tent without love. We are born withititee
precious heritage of the mother loYe and
the father love, but that sacred parental
love does not suffice us; in the order of
nature, it can shield US but for part of
our pilgrimage through this world. In
the springtide of life every human heart
yearns for its lover, as the bird calls ana
cries for its mate. That yearning for
love is your birthright, sell it not for
mess of pottagel
There are some mistaken people who
will say to you, love is not enough, love
will not feed you, nor clothe you, nor
keep a roof over your head. There is no
spur like love, there is no incentive like
it. It brings out the best insn1an and in
woman. It makes the tinid bold,
sparrow will wranEle with the boy who
lqNtsss TO steal her eggs or modest her
Voting. d..
There is no betfertest to love than this
very question. You say you love me; is
your love holiday or Nerkingzday lover
If holiday, it is like the false dawn of the
Orient Omar tells of, and we win look
for better things. It Is suitable to the
ballroom and to the tennis court; it
passes the time OF waiting for the sun.
rise. workIng-day love for me-lafg
that will make both of US stronger TO
work, drawer TO overcome, more patient
to endure. If it is this love that your
lover offers, be not afraid to take him