The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-09-10
THE MORNING NEWS: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 1899

the idiOcy that are committed in the name
of that is enough to make angels weep.
To-day l was TO see girl who is going
To be married this fall. Her people are
poor. and the young bridegroom has his
own way TO make in the world, .and Is
working on a salary but they are going
TO be married in church, with ushers and
carriages. and white satin and all the rest
of it that is such arrant tom-foolery where
poor people are concerned. Look here, l
said TO her. don't you know lhat poor
clerks wife has no more need of white
satin than she has of angel wings? Don't
you know that the money such a wedding
win cost would furnish you up a nice
little cottage? What on earth makes You
want TO do anything so foolish? Wen,
she and her mother henl'd and hawed. and
beat around the subject. They admitted
that the white satin was bought at the
expense of useful things she was dead
sure to need every day. The mother vino
ed at the thought of the pinoAing and
econom.zing it was going to take to pay
for il. but they simply didn't have the
courage not to do il, because Annette ana
Marie and some other girl they knew had
all had display weddings.
ITO my mind" said another the most
pitiful of all is the cowardice We see so
often displayed about the dead. l have
known families who Impoverished them
selves over a funeral. and whose earnings
for years afterward went to Inc undertaken.
Sometimes there were little children VINO
couldn't he sent 10 school on account of it,
or sick people, or old people VINO had 20
he denied the comforts and food they
should have had. but every penny must De
paid on the big debt they incurred in the
funeral. Not being fools they must have
realized what they were doing, but they
didn't have the courage 20 simply put their
dead away with tears aud love and rev
n a Il f.
ers following in the hired carriages whose
every turned of the wheel spelt ruin to the
living. The same thing may be said about
the wearing of mourning. Not one-tenth of
the women you see swathed in black
would have il on if they had the courage
not TO wear Il. To the delicate woman it
is a menace, to the nervous one il is
| horror, to every one it is a perpetual re-
minder of loss that they would be only to
| thankful TO avoid if they only dared
L have known women Interrupted
Elise, Ito make miserable marriages be-
cause they didn't have the courage to be
old maids. 1 nave known women TO strave
in genteel poverty, because they didn't
have the courage 10 go TO work. I have
known them to cut their old friends be-
cause they didn't have the courage 10
know plain people afteN they got up a lit
tie in the world themselves, and that's
what makes me say that the greatest need
l
concerned, is courage"
''The pathos of the woman who dressed
| too youthfully, says the New York Sun,
! has NOT been recognized always" said one
! who was young enough to dress as she
/ wanted to- and so indifferent to the sub
| ject that she never cared how she looked,
and persons are likely to look upon her as
rather ridiculous But she is always sad
deung to me. 1t is not only the thought
of fighting old age that depresses one.
| That Is bad enough. But sometimes an
added element of sorrow is to be detected
! in these attempts 10 help stay youthful.
| The other night at the theatre two per-
sons sat in front of me who showed in the
! most striking way the saddest phase of
! the woman's attempt to keep young. They
were man and wife. She was few years
younger that he, who looked about so,
! But the difference between them was
| greater than the few years measured. He
was still in the prime. of life. She was
getting old. A few years more would
make her visits to the theatre with him
much less frequent She was older. as II
was. than most of the women around her.
When she took off her hat, a white rib
bon bow jauntily tied in her hair was dis
closed II seemed p pathetic struggle
against the coming OF old age" She knew
| that the man sitting next TO her loved
| youthfulness in women and all that estate
implied He liked to see them smartlS
dressed, stylish apd animated, in the way
that young women can be, and old ones
can never be- To represent that age was
! far beyond her poWer. She could only
dress as youthfully as she could, adopt
every device to make herself seem of the
age he admired so much, and come as
nearly as possible to filing his IDEAL Of
what a woman should be like.
/ rrfox of 10
ir her hair looking absurdly cOquettisf
| and out of place on woman of her age
was infinitely pathetic and touching. II
was one way in which she was trying tC
keep what represented nearly everything
in the world to her-the love of her nus
band 1t is ali very well to say that af
lection between man and Wife should b'
founded on a basis which has nothing &c
do with the looks of either. But that is
better in theory than practice. A woman
knows that If she wants TO keep a man:
affection it must be done by making her
self as attractive to him as she can II
every way, and looking as he wants hel
to is one Of the ways of doing that. II Il
easy to say that a woman may make her
self absurd even in the eyes of her hus
band. il she dresses In a manner entirely
unsuited to her age. But her mistake Is
perfectly natural and human She want
10 hold on to all she has and takes th'
means Of doing it that she thinks best
There are some men to whom no othei
appeal can be made. II is the wives o
such men as that who have the hardes
struggle when their fading begins. 1t IL
an injustice to any woman to think she's Z
fool because she dresses herself in way
appropriate to one half her age. She MAJ
have a motive for it that means a grea
deal to her.
There IS something quite idyllic abou
the fresh air courtships that are goin!
on during these latter summer days. Tru
w. one would think that the love fostere'
by wind and sunshine might well be pure
and more enduring than fancy engen
dered in a ball room and aided by ain
ners, the opera etc. A three-mile mattel
over the golf links with a congenial com
panion. or a tramp through bog AM
heather on shooting expedition befor
breakfast, are the roads to matrimon
of the summer girl of 1899. One canno
help fancying that the human race vii
be stronger and better for these method
Of wooing There is also a good com
radeship and coueeniaity implied by sue