The morning call., 1894-03-02

replied: $50 many people have false
notions OF marriage itself. They seem Il
regard it merely as civil contract, and
enter into 1t from the most unworthy mo-
tives-wealth. positi n. romance. a hun
bred reasons rather than true love-"
This sounded sweeping, because poets
who sing most of love are generally de-
scrbed as romantic" and poets are sup
posed TO know more than all the rest of the
world put together about leve.
When the Rev. j. @. A. Henry was
asked to distinguish between love am
romance. however, he declared emphati-
cally: There is an immense difference be.
tween the two. 1t Is the romance Of the
sensational novel and of the sen sational
drama to which l refer, and this contri-
butes its part 10 the false notions of the
marriage relation.
I'm the class of play and novel of which
| speak, all diversity of character or of
heroine only have one object in life-they
love-and finally marry and live happily
ever afterward. Now, / hold that true
love is not blind, in fact, it is very open
eyed, and we should take into account a
number Of things. such as temperament
and social position. The greater affinity
there Is between two people. the more
ideal their married lie will be-"
Having demolished the cheap romance
OF the dime novel and the highly colored
melodrama. the Rev. Mr.. Henry gave an
other and very practical reason for the de-
cline of marriage. 1T is expensive to get
married-almost as expensive as to die
particularly here in America where we
like big things-big weddings and big do
nestle display. On the other hand, there
has probably never been time In the his
tory of the world when the earning of a
livelihood was so precarious. The fact
that a man has kept his position nine or
ten years is absolutely no guarantee that
be will not be dismissed tomorrow.
"The pleasures and indulgences of mod
erB life are so exceedingly expensive that
a young man of respectable family cannot
hope to marry and take his wonted place
in society. The fact is that both parties
should consider what they are willing to
sacrifice. They should know whether
they love one another well enough TO give
up the theater. the ballroom and the race
course, for they cannot marry upon $50 10
$50 month and have these pleasures, and
the average young man is in receipt of a
small salary.
MANY people seem to be kept from
marriage by supreme selfshness and
greed for gain. and it is an historic fact
that as culture becomes general, marriage
is always unpopular. 1t was SO in Greece
in the age of Pericles. and in Rome when
Augustus was Emperor. An age of lux
ury is always an age of selishness, and
one of the main features of our time is
independence and haughtiness between
the sexes.
"You see. the last twenty-five years
have opened up more Industrial avenues
10 women han all the rest of the worlds
history put together. They have now be-
come independent of men.
Then, there are clubs and ladies' socie-
ties" the speaker paused express
lively, as though clubdom were one of the
greatest drawbacks to what was once
called getting settled in life."
''Clubs have a most deleterious influence
upon men. It is true that they satisfy
some of the deep cravings for comrade-
ship that exist in every soul, but they are
substitutes for the home. Why, there is
many a man who scarcely knows his own
children, so welded is he to the club. and
many fathers have the vaguest notions of
the m oral state OF their sons. or of the lit
erature which comes iato their homes.'
In reply to the question as to whether
he considered clubs the greatest cause of
the decline of marriage, Mr.. Henry
said with earnest conviction that he con-
sidered the spread of socialistie notions
had done more than anything else to up-
dermine the home. 81 cannot Imagine
anything more degrading than the teach
ings of socialists upon the marriage cues
tlon," he added, selecting some sheets OF
fooiscap from among the papers that lay
on his study table, and showing the re.
porter number of extracts that he had
made from acknowledged authorities on
the subject
Here is John Stuart Mill, who sneers
at New England home life. by saying that
the whole of one sex Is devoted to dollar,
hunting. and the whole of the other to the
breeding Of dollar-hunters'. Another so.
ciaIistlc writer calls marriage a partner.
ship contract ana Robert Owen de.
nounced it as 'one of the i've curses of so