Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1892-10-21

are various K1nuS
fl ~ of unhappy marriages
Css--~Ss} which one notices and
quietly studies, although their record
may not get into the newspapers or be
generally understood in society.
The story of the boy and the fox is
very trite, but like most trite things it
has been so often repeated because it is
so very true, and nobody has discovered
better way of clothing truth which
everybody sooner or later feels the need
of expressing. But | think everybody
will concede that hiding the fox rather
increases than lessons the sharpness of
his gnawing, and that the smiles with
which the sufferer folds the rich robe
above the hidden enemy are more the
grimace Of anguish than the expression
Of milth and ease.
And | suppose there is no gnawing
sorrow and modification which women
are more prone to try to keep concealed
and to cover with lying smiles and pre-
lenses than an ul-lappy marriage. There
is something so humiliating to woman
/ in the confession that she has given all
and received nothing; that she has com
| placently delivered herself over, bound
! hand and foot, to a master incapable of
approaching the value of his slave; that
she has bartered her womanhood for a
handful of fairy gold, changing with the
| fist calm roy of daylight to dried leaves
and crumbling twigs. There are various
kinds of these unfor- unate and humili-
ating marriages, but none perhaps
| h,,. 70 l.; IL,
and self respecting women than the
marriage Ct the china vase and the
brazen pot, which, as you will remem-
Der, Asop tells us undertook to float
down the stream in company.
Again | must confess the fable is so
well known that you may call it trite,
and yet so very, very true to life that we
cannot afford to forget it. Do we not
constantly see it illustrated all about us?
Have we perchance had some experience
that indorses it? For this companion-
ship in a limited degree is possible in
other relations of life than marriage, but
with this difference-that in almost any
other relation escape is possible; friend
ships and inti,nacies may be quietly
dropped; the daughter or sister who
cannot live with her father or brother
may find another home and no one ask
why, but the wife or the husband is
bound by self chosen ties not to be rent
without public scandal and severe humil-
iation.
You may say, if the companionship is
self chosen, only self is to blame for its
incompatibility Why did the china
vase consent to the proposed voyagei
Why did it not foresee the disastrous
termination of such an undertaking:
ANY fool might know that at the first
commotion the brass vessel must shatter
the china one, and fools must suffer for
their folly without expecting sympathy
So SAYS the world and shrugs its shout
ders, well satisfied with its own shrewd
common sense, as it calls it. But then
the world is itself the brazen vase, and
its dictim is exactly what might be ex
pected.
Of course there is some truth in what
it says. notice that disagreeable things
generally do have some truth about
them The china vase ought certainly
to have been wiser, but there are ex
cuses to be made for her. In the frs
place, everybody is prone to estimate
the world from the point of their OWL
identity. 1t is not possible for china
vase to evolve the idea of bronze POI
from its own inner consciousness; i
must learn it from experience-a bittel
experience.
And another very valid excuse for the
poor bit of china is that brass does no
always show its hard and cruel nature
1t may be as the brass of Benares, Gu
riously wrought and ornamented; it may
be inlaid with all sorts of precious metals
and stones; it may be hammered ant
filagreed and nodded into most attract
i've shapes and decorations; it may b,
ing upon it only sees the reflection o.
ones own face and form and exclaims
"Oh here have found my very counter
part Now am sure of sympathy ant
comprehension" Yes, brass is very
deceptive metal, not being indeed tru,
metal at all, but only "a Fictitious com
pound Of copper and zinc, and no won
der poor, simple china vases are de
ceived-self deceived, if you will, bu
nevertheless innocently misled into ;
great mistake.
suppose there is something to be sale
on the side of the brazen pot also.
also judges from its own standpoint
and cannot perhaps really know or eve
learn the genuine fragility and liabili!.
to destruction Of its china companion.
: 1t is acknowledged that man, to b.
a worthy specimen of his sex, must hav,
a good deal of the feminine ..ature Ia
tent beneath his stronger attributes, ant
some men fail n this requisite alto
gether, while srme others have TIN
wrong kind Of feminine qualities, whicl