The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1901-01-31
BILL ARP ON WEDDING BELLS
Discusses Marriage In Interesting
Manner and Speaks ofthe Trous-


seau.
Wedding bells have been ringing
around here for some time. Theil
music always excite tho good people
and everybody talks about the coming
nuptials. Mothers, wives and daugh,
ters are specially interested for it is the
bride who has most at stake and is
about to surrender everything to her
lover. But hope is stronger than fear
and the women all rejoice in it and
wish the good work to 60 on. They
dissect and discuss every phase Of the
new relationship and crowd the church
"r the home where the knot is to be
tied with anxious and eager interest.
The bridal trousseau and the wedding
gifts have especial consideration and
are carefully inspected. What diff
ference between man and woman about
such thinge. What a difference be-
tween wife my and [. 1t was Of small
concern to me whether the BRIDES ap-
parel cost a thousand dollars or a hun
dred. just so she was dressed in good
taste and wore few pretty ornaments
was enough for me. l like TO sec a
pretty woman dressed in way that
you can tell pretty we'll how much of
her is clothes and how much is flesh
and blood. Padding and petticoats
may fool man in a new acquaintance,
hut a home girl can't fool anybody.
We see them ride and walk and stand
up and sit down and run around and
we can measure them up like David
iIarum measured horse. The modern
txy1n nf
TO men than the old style of hoop skirts
and bustles. Nothing is lacking now
Dut to shorten up their walking frocks
20 that they won't drag behind and
sweep up the sidewalks with all their
filth of cigar stumps and guilds and
bacteria and expectorated germs of ex-
perforated consumption. When l see
girls skirt dragging along 1 suspect
that she is pigeon-toed or box-ankled
and wants to hide it. My wife never
wore a dress that way in her life for
she wears number two shoe and steps
like deer.
But it is q woman's nature to love
ornament. She cannot help it and it
is no sin. John Wesley tried to cure her
of it in the discipline, but he couldent
discipline about ornaments and jewelry
and other iinery is dead letter. l
have suspected that maybe he was too
hard on his wife about such things
and that is why she quit him. What
u miserable time those women had in
the days Of the Puritans when pretty
girl had to wear plain black dress to
church; home made straw hood
shaped like coal scuttle on her head,
and not an earring nor a breast pin
nor even q string of glass beads around
her neck. The creator adorned the
earth with flowers and studied the
heavens with stars. He gave the birds
their beautiful plumage and taught
them to sing for our pleasure. There
are diamonds in the mines and pearls
in the ocean and Of course they were
made for women. We men care moth
ing about such things. l wouldent
give ten dollars for bushcl of them,
but my wife goes into rapture over
them and would give everything she
has got for them, except her children
and maybe me.
Woman ls curious and peculiar
creation. have been studying them
for sixty years and don't fully under
stand them yet. They arc very near
TO us and very dear to US, but very un-
like in their devotional nature; their
love Of the beautiful; their long sui
fering under trial and adversely. They
70 willingly and eagerly to the mar
riage altar when they know that theirs
is all the peril and theirs to be all the
pain and care and grief that inevitably
comes to wife and mother. I have
pondercd over all this and if was a
woman and had only mans instincts
and emotions / would not marry any
man upon earth. 1t is the God given
maternal instinct that pcrsuades and
forces a woman to marry. She will
launch her boat upon the stream and
take her chances to jump the water
falls. She will marry even against her
judgment and the pleadlngs of her
friends. She does not realize the force
Of this maternal instinct, but it impels
and controls her. My little grand
daughters are perfectly happy with
their dolls. They play with them by
day and sleep with them by night. A
little four-year old said to inc last night,
Ganpa, don't take dolly away from
me till get fast asleep" Little boys
care nothing about dolls. They want
balls and drums and iire-crackcrs and
9uns-something that will make a
noise. "A man loves a woman and
marries her, but there is not a particle
Of paternal instinct influencing him.
The young mother hugs her first born
to hor bosom and is happy. The
young father takes the advent Of the
child as matter of course, but not Of
choice. In course of time the little
one grows into favor AMI he becomes
attached to 1t, and even proud of it,,
but there is no paternal instinct. The
true woman loves to be mother. She
is not content with one child. She
wants another and another and an
other. Two children double her love
and therefore her happiness and finally
when she has no mole little ones to
fondle, her maternal love laps over to
her grandchildren, and she would claim
than, If aha coul1 MIRA Willow uroto