Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1893-12-28

day commerce for which you bitterly
wish you could exchange it. So no soon
er does the trusting and loving neophyte
become absolutely sure that here at last
she has discovered the one perfect man
upon God 8 earth than the bubble bursts,
a little tinkling explosion like a falry's
laugh, little spatter of cold water in a
startled face, and the poor child discov-
ers that this man is very like other men,
that he is capable of being cross, that
he is more or less selfish, that he does
not care to spend every hour of his day
in her society, that he has other inter-
ests, other friends, other correspondents
whom he does not choose to abandon;
that he cannot say he never in his life
looked at any other woman with salts
faction, or if he does say so is probably
lying; that he is somewhat dull of ap-
prehension, or is foolishly sentimental,
or is an inyeterate smoker, or likes
cards, or takes a glass too much at
times, or has some other or half dozen
other of the imperfections fesh-that
is to say, masculine fesh-is heir to.
Then comes the time when she gives
that general invitation to the Errlnni
of whichI spoke just now-then comes
/ the time when she learns the lesson that
love has torment and never again for
gets it.
Nor must we be so unjust as to for
| get that the pronouns in the above state
ment may be reversed, and instead of
she you may read he and readily imag-
inc the discoveries he may make to
prove that the goddess of his love, the
lone fair, impossible she, :" whom he,
incredulous OF such wonderful fortune,
has made his own, turns out Just wo-
man, no better, no worse, than the aver
age and no greater prize than several
hundred others of her contemporaries.
Then, if the man and woman are mar
ried-that is to say, if they are attached
in the sense in which yoke Of oxen
are attached to each other-the process
of semidetachment begins, and, accord
ing to the nature and the circumstances
Of the yoke mates, becomes an interne-
cine, intermural warfare with alterna-
tions Of such happiness as is possible
where content has fed.
If this state of things goes from bad
to worse, as it sometimes does, it be-
comes the life Of two galley slaves,
manacled together and hating each 9TH
er with a hatred impossible to those
who are at liberty.
When things have arrived at this
point, just one hope of salvation from
utter shipwreck remains-thoae who
once were attached and then seniat-
tached and then senidetached must call
upon the law to break the chain it has
riveted upon their only too willing
wrists, and to pronounce them detached
absolutely and without peradventure,
each to carry a SCARED and wounded
member through life, never again to be
as they were before they submitted to
the bonds they now have broken, and
yet both Of them thankful to have es-
capped even by the skin of the teeth. "
To be perfectly attached, then, is to
be perfectly happy, but with happi-
ness transitory and mocking as the
beauty of a soap bubble. To be semi
attached is to be tossed and torn with
perplexities and annoyances innnmera-
Bile. To be semidetached is to live
life of wrangling. rccrimination, sus-
picion, jealousy and heartburn-in its
ultimate stagea life Of such misery and
hatred that death or the laws harsh
cleaver must he summoned to break the
semichain. To be detached is to drag
around the scars of the chain, to live
life Of bitter memories and yet more
bitter regrets, to be forever murmur-
ing '' 1t might have beenl 1t might have
beenr' And so finally we come to the
only position left possible for poor, fool
ish, credulous, loving humanity-the
condition of the unattached.
To be unattached is, as said before,
entirely different from being disattach-
ed, which is the same thing as being
detached. But the unattached is one
upon whom the glamour and the thrall-
dom of love have never passed, The un-
attached person is one who has never
blown soap bubble, and, what is more,
does not want to blow one-a person
SO cold by nature or so sensible by con-
viction that he sees through the soap
bubble business, SO to speak. and de-
clines taking any stock in it.
YES, pretty enoughr' he growls,
looking out Of the corners of his eyes at
the floating, glittering glory, dancing on
the summer breeze. But look therer'
And he points to the empty spot where
it has been and walks away into the
shade and the loneliness of his own lit
tie nook.
Or, if it is not he, but she, perhaps she
remains unattached in quite another
fashion. She sees the bubbles, that they
are fair and desirable for moments
amusement, and she is shrewd enough
to see that they are frail as fair, and fit
only for the moments amusement.
She by no means declines to share in
the sport, but in fact eagerly tries to
excel in it. She blows the biggest bub-
Bile of all, and she tosses it most gayly
into the sunshine, and She watches it
with all her eyes SO long as it lasts. and
Gnen 1t bursts she ii neither disappoint-
ed nor grieved, but llithely turns and
blows another as big, as bright, rs airy
and as transiiory She neither deceives
herself nor does she wish to deceive
any one else If some playmate will
amuse himself with her at the pretty
sport, she welcomes him and takes it for
granted that he understands the nature
of soap bubbles as well ms she do S. If
not, it is his own fault-ha shonll have
learned the rules Of the game
Doyou ask if | mean that 6t is a good
thing to be coquctte and play at love.
with no serious meaning III the play?
No; no, indeed But Il coquette is
widely different from my ideal unat-
tached lassie The coquette finds her
amusement in pretending that the soap
bubbles she watts before the eyes of her
victims are solid and true and pnrma-
nent-round globes whose surface is all
mapped off in realms Of paradise, and
fortunate isles and fountains of perpet-
ual youth and gardens Of golden apples.
She knows better herself Of course,
but she is sorceress and has the power
of making those who come under her
spell believe what she will have them,
and the more fully they believe the more
amusement she finds in the sport. After
awhile the bubble bursts and the spell
is lifted. Then comes the litter end for
the victim, and for the yictinlizer the
very cream of the jolze-that is, if she
is real and absolutely heartless CO.
nuetfe hr1t if she is NOT there is Der-