The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1907-02-14
Random Thoughts
of a
Busy Outsider

to say he has been talking again. 1t
is seemingly a rule in the windy city
for either the preachers or the pro.
fessors to say something startling
each week. In that way the world is
kept constantly admonished of the
fact that Porkopolis is on the map.
The Outsider has forgotten this
particular professors name, and it
really does not matter at all, but the
man says that romantic love can
hardly survive the homogeneous con
dition of man and wife.
This outrageous proposition pro
voked universal condemnation from
Chicago women, and the Outsider
was well pleased to see among the
names Of his critics that of Mrs. John
IS. McClelland, now president of the
Chicago Culture Club. Mrs. McClel-
land is very well known in Keokuk
and Wapello counties and win be re
membered by Oskaloosa people as
having a prominent part in the State
G. A. R. Encampment held here IN
1905. She was National Inspector, or
something Of that sort, for the w. r.
c., and she acquitted herself of ner
duties with great credit to herself.
Mrs. McClelland says: Professor
Thomas views on this point are alb
surd. I am living refutation or
them. l married my first and oaly
sweetheart, and we are still in love
as Economically as ever"
Mr.. and Mrs. McClelland have been
thirty years married, and old frie11s
of the couple are ready to declare this
statement to be absolutely true.
Nor are they exceptions to the gen,
eeral run of mankind. The Outsider
is sufficiently optimistic to believe
that the greater number of marriages
are happy. If one looks around among
the people by whom we Iowans in
moderate circumstances are surround.
ed, it is certainly true that there are
more happy than unhappy homes.
Plentiful as are divorces, they 10
not yet equal the number of marriag.
es. Doubtless Smith don't see how
Jones ever lives with his shrew wife
and probably Mrs. Jones does not
see how Mrs. Smith can put up with
that exasperating Smith. But don't
you see the couples mated right after
all, and there are two peaceable
homes in consequence Moreover,
there is little doubt that Jones loves
Mrs. Jones as well now as when he
first chose her, while Smith thilks
there is no one in the world like his
little woman"
If there is real affection, good
sense and virtue at the beginning Of
marriage it lasts to the end, when
having climbed the hill of life,
I'VE maua totter down, John, but
hand in hand wen go,
And sleep togither at the foot, John
Anderson my joe"
Real affection is the first requisite
to a happy marriage. By this is not
meant those first emotions of an I'M
disciplined heart, neither are the al
lurements of passion, wealth or posi-
ton to be considered the foundation
for happy union, Real affection is
founded on mutual respect, congenial
tastes a1d mutual comprehension.
Possibly there is such a thing as
love at first sight for some people
but those people exist mostly in nov
els. How handsome face, or a
graceful figure can attract when one
does not know what is behind it,
passes the Outsiders comprehen-
sion. AS well fall in love with a
statue or mask, and there is where
good sense comes in. There, too, ia
where the harm of unlimited novel
reading comes il.
Did you ever stop to think how i'm
possible is the they lived happily
forever thereafter? When a man
has won his wife, and fortune OF
course, the book closes, and there the
young people are just at the begin
ming of their life. They've had a
whole lot of trouble in getting mar
ried and now life is a holiday. Par
ents, that is the stuff your children
read, that is the stuff we all read
over and over again, until the land
of romance seems more real than
the land of every day life. For us
who are grown ups" is does not
matter SO much; we know what life
Is. But for young people fiction in
unlimited and i'll regulated doses IL
dangerous. 1t feeds the dreamy ro
nance of girls nature till all her
views of life are distorted, AID She
is ready to indulge in an affair with
nearly anybody that she may have
her own experience. Then when en-
tangled and married she wakes up to
real life. Then comes her disillusion
ment, her unhappiness and probably
that of her husband.
Good sense requires a long, at least
moderately long, acquaintance be
tween contracting parties. 1t re
quires facing of the future with
some knowledge OF its probabilities
II requires an acceptance of the facts
that life Is not all holiday and that
every human character has flaws.
Bear and forbear, forgive a thous