Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-09-01
MEN AND MARRIAGE,
An English Bachelor Has Something
to Say ON the Subject.

HSnSh1hn bAchetOr HIS sonnet hing
to Say ON the Subject.
Promising that, bachelor though we be,
We are quite alive to the value of a good
wife, appreciating to the full the heaven
which such a one can make of home and
admitting that by nature there is a void In
Ilan's heart which can only be adequately
nlled by the advent of that mysterious
She We nevertheless confidently assert
that the fair sex of the middle and upper
classes are themselves very largely respon-
sible for any present falling off in the wor-
ship Of Hymen. Thus writes a bachelor in
the Westminster Review and continues:
The irrevocable step is ore not lightly to
be taken by those who would deserve mat
rimorial happiness, and yet how many men
and maidens change their condition without
any prior inquiry into mutual antecedSnts-
although they would not purchase a blood
horse, which they Gould get off their hands
without much trouble. without scrutinizing
closely the pedisree-with scarcely a thought
Tor the future, only. in too many instances,
thenceforth to wander uneasiiy through
iabyrirthian mazes in search of heart s-ease
and content!
Sensible. well brought-up girls, domesti-
CT ted. of good ply sique. and in every way
calculated to become true helpmates, though
unfortunately in a decidedly minority in
the girl-world of today, are by no means
altogether unknown, and careful intelligent
research will discover quite a sufficient
choice for would-be benedicts But such
jewels, although they may be appreciated to
certain extent by most, are too good for
the average run of men, and If the seeker
after wife be not a Bayard in miniature
he had better avoid the probability of a re-
fusal. and seek his divinity among those
who will not decline to accept him with his
rot too scrrpulously manly habits
Though married life is not without its
"a ha nf flra b,o &c,
of too pitifui and lonely a character for him
not to be very willing to escape from it by
entering the matrimonial moose, could he
only depend on some maiden to whom his
heart flies out proving a real helpmate
But. unfortunately, he has no guarantee
that such will be the case. The playfulness
which charmed before marriage sometimes
develops into temper after the knot which
no efforts of the teeth can unloose, has been
tied fast by the tongue-having merely been
assumed for the moment as part and parcel
OF the equipment requisite for the capture of
the fish matrmonial-while in other cases.
rost-nuptial experience demonstrates that
frugality and the proper rule of a house
hold are absent virtues. Thus the presence
OF many snowy limitations of the genuine
article renders the task of the Searcher
perseverance will usually meet with it's
due reward To deserve a wife of worth
however, the would-be benedict must choose
his divinity for what she Is, not for what
she appears to be.
There would be some prospect of an i'm
provement In succeeding generations, physi-
cally, mentally and morally, If the majority
of right-thinntng men (and women, for that
part, tool contemplating marriage avoided
as a pestilence the multifarious crew of
fast, Drazen-faced representatives of the
opposite who. If appearances go for any,
thing, have lost all power to appreciate
wholesome home life. Their talk is of the
sewage Of life. and among them even
women, who ought to be examples of better
things. listen without a blush to double en-
tendres, and seem to take positive pleas
ure in the discussion of subjects of more
than doubtful character. Outwardly, not
few of these women may be fair TO look up
on, though al too frequently close investi-
cation goes to prove that all is simply an
other version of the old tale regarding the
whitej outside Of the charnel house. But
another, and a vastly different type of
womanhood call forth the praises even of
the cynic. Regard with feelings akin to
those with which you welcome the coming
of spring ia the sight of the first snowdrop
lin which pleasure and admiration blend
into something near akin to veneration) any
girl in whom maidenly modesty and I'M
sullied purity ere fifty framed In good
physique, and fair modicum of that self
sacrificing disposition which has the effect
of causing her to think twice before speak
irg once. lest in so doing something might
rnwittngly be said that would hurt the
feelings of some other person.