The Savannah morning news., 1904-03-20
LOVE ON A CASH BASIS.

change National Bank Of Chicago.
which has posted UP the following no
tice:
Employees of this bank. receiving q
salary of less than $1,000 a year, mus.
not marry without first consulting IRE
officials OF the bank and obtaining
their approval"
This effort to put loves young dream
on a sound financial basis can but Heet
with the hearty approval Of all sens--
bic people, for there is no other one
thing in the world that has INSPIRED
as much crime. and led 10 as much
misery as the fatuous theory that you
can draw dividends in happiness on a
matrimonial venture that is hoatAd on
a hot air capitalization. Misled by the
giittering and alluring prospectuses IN
novels, where clothes never wear out,
where one never hungers and the bill
collector is at rest, millions OF conhd-
ing young people rush into Wedloek
without a penny in their pockets IN the
fond belief that love is enough, only
TO find out in the end that they have
been bankrupted in affection as well
as mone-.
Probably, the most blighting dlsap-
pointment that ever comes 10 any
lover is to discover that the way
human being is constructed he Is more
stomach than heart. and that II ne
wants to nourish the one he must sus-
tain the other. Nevertheless it is true
However it may have been in the past,
when the demands of life were less ex-
igent, certain il IS that in the Drosaic
times Cupid runs things on strictly
commercial lines, and only those may
indulge long in romance who are able
TO pay for the luxury.
OF course. this bald statement of fact
will not please the sentimentalists, who
hold that every one in love, or every
one who imagines himself in love
should rush OF and get married even
II he borrows the money to buy the
license and fee the parson, and takes
his bride home to his poor, hard-worked
old father to support. This is the gem
cral American view Of the subject, ana
there could be no more cynical COM
rnentary on the length of time love
lasts under adverse circumstances tnaH
that the United states. which leads the
world in love matches. also leads Il
IN the number oS its divorces.
Il is precisely this state OF analrs
that the wise and philanthropic offl-
cials OF the Chicago bank propose TO
combat They are not trying TO dis-
courage love. They are simply trylng
10 protect il with such safeguards that
II will not be starved. or frozen, or
S1yer-worked 10 death. and in this they
deserve TO have their hands upheld by
the entire community. In reality, there
are few greater public crimes Ghan the
tacit encouragement that we give car
low young people to contract fooish
and ill-iudged marriages. When
silly boy, who has never even support
ed himself and who hasn't cent 70
bless himself with. nnarries a SICILY
girl who is equally helpless and power
~ stricken. we Justify the iniquity by
saving that they were in love, and IL
Was 50 romantic yet IL does not take
a prophet. nor the son Of prophet 10
see the finish Of the majority OF suSH
marriages in the poor house, or ths
criminal docket.
There are no statistics ayaliaDls Oh
the subject, but there can be no doupt
4bs4 > large percentage of the trusted
clerks who rob their employees anu ti,S
tookkeepers that go wrong. were a.
most driven to steal TO supply tne
needs Of sick wives or babies VINO were
CRYING to them for luxuries they Were
unable TO buy. or were nrst tsIhPteu
to play the races TO try 70 get money
easily because they were bounded ana
ed the money TO pay. We 90 wen
when we Judge such men leniently' De
cause the public sentiment that back
ed them up in marrying before they
could AFFORD II. makes US parueeps
criminis" I'm their offense.
No one would underValue the Dedu-
" and the sacredness Of love, but II
IS cold fact that 1t isn't sufficient
cauitaI OF itself on which to marry.
No man or woman is in the proper
frame of mind TO be sentimental when
they are hungry, or cold, ana the love
that has to stand the wear ana tear
of shabby clothes, and crucihed tastes
and the haraSsment OF unpaid pllls is
mighty apt TO soon show signs or fraZ-
zling out around the edges and giving
away in the seams. OF course there
are exceptions to this rule, but any
body who gets married without a de-
cent support in sight is as foolhardy
as II he jumped overheard at sea,
without knowing how to swim, because
there have been people who couldn't
be drowned.
In theory and poetry all that any
married couple need to make them
perfectly happy is bread and cheese and
kisses, no matter If they have been
used to terrapin and champagne. In
real life If we are going to be happy,
though married, we have to have the
Same menu we were uSNu w. anu NAAN
kisses thrown in as an extra course.
We have TO add to our pleasures, not
subtract from them. In the first
flush of love a young man thinks that
there is nothing he wouldn't be will
ing to sacrifice for the girl with whom
he is smitten. Sometimes, while he
is still of that apinion, he marries
her, and then begins the eternal bat
tie between tastes. and habits and love,
in which love is usually knocked out in
the first round.
Take the case Of a man who has
been raised a gentleman with a gen.
tleman's tastes. He has been accus-
toned to dressing well. living well, to
knowing cultivated and refined people.
to seeing good plays, and hearing good
music, and smoking good cigars. He
marries on a too small income, and
finds that the salary that made one
very comfortable can make two very
uncomfortable. He must live in a
cheap fiat, or a Godforsaken suburban
cottake, where the ugliness of every
thing is an anguish to one cultivated
up to Turkish rugs and old blue china
standards; he must give up his friends
for he can neither entertain nor dress
as they do, and his life become one
continual sprint at lodging the bill
collector.
Is there any happiness for a man in
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