Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-09-16
MARRIED LIFE HAPPY.
A PHEASANT SKETCH ON DOUBLE BLEssEDNEss BY MIR.
 BESANT.
Very Few Blanks in the Lottery of Mar. riage-Prizes are the Rule-The
 Risk Is Not Very Great.

Walter Besant writes: 'sI was bid- den of late TO the feast of a silver wedding. The bridegroom, now past fifty, is Q man who has made his mark in the literature of today. He is still in the fullness of his intel lectual strength, and will, his friends hope, deepen that mark. The bride is presumably (if one may speak of 8 brides age) past forty; she is a mat ron now whom her friends remem- Der as lovely girl; her eldest child is gallant six feet high. It was ex- actly such silver wedding as one could wish for oneself. Success and honor-a fair measure of success, the honor that belongs to good work have followed the bridegroom; goodly children and love have been the lot of the bride. They have had their sorrows, but there have been more joys than sorrows. Perhaps they are in the middle of a long stretch of successful work--a man ought to be able to go on working until seventy at least; perhaps there is not much more to be got from the future. But they have got the past; nothing can take that away from them. I could never agree with the opinion of Dante. that the greatest misefy in evil times is to think of the happy past. A silver wedding is a halt in the middle or toward the close of life. Thus far. say the wed- ded pair, thus far have i've voyaged oversummer seas; ruffies and light storms have we had, but no ship wreck. Our marriage has not been failure. Had we to do it all over again, we would choose the same lot and the same companion. And so we shall remain together as long as may be- Amen. And when the golden wedding comes may I be there to see!
 "Think of all the commonplaces about marriage being lottery and 0 toss-up and chance. and then, if you please, cast your eye around and consider the average results of this so-ealled lottery. Now, the very essence of a lottery is that there are few prizes and many blanks. But the result of a marriage lottery, so far as l can learn from a pretty ex- tensive series of observation person. ally conducted from the time-now thirty years ago-when my friends began to marry, is that there are a great many prizes and very few blanks. In other words, the great majority of married people are con tent with each other and with life They are happy. Yet it is true in @ sense that marriage is 6 lottery, be- cause most of us get engaged with out very careful investigation into the temper and habits of the person beloved, and in spite of this risk ,.peo- pie are happy.
 .sThe risk. you see, is not very great. Most men and most girls are brought up in way that enforces the useful virtues. They are taught to govern themselves, to avoid bad temper, sulks and suspicion, jealousy, evil thinking-all the things that in the old times made marriage 6 very uncertain affair. We are not half SO ungoverned in our temper as we were, not half so violent, not half so jealous; and so, though we do not choose wife, though there is no choice in the matter, though we fall in love with girl about whose tenn per and inclinations we do not in- quire, we do really know all about her beforehand; we know her brothers, and she knows all about the man who presents himself; we belong to thesame set, we know how she has been brought up, and we rely with tolerable certainty on the infiu- ences of her education.
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