Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-13
Bessie Bramble Discovers q Preacher
Who Just Suits Her.
HE GIVES HER A CHANCE TO ARGUE.
Woman's Progress Straw Threshed Over
Again With q Vengeance.
SIDE LIGHTS ON MATRIMONIAL WOE
WRITTEN FOR THE prsPArcH.I

oeSl IN romance TO sucn an extent tnat Iney
convey false ideas of life and too exalted
views of happiness Experience is dear
school, but fools will learn in no other" is
true with regard to most of the world, and
especially as to women. A woman usually
gives more play to her imagination than a
man. She pictures pleasure as something
that is surely to be grasped when the demi-
god set apart by high heaven for her souls
mate comes along and with her enters the
bonds of matrimony.
In the novels, that is the end of trouble
and the beginning of bliss ALI through
the exciting scenes are crosses, vicissitudes,
threatening tragedies, Misunderstanding,
and troubles of all sorts and sizes. If cruel
parents do not frown and threaten, and
make the course of love as rough as possi-
BILE, false friends, mean rivals, heavy vii
lains can always be counted upon to inter-
fere and cut up rough, and make things
look dark for awhile. But in the end the
obstacles have all been surmounted, the op-
posing circumstances have all been
smoothed out, the cruel father gives way,
the treacherous rival is removed, the ma
neuvering mother is beaten at her own game,
and the lovers enter upon marriage as q
haven of bliss to be happy forevermore.
Tho Ideal Is Set Too High.
But then comes the dissolution of the
ideal. After the pleasure of the courtship,
the excitement of the wedding has passed
and the lovers have settled down to the re-
alities Of life, they will likely agree with
Pliny when he says: "No mortal is happy,
for even if there is no other cause for dis
content there is at least the fear of possible
misfortune"
There would be less disappointment and
less of the bitterness of shattered hopes
perhaps if men and women knew a little
more of philosophy and were able to learn
something from the experience of others. The
troubles of life come to each and to all
in some shape or other, and they cannot be
lodged. Those blessed with fortune, love
and friends have their trials as well as those
less fortunate. A little of the doctrine of
Epicurus would not be bad thing to teach
and preach to the people of to-day. He
pleasure was the chief good in life, but that
was to be obtained only by simplicity in
living, morality, temperance and the exer-
else Of the virtues. He taught his scholars
that to enjoy all there was in life required
cultivation of calm repose, cheerfulness
of mind, and health of body. His diet and
that of his followers was bread and water,
with an occasional bit Of cheese and glass
of wine to celebrate and emphasize high
holidays and fast days. What load of care
and worry would be taken out of the world
by the adoption of such simple living, to
say nothing of the banishment Of the pains
of indigestion caused by rich food and over
eatingl Prudence was his prime virtue,
temperance in all things his rule of life, q
quiet mind and peace with all men ruling
desire.
Hot Shot for Poor Preacher.
In one of his sermons for Lent, clergy
man makes bold to say that, for all the
reckless extravaganza, the rage for wealth,
the lack of serious views, the degradation
of marriage made SO plainly manifest in
this age, women are to be held responsible.
He declares they are lowering themselves
to the baser level of men. They are 'tab-
dicating their thrones and going down into
the ring, acting unseemly parts, and laying
their honor in the dust" The chief sin of
women at present-married women of
course-is the habit of gadding-
the home. The mothers in fashionable life
are full of a desire to be conspicuous. They
train their daughters to be debutantes and
to achieve success in society by marriage.
They hold markets for them and teach them
the art of leading vain and empty life.
The reverend brother says he doesn't
want to throw stones at women-that men
are bad enough, heaven knows-their sins
are rank, their follies without number.
But after this admission, he proceeds to
throw stones with vengeance. After
piling reproaches upon the fashionable
mothers and their heartless daughters, he
goes for those he calls the "humbler
classes" These he says are full of o fatal
and are straining every nerve and
power of mind to help their children to q
higher social rank than that they were born
TO- Poor fond mothers whose hopes are
they are abused for the endeavor to make
happiness tangible for those they lovel
tMy daughter shall never drudge and slave
IS I have done if L can help it, =" is their
thought, never dreaming that, according to
he reverend brother, they are thus inspir-
ng hopes that can only end in bitterness.
The Old Fashioned Sort Of Women.
The dear brother has the old-fashioned
patient Griselda sort Of wife stuck in his
mind. He holds by the old ideals and
lespises the march of progress. He bankers
Ifter the old style that has gone out He is
# the sort of men who hung on to wigs and !
hoe buckles and ruffled shirts when fashion |
lad given them the 60 by. But he should |
NOW that eighteenth century girls and
wives have given place to their successors |
# tine nineteenth. His great regret is that |
he women of to-day are not like their grand |
nothera. We may pause here and tell |
lim they never will be.
But oh, how he does 60 for the women Of |
ociety. He throws stones at them with |
What would seem to be the courage of |
desperation. They marry for an estab-
ishment, for freedom, to do as they
please, for anything but the proper
urns out to be unfortunate they simply get |
divorce and 90 on as before. This he
GEMS one of the darkest evils of the times,
nd his great horror is, that disregarding it,
eople desire to CAD in the sunshine, to for
ct the dark side of life. and to enjoy all
here is going. He evidently takes no stock
q the philosophy of Epicurus
It Is somewhat hard to know what the
ear brother wants to get at in the way of
emedy for this shocking state of affairs.
Ie seems to want to jam women back into
be old grooves at all bazardA To them he
nputes the march Of socialism and COM
lunism, the growth of nihilism and the or
Of dynamite fendS If such
.lks we're not the fashion it would seem as
he were terribly alarmed at the idea of
oman's advancement. 1t is comfort to
ssure him that nothing dreadful is going to
appen. The home is not in jeopardy.
Women Have Better Chances Than Mon.
It seems to be a grievance to the reverend
rother that "women with much more time
, read and study are actually gaining on
en." Thrown together, he tells us, that 1t
often found that the sisters know more
IAN the men, they are more cultivated, bet