The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1901-01-31
THE MATERNAL INSTINCT
WHAT IT is THAT PERSUADES AND FORCES
WOMAN TO MARRY.

WOMAN TO MARRY
Bill Arp Discusses rlarria2e, the Tros-
seau and Other Features of the We'd
ding Woman is Curious and
Peculiar Creature, Difficult to In
derstand, Declares the Barlow Phil
osOpher, and Yet They are an Ever
Interesting Study Which We Can't
Help Loving.
Wedding bells have been ringing
around here for some time. Their
music always excites the good people
and everybody talks about the coming
nuptials. Mothers, wives and daugh
tiers 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 90 on.
They dissect and discuss every phase
of the new relationship and crowd
the church or the home where the
knot is to be tied with anxious and
eager interest. The bridal trousseaus
and wedding gifts have especial con-
sheraton and are carefully inspect
ed. What a difference between man
and woman about such things. What
difference between my wife and |.
1t was of small concern to me whether
the brides apparel cost thousand
dollars or hundred just so she
was dressed in good taste and wore a
few pretty ornaments was enough for
me. l like to see pretty woman
dressed in way that Won 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, but
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 like David Harum
measured a horse. The modern.style
of dress is much more pleasing to
men than the old style of hoop skirts
and bustles. Nothing is lacking now.
but to shorten up their walking frocks
so 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
consumption. When | see girls
skirt dragging along l suspect that
she is pigeon-toed or bOx-ankled and
wants to hide it. Ny wife never
wore dress that way in her life for
she wears a number two shoe and
steps like deer.
| But it is a 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
couldn't; discipline about ornaments.
and jewelrv and other iinerv is dead
letter. | have suspected that maybe
he was too hard on his wife about
such things and that is why she quit
| him. What a miserable time those
women had in the days of the Puri-
tans when pretty girl had to wear a
plain black dress to church; home
made straw hood shaped like coal
scuttle on her head, and not an ear
ring nor breast pin nor even a string
of glass beads around her neck. The
Creator adorned the earth with flow
ers and studded the heavens with
stars. He gave the birds their beat
tiful plumage and taught thsm 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. ! wouldn't
give ten dollars for bu>hel Of them,
but my wife goes into rapture over
them and would give every thing she
has got for them, except her children
and may be me.
Woman is 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
unlike in their devotional nature;
their love Of the beautiful: their long
suffering under trial AMI adversely.
They 90 willingly and eagerly to the
marriage altar when they know that
theirs is all the peril and theirs 10 be
all the pain and care ana grief that
inevitably come to 4 wife and other.
I have pondered over all this aud il
was woman and had only mans
instincts and emotions | would not
marry any man upon earth. 1t j. the
God-given maternal instinct that per
suades and forces Il woman TO marry.
She will launch her boat upon the
stream and take her chances TO Ump
the waterfalls. She will marry oven
against her Judgment and the plead
ings of her friends She does not
realize the force of this maternal IN
stinct, but it impels and controls her.
Ny little granddaughter are perfect
" happy with their dolls. They
play with them by day and sleep wit.
them by night. A little four-year-olt
said to me 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 frecrackers and guns
something that will make q noise. 4
man loves a woman and marries her
but there is not a particle Of paterna
instinct influencing him. The younl
mother hugs her first born to he
bosom and is happy. The youn4
father takes the advent Of the child a
a matter OF course, but not Of choice
: in course of time the little one grow
, into favor and he becomes attached t.
! it, and even proud of it, but there i
, no paternal instinct. The true
mother loves to be mother. She i
, not content with one child. SIT
. wants another and another am
=, another Two children double he
, love and therefore her happiness ans
! finally when she has no more it'll
! ones TO fondle, her maternal love lap
+ over to her grandchildren. and sh
would claim them If she could. Mrs
Wilcox wrote a lamentation on tn
. Decay of the Maternal Instinct il
New England" asserting that tn