The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-08-08

ness and perplexity.
Two persons marry. Perhaps they are
in the first flush of youth, with all sorts
of rose colored ideals confidently set be-
fore their eyes, or perhaps they are older,
and having already known sorrow and
disappointment and disillusionment
fancy they have at last found COM
panion whose sympathy and comrade-
ship are to make up for great deal of
what is forever lost. In either case the
contract, at least on the woman's part,
is made with full intention of fulfilling
its obligations. She repeats her vow of
constancy for better, for worse, for
richer, for poorer, in sickness and health,
till death do us part" with sense Of
joyful security and certainty. The drift
ing is over, the loneliness and forlornness
past. Never, never again will she stand
i'll the twilight murmuring that thread
bare yet ever new lament:
My bark's upon q darkling sea,
And no one stands beside me,
And no ono minds the helm for me,
And no one cares to guide me.
And the man, if he be true and hon.
orable man. as he turns from the altar
tells himself that in this hour new life
must begin for him-the old follies and
vices must be forswOrn, tho old COM
panions forgotten, the old crooked ways
be made straight and clean. He has
promised to Glove, cherish and protect"
this woman land forsaking all others
keep himself only INTO her so long as
both shall live"-solemn words and a
large promise but he means it all-at
least we will hope most bridcgrooms do.
They go home, and life begins, and for
some, perhaps one-half of those welded
couples, the early promise and the solemn
vows become realities-at least, we will
say, approximate realities-and time,
the effacer and the reconciler smooths
over the shortcomings and burics the
memory of those lofty ideals and brings
certain cynical philosophy into the life
and SO makes of it not what was expect
ed, not what was planned, but some
thing tolerable and moderately satisfac-
tory-at least as good as the lives of other
people around about, and-ycs, we'll
enough, let lis say.
Out of tins great mass of mankind
there are IL few, Il very few, married
couples who do really fulfill their ideals
and find life just what they had hoped,
just what they had planned. They are
fully satisfied and so about the world
gloating over their own happiness and
Haunting it III the faces of other people
i'll IL fashion that would be exasperating
if it were not SO pathetic.
Now, this class of persons look upon
divorce as near akin to murder or sacri-
lcge or madness. They cannot i'll the
least understand how anybody once adj
mitted to the paradise of matrimonv
could ever wish to leave it or to drive
their other self out of its dear Enclosure.
They speak with bated breath or with
uplifted eyebrows and whispers of holy
horror and disInay as they wonder what
strange sort of beings those may be. and
finally giving up the gloomy conuntlrum
turn with Il sigh of relief to throw them
selves into each others arms and '.thank
with brief thanksgiving whatever pow
ers may be" that they are not like other
men.
Returning to that great class of mar
ried people who just get Oh after il fash
ion. with good deal of bickcring and IL
good many spoken or unspoken doubts
as To whether marriage is worth while
or not, we find them also opposed Ia lii
vorce, but from u different standpoint
than the little clique of paradisians Just
described. They thoroughly recognize
why some people wish to be divorced.
They arc more or less frankly conscious
OF occasionally wishing to be so them
selves, but they have never said so aloud,
and the bitterness of their opposition to
this mode of relief is that they do not
care to see others rid themselves of n
burden which they have made up their
minds to bear. 1t is just the dog in the
manager over again. Il can't eat this
clover, and so you shan't," says the dog
to the OK, and sometimes the OK is scared
away and gives up his proposed ban
quet.
IF can get along with Tom, l i'm
aginc you can with Dick, and so can You
with Harry" says one of their philoso-
piers to her sisters who are Whispering
about divorce, and then, warming with
her topic, she reads them Il lecture upon
the sinfulness and the shalnefulness and
the general depravity of the woman who
will see her name dragged through
divorce court" and the duty of every
wife to submit with patience and sweet
ness to her marriage lot, whatever it
may turn out to be, and if she can't re-
form her husband 20 win him over by
the exhibition of her own virtues until
he falls in love with goodness and for
sakes vice, and "all goes happy ever
after
Yes. these discontinued and yet obsti-
nately sta ying' wives are the bittcrest
nd q