The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-04-14
About Second Marriages.

You may bury a husband and keep
his memory alive, but when you marry
second one you have to bury MEM
Dry 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 IS
it is, since for many persons who have
lost their mates prematurely it is far
better to find new one if that is pcs
slble. than to go through life aicne.
Successful marriages, though tradition
ally made in heaven, are made Ter use
in this world, and when we are able to
consult the celestial records we shall
find that second marriages make a
handsome showing there. That man
once domesticated and Injured to petit
coat influences should be left while still
young to drag out existence unpro-
tected and unconsoled is condition of
things that is abhorrent to nature. Ii
he has young children and is mere
ordinary man, he needs help II ne has
no children. there is still more reason
for him making provision for his future.
The case is not much better for young
widows, unless they have children
enough to give them an object in life,
and income enough to maintain them
during its attainment Not even the
immense labor of assimilating new
spouse'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 a good wife commonly
makes a good stepmother, and good
man commonly makes a good step
father. There is nothing in the rela-
township which needs to be too great a
- al fnJ r1r hI1n One
reads of harsh stepparents in story
books and sometimes in the newspa-
pers, and it is undeniable that they do
exist, but I never knew a stepmother
who caught her stepchildren young
enough who did not mother them well
and love them truly and win their af-
lection.
What objections there are to second
marriages are almost exclusively sentl-
mnetal and turn on this natural UNI
willingness to bury a memory. But of
course a sentimental objection is a
mighty influential thing. and very hard
to cope with when it is strong. 1t is
pity about this one, for sometimes it
makes mischief. There is the case of
the young Widow Mead, so admirable
and charming a person, and yet so i'm
perfectly suited to fight the battle of
life without daily help. She was born
to be a wife, that woman. She would
be twice as useful in the world, and
many, many times happier, if she could
bring herself to replace Henry Mead.
But it is doubtful if she ever does. She
loved him dearly. and fear his shadow
will always be dearer to her than any
other mans sunshine. / can't think he
would have it so. He was a man of eX
ceilent sense, and I only wish she could
have his counsel in this matter. I am
sure he would not let her turn away
from man whose love might brighten
her life because a man who had bright
ened it was dead 1t would be far cas-
Ter for her and for whatever good man
may happen to be counting her at this
time, if there was less of this repre-
hensible feeling that makes it seem
doubtful manners to discourse with the
remarked about their previous mates.
1t is a limitation that little strength
of character may rise above. l shall
never forget that after Robert Wade
had died, and left his young and child
less wife a pile of money as high as
haystack, and after she in due time had
married again, how 1 met her one day
in company, and she, remembering me,
but not quite sure, asked Horace Brace,
whom I was with, if ! was not "a friend
of Robert" 1t made me feel that she
hadn't buried any more of Robert than
she could help, even though she had
given him a SUCCESSOR and l. liked It IN
her.-Harper's Bazaar.