The Savannah morning news., 1902-09-07

the SCHOOL teachers ana summer STU
dents at the University of Chicago,
President Andrews urged all of his
hearers who weren't married to rush
into matrimony, and declared that
man or woman. who voluntarily re-
manned single was a moral degenerate.
Perhaps, says Dorothy Dix, in the
New Orleans Picayune, no more mis-
chievous advice than this was ever
given. Hasty and ill-considered mar
riages, marriages entered into without
sufficient means to support family,
marriages contracted in the mistaken
belief that passing fancy is a death
less passion, are responsible for nine
tenths of the murders and thefts and
drunkenness and misery of the world.
Such unions where love dies with the
honeymoon, and where all that is left
is a hated chain thhat binds two peo-
pie together, is the DEVILS workshop
where all that is worst in the charac-
ter of a man and woman are devel-
oped, and as a matter of truth, the
moral degenerates are not old maids
and old bachelors, but men and wo-
men who have been unhappily mar
ried, and whose own experiences have
embittered them and scared their be-
lief in every good and true thing.
The old bachelor, no matter how
wicked he may have been himself,
cherishes some ideal of womanly gen.
tleness and purity; the old maid hugs
to her heart to the last her faith in
the supreme nobility of man; but the
man whose wife has betrayed
him or the woman whose
husband has been false to her,
nffI
forth to avenge their wrongs on soci-
ETY., or, soured and disgruntled mock
at the gods of others.
If every marriage were happy mar
riage, DR.. Andrews, and every other
preacher and teacher might we'll urge
it indiscriminately on people, for there
can be no doubt that just as unhappy
wedlock develops all the tares and
weeds in the soul, happy marriage is
the sunshine in which all the buds and
blooms of the heart find their finest
flower. The love that robS labor of its
toll, that makes sacrifice a pleasure,
that prefers, above itself, rounds life
into it's fullest perfection.
Those who have missed a happy
marriage have missed the best that
the world can give, but those that
have kept out of an unhappy marriage
have escaped a lot of misery and suf-
fering, and some times it is a good
zeal better to be safe than to run the
risk of being blessed Unless all the
circumstances of marriage are propi-
tious-unless the man and woman are
CID enough to know what they really
desire in q life companion, and are
sure that their love is founded on
something deeper and more lasting
than the curve of check or an
ability to dance the two-step, and I'M
less they have sufficient income to live
on decently in the way in which they
have been accustomed to live, it will
be a great deal better for their hearts
and their morals and their tempers
ard their purses to stay single, DR..
Andrews to the contrary notwith-
standing. There have been reckless
marriages that turned out all right,
but nobody has right to take it for
granted that they will be struck by
lightning.
AS a further inducement to the I'M
prepared to break into the holy estate
of matrimony, Dr. Andrews says that
the single man or woman has no place
in society. The facts in the case don't
seem to bear out this either. Men who
have done great things have been
mostly married because women admir-
ed them so they couldn't escape
though quite respectable number of
bachelors have also made a noise in
the world and have done things that
left humanity better and wiser, while
among women Florence Nightingale,
Frances Willard, Clara Barton, Jane
Adams, and a hundred more one
could name off-hand have not only
had definite place in society, but
perch on the topmost round of the
ladder, although none of them had
husband.
In society-the gay society that
gives balls and parties and rides in
tOmobiles-whether a middle-aged
person has place in it or not de-
ponds. in this country at least, on
that sort of chrome they can throw
in with their company and lack of per-
sonal attractions, and not on their pos
session OF q wedding ring An elderly
woman, stringy and sallow and plain
without any particular gift of mind
or person to attract the admiration of
her fellow-creatures, must pay for the
privilege of society if she gets It. If
she is poor and cannot entertain, she
viii find herself relegated to the back
ranks and the church sociabIe crowd
just as much If she is a married wo-
man as If she is an old maid and bv
the same token the rich spinster never
mas to complain of neglect or being
overlooked by her acquaintance. The
woman whose cook is a Gordon bleu
anu whose wines are or the proper vim
tage does not find that her invitations
are refused because she is single. and
while husband may be luxury. he
is by no means social necessity.
80 lar as men are concerned. the
statement that a single person has no
status in society is even more I'M
tenable, for it is an axiom that so
Ions as a man is unmarried he is an
ooJect or burning interest and solicit
tude 10 every woman in the commun-
ty. The old bachelor is always per-
soma srata with the wives of his mar
ried friends, a welcome guest at their
taple, and a perennial object of their
philanthropis matchmaking endeavor.
indeed, one of the severest lars a
mans vanity ever gets is the dull.
slckenlng thud with which all other
women throw him over the minute he
IS married. Up to that time he has
Deeh inquire. Woman's faces
nave Frightened at his approach, they
nave hung with eager interest on his
words, and laughed at his witticism,
out the minute he gets married he is
VI interest and Importance to only
one woman In the world, and no other
woman is mean enough to do him re-
Verence
But the society that is of most i'm
poftance in the world in the great
ptoGherhood of man, and nothing could
We less true than that the unmarried
man or woman has no part nthis.
III every community there are maids
Sna old bachelors whose lives arc so
az aeelpIul to their fellow-creatures that
Almost seems as If they had a spec
IA can to celibacy and that they were
H.. O., H.