The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-11-15
~ Dome Circle. ~
PLAIN TALK ON PROMOTION
OF CATHOLIC MARRIAGES


enter into the married state and the
alarming growth of mixed marriages
! inspires the Catholic Press of Sydney
| to the following remarks:
No time should be lost in suggesting
and carrying into effect the means for
healing evils that must seriously affect
| our position in the state. No one can
deny what the great apologist Ter
| tullian even in the earlier days of
Christianity demonstrated-tha there
is no more prolific source of linfdelity
than mixed marriages. And in the
| Catholic church in this state we find
that all of those who live in the state
of matrimony S51a per cent are those
in which either husband or wife is a
non-Catholic. How can we stop the
! tide, and impede the evil consequences
of such unions?
| Many Catholic lads find themselves
at that period when they might rea-
! sonably hope for a happy marriage and
| a comfortable home in receipt of
Tretched salary in an office or busi-
mss establishment, while others who
have learned a useful trade are re-
| ceiving SIS and $40 a week. To par
ents, then, we must appeal to send
! their boys early in life to study trades
and acquire a technical education, so
reliable source of income rather than
the shabby genteel respectability of a
clerkship.
Our girls also are somewhat at fault.
They are often overeducated in the
social instincts of life known as ac-
comDlishments and have no tastes
whatever for the more substantial du-
ties of housekeeping and cooking. In
Belgium, for example, all girls are
bound to a regular course of domestic
economy and culinary knowledge.
Would it not be much more desirable
to have a thorough knowledge and
love for housework and domestic econ
omy than to devote too much time
to the pleasant recreation of the high
er and no doubt nobler arts of music,
drawing and painting, in which not
one girl in 10000 can ever hope to eX-
eel? The genteeI girl will not be in
clined to associate or marry her broth
ers equals. She aims much higher in
the social scale and is ambitious for
at least a well-shaved bookkeeper, if
she does not aim at a professional man
and society" Hence she fails in
most instances and prefers to remain
in single blesSedness than endeavor to
make some one in the same sphere
Of life happy whom her virtue and
education would elevate and ennoble
William Corbett says in his "Ad-
vice to Young Men, that the true and
sweetest music in a home is that of
a mother singing her baby to sleep.
That music cannot be found in the
pianola and the grand piano. 1t is
not taught by the long-haired music
teachers. And Corbett preferred the
needle to the novel. But he was old
fashioned, and yet strangely enough
the tastes of the great democrat were
also those of the old-fashioned gen.
tleWoman to whom we owe any lit
tie grace that remains in modern So
ciety.
The dislike for housekeeping sends
great numbers of girls to seek en-
ployment as saleswomen and at office
work, which units them for the duties
of wives TO the Industrious working
men, who would in other circumstances
give them a comfortable home which
they could make happy.
OF course our remarks do not apply
to a large number of sensible Catholic
girls. We must, however, look at
the evils honestly in the face and seek
the causes, even though we are forced
to draw decaying tooth or two in
the process. By greater attention
on the part of parents and our girls
to the realities of their surroundings,
we believe these evils would be much
abated and the Catholic community be
made more flourishing and influential
1t is questionable, too, if it is not
desirable to revive the old practice of
matchmaking. In Ireland and other
countries where the young people are
not left entirely to their own gfddy
fancies and to chance circumstances
the marriages are happy. In Ireland
divorce and domestic tragedies are un-
known. In Australia parents make no
efforts to settle their children in life.
Too often the daughter of the house
meets stranger at a dance, the ac-
quaintance ripens into love on her
part, he marries her perhaps to break
her heart, or maybe he jilts her. and
for years afterward her thoughts do
not turn to matrimony. In such cases
the parents seldom inquire into the
mans position, habits and family his
tory. The young men also rely on
chance to supply them with a partner
for life and a mother for their children.
We have no sympathy with the cow
ardly cry Of poverty. This country
is richer than other countries in which
the marriage rate is high. Among the
rich there is even a stronger disinclina-
tion to marry than among the poor
"a SOUliS ltiiON anu young woman
with good characters can marry reck-
less of consequences. Our wealthiest
men began life in the humblest cir
cumstances. We could give scores of
names of successful men who began
married life with what would be re-
garded now as scanty worldly pros
poets. 1t is not poverty, but a bad
character and an enemy of her religion
that a Catholic young lady has to
fear.
1t is the first duty of parents, to see
that their children are married safely
1t is of more Importance than all the
genteel accomplishments with which
they are wont to arm them for the
battle of life. With bad husband or
a bad wife, or in a lonely state, SUPER
fetal accomplishments are of very lit
tie use. Good character is the basis
upon which all happiness or love is
built. Good men and women are all
at heart alike, and there need be no