The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1894-03-03
Fhe obligations OF Marriage.

!
driven by motor. may serve to purify it.
The Obligations of Marriage.
! Marriage has so many sides that the
more one considers it, the more is one
struck with its multiplicity of aspects and
relations. The great modern misfortune,
however, is the want of consideration OF
this matter; for, under the careless and
glancing scrutiny too often bestowed upon
it, marriage appears to be very simple
and, more or less, inconsequential thing,
whereas its consequences remain and con-
tinue till the end of time. In the care
less survey of the greatest and most im-
portant step human being can take, only
one side presents itself, and that is the
romantic view. 1t represents itself to the
young and ardent as a state of perennial
bliss, and its responsibilities appear but
hazy prospects in general roseate cloud.
Of course, the moral and spiritual sides
of marriage are the most important to the
individual and to the race. but there is
what may be called the practical side
which is the least of all regarded. Mar
riage, besides its sacred obligations, is con
tract in which each party agrees to dis
charge certain obligations, and these obli-
cations are as legally and as morally bind
ing as the terms of other contracts made be-
fore the law The man solemnly engages to
furnish and support the home, and the
woman as sOlemnly pledges herself to take
charge of its comfort and happiness. These
are not light obligations, and The fact that
they are so lightly assumed in such ma
jority Of cases'is one principal reason why
so many marriages are failures and so
many homes are unhappy. Neither man
nor woman can rush into a state requir-
ing so much knowledge, and thought and
preparation, without developing a pitiful
inadequacy to meet its duties, and thereby
creating domestic confusion, just as results
when one undertakes TO run an ordinary
business without capital, experience, or
knowledge of its conditions.
In spite of the romance surrounding it,
marriage must have a business administra-
ton, Or it will be ii failure in all its phases
The partners of the matrimonial firm must
be actuated by a sense of honor towards
each other, and faithful discharge of
mutual duties, or the firm will become
bankrupt not onl y in business way, but
in the far more important matters of love
and happiness. The young man who enters
the married state ought to be willing and
able to maintain home of his own, to fit
himself to earn its support, to be capable
of sacrifice and exertion, and to shift fer
no cause, save the exceptional and nexor-
able one of necessity, its burdens on other
shoulders. He is bound in conscience. in
honor and by virtue of his manhood, not
to assume obligations when he has no pros
pect of fulfilling them, for by so doing he
commits serious wrong against his family,
society and himself. Until Il young man
has good prospects of being able to support
a family, he has no moral or civil right to
marry, and to rush headong into matri-
mony ON nothing a year is as criminal as it
is foolish.
On the other hand, it is on the woman
the wife and mother-that the making of
the home depends, and she cannot, either
in honor or conscience, evade the obliga-
tions she voluntarily assumes. She engages
to supply its comforts and happiness, and,
in the case Of the average American married
woman, this involves degree, varying
with individual circumstances, of manual
labor and domestic science A woman is
bound by her contract to fit herself for the
due performance of these duties, and if
she, too, rushes into marriage as she would
accept an engagement at a ball, with no
knowledge of its duties and responsibilities,
she is in the dishonorable condition of one
who promises to give what she does not
possess, and commits grave offence against
the welfare of society, which depends on the
soEdity of marriage. The two are generally
considered opposites. twill be found practi-
cally that welded romance wears much
better when on business basis.