The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-03-29
SUBSCRIPTION: S1.OO Per Year.

4 ~
man by twenty-five years of age, or
thirty years of age, has the habit of
/ strong drink fixed on him, he is as
certainly bound for drunkard's grave
as that a train starting out from
Grand Central depot at eight o'clock
| tomorrow morning is bound for AL
bany. The train may not reach Albany,
for it may be thrown from the track.
The young man may not reach d
drunkard's grave, for something may
throw him off the iron track of evil
habit; but the probability is that the
train that starts tomorrow morning
at eight o'clock for Albany will get
there, and the probability is that the
young man who has the habit of strong
drink fixed on him before twenty-five
or thirty years of age viii arrive at n
drunkard's grave. She knows he
| drinks, although he tries to hide it by
chewing cloves. Everybody knows
and friends warn. She will marry
him; she viii reform him.
If she is unsuccessful in the expert
ment, why then the divorce law will
emancipate her, because habituaE
drunkenness is cause for divorce in
Indiana, Kentucky, Florida, Connecti-
cut, and nearly all the states. So the
poor thing goes to the altar of sacrifice.
If you will show me the poverty-struclS
streets in any city, will show you the
homes of the women who married men
to reform them. In one case out of
ten thousand it may be successful ex-
pertinent. never saw the successful
experiment. But have a rigorous di-
vorce law, and that woman will say:
"If / am affianced to that man, it is
for life."
BY the wreck of ten thousand homes,
by the holocaust of ten thousand sacri-
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 the family
institution and who hath made the
marital oath the most appalling of all
perjuries, 1 implore the congress of
the United States to make some
righteous, uniform law for all the
states and from ocean to ocean, on this
subject of marriage and divorce.
Ask God whom you shall marry, ii
you marry at all. A union formed in
prayer will be happy union, and
though sickness pale the cheek, and
poverty empty the bread tray, and
death open the small graves, and all
the path of life be strewn with thorns,
from the marriage altar with its
wedding march and orange blossoms
clear down to the last farewell at that
gate where Isaac and Rebecca, Abra-
ham and Sarah, Adam and Eve, parted.
Let me say to 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 dis
position, scrutinize the taste, question
the ancestry, and find out the ambh
tions Do not take the heroes and
the heroines of cheap novels for
a model Do not put your life
time happiness in the keeping of q
man who has reputation of being lit
tie loose in morals, or in the keeping of
a woman who dresses fast. Remember
that while good looks are kindly gift
of God, wrinkles or accident may de-
spoil them. Remember that Byron
was no more celebrated for his beauty
than for his depravity Remember
that AbSalom's hair was not mora
splendid that his habits were dcspica
BILE. Hear it, hear it! The only
foundation for happy marriage that
has ever been or ever will be is good
character.
In the Farm Ballads" our Ameri-
can poet puts into the lips of repent
ant husband, after a life of married
perturbation, these suggestive words:
And when she dies wish that she would be
laid by me,
And lying together in silence, perhaps we will
agree.
And IL ever we meet in Heven, would nob
think it queer
If we loved each other better because we quar-
relied here.
And let me say to those of you who
are in happy married union, avoid first
quarrels; have no unexpected corre-
spondence with former admirers; cul-
tivate no suspicious; in a moment Of
bad temper do not rush out and tell
the neigh bors; do not let any of those
gadabouts of society unload in your
house their baggage of CAB and title
tattle; do not stand on your rights;
learn how to apologize; do not be SO
proud, or so stubborn, or so devilish
that you will not make up. Remem-
Der that the worst domestic misfor-
tunes and most scandalous divorce
cases started with little intellect
ties. 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 misfortunes and
Understanding divorce cases have
started from little Misunderstanding
that were allowed to go on and go on
until home, and respectability, and re-
ligion, and immortal soul went down
in the crash, crashl
And, fellow-citizens, as well as fell
Iow-C Christians, let us have a divine
rage against anything that wars on the
marriage state. Blessed institution
Instead of two arms to fight the battle
of life, four. Instead of two eyes to
scrutinize the path of life, four. Instead
of two shoulders to lift the burden of
life, four. Twice the energy, twice the
courage, twice the holy ambition, twice
the bability of worldly success,
twice the prospects of Heaven. Into
the matrimonial bower of God fetches
two souls. Outside that bower room
for all contentious, and all chickering's,
and all controversies, but inside
the bower there is room for on
ly one guest-the angel of love.
Let that angel stand at the floral