The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-03-25
IDEALS IN MARRIAGE.
(Springfield Republican,

When Prof Sumner of Yale said recently
that 80 per cent of wives did not realz j.,
their ideal in marriage, he uttered truth
so obvious that it is strange that 1t
should have awakened any antagonism
Indeed, he was generous in allowing the
hypothesis that 10 per cent do or may
realize the ideal relation.-or even. as the
terms indicate, that approximation TO an
ideal relation which may be in the minds
Of thoughtful and sincere women. 1t is
not matter for sportive folly and trivial
mockery, for the cheap wits of the funny
column, or the basting CT the yellow
Journal To read the columns of some of
the sensational papers of the big cities
one would suppose there was no serious
ness in life, no solidity in the great ordin
ance of marriage. no possible achievement
of harmonious, and honora BILE companion
ship in the very first and foremost of the
institutions of humanity. The facts are
all on the other side, Notwithstanding" the
breaches of faith. the outrages of vice ana
the disagreements of temper which arr
paraded before the world in such abund-
ance now that newspapers have made
themselves sewers instead of fountains
All that is thus published with great par
with a luxury of SANDER superadded. I'M
doubtedly happens,-but with what q dis
proportion it is presented 1t is like the
whole picture of the human race-which
is in progress toward the higher reaches.
but which suffers thousand slips and
falls, drops over precipices, sinks i'll
morasses, is entrapped in jungles,-but
nevertheless, as we know by comparing
tf1n ant NIT 81 Irr,
view advances and gains, and which We
feel sure will eventually triumph. SO is
it with the union of man and woman.
There is nothing more sure in the pro-
gress OF mankind than the lifting of the
status of woman in the last hundred years.
There is certain sense in the century
period, which on the whole seems so arb
trary. in the record that has been made
in the change of the place of woman from
a mere apendage of man to position OF
her own. TO be gained by her own quail
ties. and not by virtue of her mere CO.
nection with some man,--her subordina-
lion; or by the exceptional power of an
individuality so marked that it compels
recognition: or by an incident of elevation
which enables her to put forth her whole.
mental and spiritual genius, such as il
may De, as mas Dcen the caSN Will VIC
great women who have ruled empires in
he histohy CT human growth. And no
longer should a Scmiramis or q Cleopatra
or Catherine be the eXemplar Of great
women. Such women depart from the
eid of the world before men of their
type. and ii the present Empress of China
ne an exception, it is easy to sec why
sho IS so,-China is back in the centuries
with the realms that such women ruled
over. The woman of today is matching
fersef with the man, and finding that
she is not his inferior. though different:
and her differences. despite the fact that
she shares mans faults will not LESSEN
but strengthen as the years pass 20 +
perfect equation in the problems Of hu-
man life which she is now attacking in
more nearly even conditions
Mr. Sumner is right.-women do not find
their ideals in marriage, nor can it be cX-