Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1902-04-24

because of the fact that society Is so fuil
of artifcialities that men are deceived as
to whom they are marrying, and no one
hut the Lord knows After the, dress
maker, and the milliner, and the leweler,
and the hair-adjuster, and the dancing
master, and the cosmetic art have com
pleted their work, how is an unsophisti;,
hieroglyphics, and make accurate }udg,
ment Of who it is to whom he offers hand
and heart? That is what makes SO many
recreant husbands. They make an honor
able marriage contract, but the goods de-
liyered are so different from the sample
by which they bargained. They were
swindled, and they backed out. They
mistook Jezebel for Longfellow's Eyange'
line, and Lucretia Borgia for Martha
Washington.
scalps he has taken, so there are in society
to-day many coquettes who boast OF the
masculine hearts they have captured. And
these women, though they may live amid
richest upholstery, are not SO honorable
as the cyprians of the street, fol. these
advertise their infamy, while the former
profess heaven while they mean hell.
There is so much counterfeit woman
hood abroad it is no wonder that some
cannot tell the genuine coin from the base.
10 YOU nOG TedllLc yUu HSCo oANaAS 3d.
ance when l remind you that mistake 10
possible in this important affair, and, II
made is irrevocable?
The worst predicament possible is to be
unhappily yoked together. You see 1t IS
impossible to break the yoke. The more
YOU pull apart, the more CALLING the yoke.
The minister might bring you, up again,
and and in your presence read the mar
riage ceremony backward, might put you
on the opposite sides OF the altar from
where you were when you were united,
might take the ring off of the finger, might
rend the wedding veil asunder, might tear
out the marriage leaf from the family Bible
record, but that would fail to unmarry
you. 1t is better not to make the mis-
take than to attempt its correction. But
men and women do not reveal all their
characteristics till after marriage, and
how are you to avoid committing the fatal
blunder? There is only one Being in the
universe who can tell you whom to choose,
and that is the Lord of Paradise. He
made Eve for Adam, and Adam for Eve,
and both for each other. Adam had not
a large group of women from whom to
select his wife, but it is fortunate, judg-
ing from some mistakes which she after
ward made, that it was Eve or nothing.
There is in all the world some one who
was made for you, as certainly as Eve was
made for Adam. All sorts of mistakes
occur because I've was made out OF a RIB
from Adams side. Nobody knows which
of his twenty-four ribs was taken for the
nucleus. If YOU depend entirely upon
yourself in the selection of wife, there
are twenty-three possibilities to one that
you will select the wrong rib. by the tate
of Ahab, whose wife induced him to steal !;
by the fate of Macbeth, whose wife pushed
him into massacre; by the fate OF James
Ferguson, the philosopher, whose wife
entered the room while he was lecturing
and willfully upset his astronomical APP
paratus, so that he turned to the audience
and said, Ladies and gentlemen, / have
the misfortune to be married to this
woman" by the fate of Bulwer, the
novelist, whose wife's temper was so in
compatible that he furnished her a beau
tifui house near London and withdrew
from her company, leaving her with the
dozen dogs whom she entertained as pets;
by the fate of John Milton, who married
a termagant after he was blind, and when
some one called her rose, the poet said:
II am no Judge of flowers, but it may be
so, for | feel the thorns daily, by the
fate of an Engishman whose wife was SO
determined to dance on his grave that he
was buried in the sea; by the fate OF a
village minister whom | knew, whose wife
threw a cup of hot tea across the table
because they differed in sentiment-by all
these scenes of disquietude and domestic
calamity, we implore you to be cautious
and prayerful before you enter upon the
connubal state, which decides whether a
man shall have two heavens or two hells,
a heaven here and heaven forever, or a
hell now and hell hereafter.
By the bliss of Pliny, whose WIFE when
her husband was pleading in court, had
apH To inf
her what impression he was making; by
the Joy of Grotius, whose wife delivered
him from prison under the pretence of
having books carried out lest they be in
furious to his health, she sending out her
husband unobserved in one of the book
cases; by the good fortune of Roland, in
Louis time, whose wife translated and
composed for her husband while Secretary
of the talented, heroic, Won
derful Madame Roland; by the happiness
of many a man who has made intelligent
selor and companion in brightness and in
grief-pray to Almighty God, morning,
noon, and night, that at the right time
and in the right way He will send you a
good, honest, loving, sympathetic wife, or
if she is not sent to you, that you may be
sent to her.
At this point let me warn you not to
let a question of this Importance be set
tied by the celebrated matchmakers -four
ishing in almost every community. De-
pend upon your own Judgment divinely
illumined. These brokers in matrimony
are ever planning how they can unite i'm.
pecunious innocence to an heiress, or cell
bate woman to millionaire or marquis, and
that in many cases makes life an unhappi.
ness. How can any human being, who
knows neither of the two parties as God
knows them, and who is ignorant of the
future, give such directions as you re.
quire at such a crisis!
Take the advice of the earthly match
maker instead of the divine guidance, and
you may some day be led to use the words
of Solomon, whose experience in home life
was as melancholy as it was multitudinous.
One day his palace, with its great wide
rooms and great wide doors and great
wide hall, was too small for him and the
loud tongue of a woman belaboring him
about some of his negects, and he re-
treated to the housetop to get relief from
the fungal bombardment, And while there
he saw poor man on one corner OF the
roof with mattress for his only furni-
ture, and the open sky his only covering.
And Solomon envies him and cries out:
at is better to dwell in the corner of the
housetop than with brawling woman in
a WlQc mouse. ana one uay during tne
rainy season the water leaked through
the roof of the palace and began to drop
in pail or pan set there to catch it. And
at one side of him all day long the water
went drop! drop! drop! while on the
other side female companion quarreling
about this, and quarreling about that; the
acrimonious and petulant words falling onl
his ear in ceaseless pelting-drop! drop,
drop! and he seized his pen and wrote'
"a continual dropping in very rainy
day and contentious woman are alike"
If Solomon had been as prayerful at the
beginning of his life as he was at his
close, how much domestic infelicity he
would have avoided?
But prayer about this will amount to
nothing unless you pray soon enough.
Wait until you are fascinated and the
equilibrium of your soul is disturbed by
and exquisite presence, and then
may