The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1909-11-18
DON'T MARRY THE MAN
WHO is DIFFERENT
From Yourself, If You Wish To Sail
Happily Over Matrimonial Seas.

nappy marriage That has called fOrth as
much general sympathy for the victim
of it as has that of James M. Barrie,
who has just obtained divorce from
his wife. 1t seems too bad that the
creator of peter Pan" and. 'Senti-
mental Tommy" and ''The Little Min
lister" and Libby" and all that dear
and whimsical company of freside folk
should not himself havl known the JOY
of happy and peaceful fireside Of his
own.
But, now that it is all over, one sees
how such a marriage was almost bound
to end in disaster, for Barrie and his
wife came from such different environ
ments, Of such different stock, with
such different habits and such differ
ent viewpoint of life that they could no
more blend tremendously than oil and
water. Of course, the climax of their
matrimonial tragedy came in the wife's
unfaithfulness, but before that had
come the friction that had worn in two
the bond that bound them to each other.
Barrie came of the strictest sect of
''auld LIGHT" Presbyterians. His wife
was an actress.
He was raised in the dire poverty
that has made the Scotch peasant the
closest listed person in the world. She
belonged to a class whose hands are
always wide open and who are as prodi-
gal of money as if it grew on trees.
She must have shocked his rigid ideas
thousand times a day.
His narrow ways must have grated
continually on her nerves, and 50 at
last the woman's heart turned back to
her own kind, the gay, lavish, easy
going, laughter loving people to whom
she belonged.
The fate Of the Barries has in it a
moral that is as poignant as any taught
by his plays or stories, and its lesson is
that if you want to ne happy when mar
ried to marry within your own class, a
person who has been brought up with
( the same ideas and habits and standards
of conduct that you have.
! We see this rule transgresscd every
day, and every DAY we are called upon
to shed tears over the ensuing disaster,
for the attraction Of opposites that is
strong enough to make US marry is only
exceeded by the repulsion of opposites
that makes US fight after we are mar
ried to the Individual with whom we
have nothing in common.
| When an elderly WidoWer with grown
children marries a Eighty young gill,
who need be surprised if it isn't long
before the tongue Of gossip begins to
wag over their troubles?
He is sober and sedate and has reach
ed the time of life when he wants to
! sit by the fire in sippered ease of an
evening. She is gay and frivolous, mad
for excitement and amusement, and so
young that her feet ache for the dance
When a piously brought up young
man, one who is used to seeing his
mother and sisters find their diversion
In missionary meetings and sewing So
cieties. and who himself is a Y. NJ. c.
A. man and an usher at church, falls in
love with a chorus girl and marries her,
don't we all shrug our shoulders and
say, 81 told you so, when we learn of
the subsequent divorce proceedings?
When a stingy man picks out for a
wife the most gorgeously and extraya-
gantly dressed girl of his acquaintance,
who is amazed when report leaks out
that they quarrel like Kilkenny cats
over the bills?
| When a narrow little provincial girl
marries city rounder, who is astonish-
ed that she weeps her eyes out over his
habits and nags him to death about
/ them?
/ When a woman who is as bound to
/ have loYe as a flower is to have sun
shine, and who has been petted and
caressed and f1attered at home, marries
man who is human iceberg, and the
head of the Amalgamated Knockers
Club, is it surprising that she either
dies of a broken heart or runs off with
some man who will give her the affec-
ton she Graves?
Yet people go along light-heartedly
and debonairly making these kinds of
matches matches that are so newt
ably bound to make both parties miser-
able-that it would seem that a three
headed donkey, and not Cupid, pre-
sided at the average wedding.
1t is a curious thing that only in
matrlmony do we demand the impossi-
| bic. The most foolish of us would not
go to butcher shop to buy diamonds,
or look in an ash barrel for flowers, yet
we marry man or woman expecting
to find the very qualities that they ad-
vertise they do not keen in stock.
The one and only secret of happiness
in married life is congenialty. A man
and woman can be perfectly blissful
together if they have the same interests
and aspirations. They can pass life
of perfect contentment working like