The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1895-01-30
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
Bul is Reveling In Rest mp to his Mock.

B,ll is Reveling In Rest mp to his Mock.
atlanta Constitution.
The pious poet wrote:
"oh where shall rest be found
Rest for the weary soul?"
The happy-hearted Tom Moore
wrote:
"Sweet vale of fAvocs-how calm could
rest
SIN thy bosom of shade with the friends
love best"
Everybody wants rest-rest from
care and apprehension-restfro from pain
or overwork- for the mind and
the body. Pope says:
Gall the joys of sense
Lie in three words-health, peace and
competence"
It looks like we all have natural
right to these, and it is our fault if we
do not possess and enjoy them. If a
man is prudent he will have health.
If he is kind-hearted he will have
peace. If he is frugal and industrious
he will have a competence. There
are many things that war against these
virtues. A man may inheret disease
or fall in the way Of pestilence. Quar-
relsome nabors may destroy his peace.
Thieves or robbers or fire may take
away his competence, but these are
exceptions. The rule is still the
same. In the great majority Of cases
the man who is not happy has himself
to blame. If it were not so we would
have more pity for the unfortunate.
Unconsciously we harbor the belief
that they brought misery upon them
selves and so we say if they danced
they must pay the fiddler. I was
talking to an old friend from Balti-
more about this and we both agreed
that the most universal cause Of
misery was ill-assorted marriages.
My friend has travelled in Europe for
many years and has been a close OBJ
server of the manners and customs
and domestic life of different natioLs,
and says that wherever the mating Of
young people is done by the parents
the unions are more happy than when
they mate themselves. Among the
peasantry Of Germany and France it
is universal for the parents to make
the match and they do it so judiciously
that in nine cases out of ten it results
in domestic happiness. In no other
country did he find such flial respect
and obedience and such kind, consid-
crate regard between husband and
wife. The domestic life Of the French
and the German peasantry is perfectly
beautiful, said he. How is it in this
country? Of 100 marriages how many
may be called happy, congenial and
we'll advised. Look around among
your readers and count. How many
runaways, how many divorces, how
many grass widows, how many sui
cides, how many drunken or unfaith-
full husbands, how many opium eating
wives, how many who would separate
if it were not for the children or for
fear of talk or scandal? When you
trim them all down to real happy mar
riages it will be like the cynical old
preacher who said that "out of every
hundred members Of the church fifty
Joined on boom or to please their
parents or the preacher; twenty-five
joined to advance their worldly inter
ests-the remainder joined out Of con-
scientious conviction, but of the
whole hundred not more than fifteen
are jealous, consistent working mem
bers. This is about the average of
every Christian church in this coun-
try and this Is per cent. preserves the
church and saves it from disintegra-
tion, just like ten righteous men would
have saved Sodom. They keep alive
its charities and move its missionary
work and set their light upon hill
and so establish good government and
extend civilization. This Is per cent.
of processing Christians are neverthe-
less the hope of sinful world"
Just so there are, perhaps, not more
than Is per cent. of real happy marri-
ages, but there are enough to illumi-
nate the married state and set it up
before mankind as the highest ideal
Of human happiness.
And so Bob and I ruminate and ex-
patiate and speculate on human hap
piness just like we had an idea Of re-
forming mankind and making every
body happy. We would if we could,
but we can't; young people will con-
tinue to be fools and marry in haste
and repent at leisure. Robert McCay
is my old college mate. He and his
wife will spend the winter with us
here and it amuses the young people
to see him and [ get close together on
the veranda and with our feet on the
ballusters and our pipes in our mouths
talk and talk and smile and talk again.
We have already been over our college
days with their hallowed memories.
We have lamented the dead and count
ed the living on our fingers. Robert
20 brothnr IF o1r old ProfnsSor