The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-02-19
In Moman's Realm
PROFESSOR SUMNER, ,

NROFEssOR SUMNER, of Yale uni
/ vcrsity. Is apparently endeavoring to
scare the yoilna men of the senior
class with regard to matrimony when he
seriously asserts in u lecture before them
that but ten per cent. Of the people who
marry realize their ideals. Now this
staten ent seems to startlc the country
at large as much as the question: rs
marriage Il failure?" which occupied gen.
cral attention few years ago
Yet when the matter is deliberately
considered Professor summers declara-
ton Is not extreme. lie does not say
that all but ten per cent. of the mar
riagcs are failures; he merely remarks
that only that number realize the ideals
| which were previously cherished. This
| Is really very encouraging as compared
with other ideals. One would scarcely
dare affirm that SO many find marriage
is all that we fondly dreamed, when IN
| other affairs and relationships of life
| such a shattcrinC of ideals is experi-
enced How large Il percentage of chill
/, dren, friends, worldly advantages. and
happiness in general ever attain to the
| standard which has been pictured in an
| ticipation or hope?
If ten people out of a hundred find
their life partners to he all they had
| lancied them to be- and that the com
| panlonship Is ideal in its perfection. that
means a deal of happiness in this weary
old world and is rot in the least discour
! aging for those who look forward to a
! future which shall be sweet and beautiful
! because it is to ne lived together with
another whose love is to make their bliss
! of earth.
TO THINK that one out of every ten
! ! men we meet is utterly happy in the
choice made in marriage. that he
| finds her gentle, tender. kind and good
IA hr "a 40 hp would hr
| that his heart longs ever for her pres
| cncc. that he gladly looks toward even
! ing because it takes him home to her
| welcoming smile, that she makes his sum
shine and fills the me assure of his dreams.
! is surely a cause for rejoicing.
To believe that out of every ten wO-
men who go hurrying down the street.
| one has not been disillusioned through the
! years that ever she looks upon her hus-
band as the one man in the world Gre
ated for her happiness, that he has been
/ everything to her the maiden at the altar
would have hoped, that all the changes
have been only that he grows nobler,
liner in character and dearer in her sight,
/ is something to think of with congratu-
4 lations.
COR THESE cases, you know. do not
L include the many who while they
have found married life everything
! that it was pictured In their early
dreams. have yet had the wisdom and
the grace to adjust themselves to the
conditions, have said: II miss a little
! Of what ] had hoped, but SO doubtless
does he. l do not come UP to his ideal,
| but we have married each other and we
must make the best Of our choice. Life
| is short we surely can conform to each
| others tastes. we love each other. VIC
! can overlook many shortcomings we can
be considerate. we can live happily and
| we will be able to stifie the half acknowl-
| edged feeling IF disappointment as grad
| ually the point of view is shifted ana We
| learn how to avoid the rouSi corners of
life"
| When we think that a very large num-
| Der of people will be found living iii this
state. that while they discover marriage
scarcely approaches their early ideals
any moro than do the othe~ realities OF
the world which surround them ara yet
| reasonably contcnted with their lot there
is certainly nothing to appal the per
| son who hopes some day to have an idea
| existence on earth.
| With one out of ten persons ideally
| harry and five or six more who are mod.
erately happy in their married life. the
| three or four who are restive. miserable
| or desperate. because of their own fail
ure in trying to attain to their best pos
sibiiities, the failure of their hus
bands or wives, should not give the pes
simist any new ground for cXultation.