The Arizona sentinel., 1897-03-13
WHY HYMEN'S TORCH BURNS
 DIMLY.
(Flom San Francisco Chronicle. )

The philosophers say that this
 not marrying age. They assert tha . young men fight shy of welded blis. and that the torch Of Hymen is light
 ed all too rarely. For this reason "
 have the portraits of these who marry or many of them, in the papers, an' people look at them admiringly an, honor their courage. They are pu
 side by side with distinguished gen.
 erals and Arctic explorers. Tn
 ushers, best men and bridesmaids com
 in for lesser distinction, receivinI
 honorable men ton, as it were. Sucl
 things did not obtain when marrlage
 were more frequent, and the ceremony
 was regarded an an everyday occur
 renee.
 Now among the reasons advanced
 for the decline of matrimonial stock
 is that the women of this century are
 more exacting than their grand
 mothers, require more pin money
 more attention, and consider their
 personal ease and luxury paramount
 to everything. The home must be for
 them gilded cage, where they are
 fed with sweetmeats, petted and flat
 tered, and admiring crowds bidden to
 praise their plumage and hear them
 sing. But the doors of this cage must
 be ready to fly open at all times that
 they may step into gilded chariot, with purse full of golden pieces to spend at the cooing solicitations of the salesmen of the silk, fur or jewelry shops When worn out with this pleasing exercise they again return to the cage; they must be bathed, and soothed and stimulated and perfumed and manicured, and made real pretty and comfortable until night comes, and then are tucked away under their satin coverlids to renew their freshness and beauty in sleep.
 Such charge the majority of women would indignantly deny and lay to the selfshness of the male this really alarming spread of spinsterhood. Willing to lavish all his spare change upon himself, they would say, upon his rich dinners, expensive wines and riotous living generally, he will leave the fairest flowers of the sex he should worship to wither because no hand will pluck them. He will forego the laugh of children about his knee, and the cozy freside, and all the ornaments of home because he has made god of himself and obstinately declines to worship at any other altar Before that shrine, where IS placed his own image, he sacrifices all the joys of domesticity and plaeates the idol with the incense of high-priced cigars and pours out plcnteous libations of rosy wines, and wines that sparkle, and is not adverse to bacchantes mov ing in sensuous dance about the altar while chanting wild anthems where '4ips" rhyme with "sips" and "kisses" with "blisses," and the east bushes in the easement ere the revels are done.
 There is truth in both charges There is selfshness on both sides, and it would be difficult to say where the blame is the graver. Somehow we'd ding bells do not seem to ring with the same harmony as of yore The of divorces in the near future is in their notes, aud how true bbose woeful bodings are the con- parison between the marriage roll and the divorce muster will testify. The Hierd and bliss-smothering sisterhood who are familiar to us as failure to provide," "infidelity," ''desertion," and that most pestiferous minx of all, 'incompatibility of temper" are ever ready, shears in hand, to cut the chords which should bind fond hearts ogether. Invisible, but still present, { hey occupy the front pews in church, ( 'peculating on a job. They bunch ( into the floral temple where l he happy couple are receiving the of tht ir friends. They Ire the unbidden and unwelcome ,, quests at the wedding breakfast. They ( ouch with grim humor shadowy gob- z cts when the health of the young z people is proposed. They hover about . nd are critical of the wedding pres I 'nts, doubting the genuineness of the ' ilverware and having no faith in the t heck of the brides papa, or even the Iced for the dovecote where the new : is to be established. They atch and munch with diabolical ,rimaces the rice cast after the de- ,arting twain, and would fain accom- 'any them on their wedding journey there were any room for tlrera in the rain.
 Putting those things aside and for