The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-06-19
MS LOVE INSANITY"

rs Marriage a Cure for Love?" was
the subject of Hugh o. Pentecost's
after dinner. speech at the closing meet
ing of the Sunrise Club on Monday
evening, says the New York Tribune
Mr.. Pentecost began by imploring the
audience to understand that he was
about to consider the subject abstract
ly, not from personal experience. He
had been induced to talk about this
matter before, he said, and persons
had carried remarks of his to a GER
tain member of his family, and it was
not their fault that they did not make
him trouble. Furthermore, since the
announcement of his subject, he had
been approached by so many women
in a threatening attitude that for the
first time in a long career of pub
lie speaking he could fairly say that
he was intimidated, and should prob
ably hedge.
What is love?" he began. rs it a
disease? Is it species of insanity?
What we call romantic love attacks
men generally between the ages of
eighteen and twenty-five. 1t attacks
girls, too, but with a difference. The
girl always keeps her head enough
to know what she is about. The man
becomes temporarily a lunatic. 1t is
each other as they are. They seem
entirely different persons. I've seen
man in love with a woman that
/ thought ne must be crazy to love.
l couldn't have loved her to save my
life. 1 saw her as she was. He saw
a totally different person.
That sort of love disappears very
quickly after marriage. 1t never
last more than "a few years. 1t may
be gone in a few weeks. And there
you are. Married, and the feeling
which induced you to marry, vanish
ed. That is the end of that kind of
love between those two people.
Now, the fact that the two people
are married has nothing to do with
element of very intelligent and respec-
table people that betrays a disposition
to think that marriage is an evil per
Sc, and should be abolished. l have
known some of these people who as
stunned the marriage relation without
the conventional ceremony. And they
were just as apt to be unhappy as
! those who married, Romantic love,
with it's SplendorS of emotion, persisted
just the same between them as be-
| tween those who were bound.
1.-The happiness of the years that fol-
low does not depend in any way upon
whether the two people have observed
| the common ceremony or not. 1t de-
ponds entirely on the two people them
selves. If the two people are so con-
| stituted that they can maintain mu-
| tual love, it will not come to an end.
| If they are not, 1t will. AS mat
| ter of fact, no one is happy, either
married or single, for any prolonged
period. But a very great number of
married people, the vast majority, in
fact, are comfortable In the relation.
They get more comfort with it than
they would without it. The feeling
Then their future comfort depends on
| whether they harmonic or not;
| whether. they are on the same intel
lectual plane; whether their tastes
agree-in short, whether they suit each
other; whether they like each other.
And two people who do suit each other
| in this way come eventually after the
better and more satisfactory feeling
than even the roseate, indescriba BILE,
unreal feeling with which they be-
gan.
What we are to call this later feel
| ing, friendship, affection, what not, l
| don't know. But all happy married
| people possess it, and they all know
| it is better than the other. These are
the happy people, the people every one
envies; the people who have maintain
| ed that much discussed institution, the
home, for many centuries, so that no
assaults have had any effect upon it.
Marriage is popular. Everybody will
go into it. If they have tried it once,
| they will try it again, If they have
! been married twice, they will marry
three times, if the occasion arises. II
they were happy the first time they
will say, i can duplicate it, If they
were unfortunate before, they say, 1
can do better this time am speak
ing of the great mass of human kind.