The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-04-17
ONE MANS TROUBLE.
He Found 1t Difficult to FORGET His
Friends First Husband.
(E. S. Martin i'm Harper's Baz

Friends First Husband.
(E. S. Martin in Harper's Bazaar
There are many excellent reasons
why 1 should wish for better ac-
quaintance with Mrs. Roland. She is
one of the most engaging OF women and
possessed of an exceptionally lively
sense of humor and of remarkable gifts
of oral expression. / am sure that if
should have the good luck to seem
worthy of her attention in discourse
she would have plenty TO say that would
be profitable for me to hear, and that
the process of absorbing her ideas
would be joyous Whenever the lot
| terry that seats the guests at dinner
parties make me her fortunate compan-
ion L shall rejoice, and count on spend
| ing a pleasant evening, and on carry
! ing home in my mind some serViceable
! ideas and turns of speech. There is just
one little cloud in the sky of my antici-
pations, and that is that l shall be
! burning to talk to her about Simeon
| Oliver, who was her husband while he
yet fingered on earth, and before she
took the seat she graces SO at the end
of Richard Roland's dinner table.
Simeon and L went to school together,
and l have a vivid recollection of his
quick eyes and sandy hair. Of his elo-
quence in our school debating club, Of
the verses he wrote and his excellent
performance in left field and at the bat
on our school nine. He was d remark
able youth a large figure in our school
and just enough my senior to loom up
in my vision a good deal larger, doubt
less, than he really was. l never saw
him or heard of him after he left school,
and that was nearly thirty years ago.
and what he did and what became of
him, and how he fell in with the clever
Matilda Lent, and what sort of a life
he led her, and whether his decease was
a bereavement or a release to her, are
queries which the sight or even the
thought of the delightful Mrs. Roland
always brings trooping into my mind.
She could tell me all about Simeon, but
when [ do meet her | shall have to put
this burning subject ono offense to
oliver aside and prattle on about or
binary things-the recovery of Mr.. Kip
ling, the stock market, Sargent's pic
lures and the like, and trust TO luck to
turn the talk INTO some channel in which
both our minds may run with some
thing like ardor For all that l know to
the contrary, she is perfectly satisfied
with Roland and has no occasion to sift
the sards of memory through anybody's
screen. But even if she were not it
world not much help matters, for, I
sn:ppose, you can't talk to remarked
first husband, especially if one of her
subsequent husbands is present. There
is a rule against it, but the timorous
sentiment that conventional persons
have that it would not be suitable is
probably well founded.
That is one of the most awkward and !
Objectionable things about marrying
again. You may bury a husband and
keep his memory alive, but when you
marry a, second one you usually have, !
to a certain extent, to bury memory |
which may be very much alive and in |
no need of interment. 1t is a great pity |
that that is SO, or so nearly so as it is. |
since for many persons who have lost /
their mates prematurely it is far better |
to find a new one, if that is possible. !
than to go through life alone. Success |
full MARRIAGES. though additionally |
made in heaven, are made for use in |
this world and when we are able to /
consult the celestial record we shall find |
that second marriages make a hand I
some showing there That a man once
domesticated and Injured to petticoat |
influences should be left while still |
young to drag out existence unpro- /
things that it abhorent to nature. If
he has young children and is a mere |
ordinary man. he needs help; if he has
no children, there is still more reason /
for him to make provision for his fu-
ture. The case is not much better for
young widows, unless they have chill
dren enough to give them an object in
life and income enough to maintain
them during its attainment Not even
the immense labor of asEimilating a new
spousa's relatives, appalling as it is
should hinder second marriages which
are suitable and merely await the CO.
operation of parties who are disposed
to consent. There is some prejudice
against stepmothers and stepfathers,
but it is not very deep. A woman good
enough to be q good wife commonly
makes a good stepmother, and good
man commonly makes a good step
father. There is nothing in the rela-
tionShip which need be too great a trial
for ordinary human virtue. One reads
of harsh stepparents in. story books
and sometimes in the newspapers, and
it is undeniabe that they do exist, but
[ never knew a stepmOther who caught
her stepchildTen young enough who did
not mother them well and love them
truly and win their affection.
My Uncle Thomas holds that one of
the chief inducements to marry widow
is the conversation that ought to result
from her enlarged experience of life,
and that to discourage her from talking
about her first husband would be to
GRIPPE ner powers Oh IdrrdlIOn ana en-
and would be very obtuse
and short-sighted. He will never marry
he says, any woman of so narrow a
mind as not TO be interested in his dis
about the characteristics and
projections of my Aunt Jane Whereat
Aunt Jane. who is remarkably durable
in her aspects, smiles incredulity
touched with gentle scorn. Still, all
truly wise men must respect my uncle's
attitude. and no doubt when Mr. Choate
made his celebrated admission that if
not himself he would be Mrs. Choate's
second husband. he had in mind the
great benefit and pleasure that that
gentleman might expect to sustain in
his conversations with his wife about ]
the virtues and idiosyncracies of his