Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1895-03-21

! feed men and women, by the hearth
! stone of the family which is the corner
| stone of the state, and in the name of
that God who hath set up that institu-
| ton and who hath made the breaking
! Of the marital oath the most appalling
of all perjuries, I implore the congress
| of the United States to make some
righteous, uniform law for all the states
and from ocean to ocean, on this sub
| ject of marriage and divorce.
Let me say to the hundreds of young
| people in this house this afternoon, be-
| fore you give your heart and hand in
| holy alliance, use all caution; inquire
outside as to habits, explore the dispo-
sition, scrutinize the taste, question the
! ancestry, and find out the ambitions.
| Do not take the heroes and the herones
! of cheap novels for a model. Do not
put your lifetime happiness in the keep
ing of a man who has reputation for
being a little loose in morals or in the
keeping of a woman who dresses fast
Remember that while good looks are a
kindly gift of God, wrinkles or accident
may despoil them. Remember that
Byron was no more celebrated for his
beauty than for his depravity. Re-
more splendid that his habits were des-
plea BILE Hear it, hear it! The only
foundation for happy marriage that has
ever been or ever will be is good char
acter.
Ask God whom you shall marry, if you
marry at all. A union formed in prayer
will be a happy union, though sickness
pale the cheek, and poverty empty the
graves, and all the path of life be
strewn with thorns, from the marriage
altar with it's wedding march and orange
blossoms clear on down to the last fare
well at that gate where Isaac and Re-
becca, Abraham and Sarah, Adam and
Eve, parted.
And let me say to you who are in this
relation, if you make one man or woman
happy you have not lived in vain
Christ says that what he is to the
church you ought to be to each other:
and if sometimes through difference of
opinion or difference of disposition, you
make up your mind that your marriage
was a mistake, patiently bear and for
bear, remembering that life at the long
est is short and that for those who have
been badly mated in this world death
will give quick and immediate bill of di-
vOrcement written in letters of green
grass on quiet graves. And perhaps,
my brother, my sister-perhaps you
may appreciate each other better in
heaven than you have appreciated each
other on earth.
In the Farm Ballads" our American
poet puts into the lips of a repentant
husband, after a life of married per-
these suggestive words:
And when she dies L wish that she
would be laid by me,
And lying together in silence, perhaps
we will agree,
And If ever we meet in heaven, I would
not think it queer
If we loved each other better because
we quarreled here
And let me say to those of you who
are in happy married union, avoid first
quarrels; have no unexplained CORE
spOndence with former admirers; cult
Vate no suspicious; in moment of bad
temper do not rush out and tell the
neighbors; do not let any of those CAD
abouts of society unload in your house
their baggage of CAB and tittle-tattle;
do not stand on your rights; learn how
to apologize; do not be SO proud, or so
or so devilish that you will
not make up. Remember that the worst
domestic miSfOrtuneS and most scandal
GUS divorce cases started from little in
felicities. The whole piled-up train of
ten rail cars teleScOped and smashed at
the foot of an embankment one hundred
feet down came to that catastrophe, by
getting two or three inches off the
track. Some of the greatest domestic
and the Understanding
divorce cases have started from little
MISUNDERSTANDING that were allowed to
go on and go on until home, and re-
speciality, and religion, and immortal
soul went down in the crash, crash!
And, fellow citizens as we'll as fellow
Christians, let us have a Divine rage
against anything that wars on the mar
rage state. Blessed institution! In
stead of two arms to fight the battles
of life, four Instead of two eyes to
scrutinize the path of life, four. In
stead of two shoulders to lift the burden
or life, four. Twice the energy, twice
the courage, twice the holy ambition,
twice the probability of worldly success,
twice the prospects of heaven. Into the
bower God fetCheS two
souls. Outside that bower room for all
and all chickering's, and all
but inside the bower
there is room for only one guest-the
angel of love. Let that angel stand at
the floral doorway of this Edenic bower
with drawn sword to hew down the
worst foe of that bower-easy divorce.
And for every paradise lost may there
be a paradise regained. And after we
quit our home here may we have a
brighter home in heaven, at the win
dows of which this moment are famil-
lar faces watching for our arrival and
why so long we tarry.