The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-13
LoNGsrREEr ON MARRIAGE.
View From the standpoint of Man
eighty Years Young"
From the Atlanta Constitution.

received by Gen. and Mrs. Longstreet up
on the occasion of their marriage was one
from the New York World,
That newspaper invited the young hero
who begins life at eighty" to give his
views of marriage and how he approached
the nuptial altar upon this occasion.
AS soon as Gen. Longstreet found time
he complied with the Worlds request and
telegraphed the following reply, which will
appear in that paper to-day, and which
the Constitution is permitted to publish
simultaneously:
ITO The World-Accepting the kind com
pliments of the World upon this. the oc-
casion of my happy marriage to one of the
most charming ladies of Georgia, permit
me TO express to you my appreciation of
Americas greatest newspaper.
People have been marrying ever since
the world began. In fact, II we read the
Bible record Alright Adam did not know his
age when the Almighty fashioned for him
the helpmeet, who was, later on, to play
such an important part in the world.
Youth is a relative term and is not cor
rectly expressed by years. The young
heart is often the creation of years of sor-
row preceding, and the suulit face of the
man of Is Is more suggestive Of the pc
rennial youth that makes men attractive
than the frowning visage of 90 which
speaks of discomfort and unrest. l have
often, as your congratulation suggests,
been struck with the epigram of Holmes
that he was eighty years young
THE counting of age is often all mat
ter of point of view. The youth first
counting his years which proceed from
nothing, esteems himself young because
they are few. The man of many years
m 1cp1f
cause his remainder is equally few. As I
experience the influence of this happy day
l ask myself il | am really old, or am !
just beginning to be young? There is
time behind me, 1 know, much of which
has been wasted because its giving was
prodigal. There are glorious years ahead
of me which I can appreciate because l
have at last learned their value. I think,
and feel, and enjoy. God has blessed my
later years with prescience and an UNI
Outstanding which have multiplied their
value and rendered their existence a
pleasure.
LAS / have grown from decade to de-
cade have seen the growth and develop
ment of a family which / loved and cher
ished. In the order of Providence the
wife and mother has been removed; the
children have left the shadow of the par
ent tree and each has flown TO a nest of
it's own. ! still remain in the old house,
casional letter to read from an absent
one. / feel lonely because of the want Of
company, but excuse me- ! do not feel
old There is too much bounding of the
pulse, too strong pumping of the heart,
too great a wealth of affection, to allow
of me drying up like an old mummy, to
be set aside in some mausoleum. There
is life and energy and ambition left, and
where these are youth has not flown.
what then was more natural than that
l should put my house in order, pay re-
newed attention to my toilet and wander
out to see what kind of an impression !
could make? 1 found a pretty face and
was attracted; I sought acquaintance of
the owner and was charmed; | read her
heart and found it pure; l looked into her
soft blue eyes and found that love was
twinkling there. l. Of course hesitated to
press my suit until / felt assured, and
surely, thought | to myself If she thinks
me young what need have l to care what
others think? During the years that are
left to me | can be TO her such husband
that not all the young men in Christen-
dom could equal, and the memory which
she shall carry down the years when, In
the order of nature. | may not be present,
will be to her a sweet dream to be treas
ured and transmitted to children's chill
dren.
what does a woman gain by marriage?
All, there is a question to which diverse
answers might be given. How often the
young woman marries her equal in years
to find herself but the comprehensive,
whose value is reckoned by the work she
does. The other day a distinguished Geor-
gia lady, Mrs. FELTON,, in an address be-
fore the farmers convention, pictured
such wife ground down by exaction,
uncheered by a single word of apprecia-
ton, who after years of toll and striving,
dies, and then to be for the first time APP
preciated. l make the argument that
there should be disparity of years, but
not of youth, between husband and wife.
The man of experience who has been
through the world, who has rubbed
against its rough edges, has had his OBJ
stinacy subdued, his powers of consid-
erateness enlarged and his quality of APP
probation so refined that he can feel and
respond to those delicate longlngs which
are implanted in the female breast.
1.-The man who, in the browning years Of
his life, takes TO wife a fair young girl, in
vltes her not only to the condition of
wifehood, but TO the dignity of partner
ship He naturally has affairs to attend
to in which his wife takes an interest. Her
powers develop as her husband learns to
lean on her judgment, and thus there Is
brought about that community OF interest
which enraptures the principals concerned
in il, and then we have the model husband
and wife. In my case l have a vineyard
on my farm. | have sheep ana other rural
interests. / have a book on the market
which requires a good deal of attention
and have a correspondence requiring re-
speet All this was very heavy to me
alone Ny wife has an understanding of
business; she has been the editor of a
paper and has literary talent. 1t will be a,
pleasure to her to enter into all my bus
mess enterprises, and together we can
plan and consult and perfect thus passing
days of happy anticipatio as well as of
realization. She understands my situation
thoroughly and l understand hers, and SO
our minds are as one, based upon knoWl-
edge and not upon hap-hazard
II heartily appreciate the kind interest
which the people and press of the United
States have taken in this marriage of my
18th year 1 have discovered that if a
man keeps himself in touch with humanity
he will always have friends. There is
nothing like the power Of love to weld
hearts together, or as the Old saying has
it, one touch of nature makes the whole
world akin. / could, for Instance, have
buried myself under the weight of that
fifty years since that date, Of which this
is the anniversary, when / won my spurs
IN tho 0ald Of Molina del Rev hut + choea