The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-02-16
CAPTURE AND TRAINING OF HUSBANDS

Written for the Richmond Nirginian,
In one of the papers we have no.
ticed an incident of a girl in Indiana
who, when folding circulars, put her
name and address on one. An answer
was received from a distant State,
Correspondence followed, then an en-
gagement The groom appeared anu
they were married, and started Tor
the lordly villa pictured to her by
letter and speech. When they alight-
ed at the station the family chariot"
met them, and. 10! 1t was an OK cart!
With sinking heart the bride took the
journey IN 1t miles into the woods
until the villa" appeared, a slab
shanty in the swamp, deserted by a
sawmill gang!
But poor, foolish girl, what could
she expect? For with some rare ex-
captions the matrimonial advertiser
is either a fool or a moral leper.
Why do the dear creatures enter
the married state, anyhow? They
do not have to, and no mortal son of
Adap can bring them to a decision
against their Will. 1t was a shrewd
spinster who said she did not marry
because she did not need to. She had
a monkey that smoked, a parrot that
swore and dog that growied when
ever she fed him. Though she was
rather hard on those of us who enjoy
a fragrant Havana or a ripe PeWifa-
tan with fig stem attachment. Know
Ing that marriage Is the greatest die
ever cast in life, many women prefer
to make no choice to a bad one, an
some of the brightest names In his
tor ra al oil Hsi tai II
some rude fellow once. and repeated
by his unchiSalrous imitators. Wit
ness Caroline Hershell, the great as
tronomer, or Florence Nightingale, the
angel of the Crimea, or Grace Darling,
the oarswoman, or Dorothea Dix, the
messenger OF mercy to the insane, or
Frances Willard, the many-sided he
roine, or Clara Barton, of the Red
Cross.
But many women so dread the word
spinster on their tombstones that they
marry for the sake of marrying, fall
in love with love itself, admire mar
rage in the abstract, idealize a worth
less man with all the virtues they wish
he had, and unite themselves for life
or until the divorce court meets In
an unworthy and wretched union. This
thousand dollar women and to two
cent men. Other women have not been
taught to fight the battle OF life alone,
they have had it dinned into their
ears that marriages is the end of all
feminine ambition, or their lives are
unoccupied and dull, and, like the
boy who wished he could die, and
when asked why, said: "Oh, Just for
Il change They enter into marriage
to break the monotony OF an idle ex-
istence. Many persons simply drift
into wedlock like ARENAS Ward and
his Betsy. Her fathers farm jined
our'n. ne said; their cows and our n
squencht their thurst at the same
spring. our old mares both had stars
in their forreds; the measles broke
out IN both fap1eritgs at nearly the
same period; our parents CI3etsy's
and mine) slept reglariy every Sunday
in the same meetin' house, and the
nabers used TO obsarve, How thick
the Wards and the Peasleys ARR 1t
wasda surblime sight In the spring OF
the year to see our several mothers
(Betsy's and mine) with their gowns
pin'd up so thay couldn't sile 'em. af-
fecshunitly Bilin sope together and
abeosin the nabers."
The writer has In his ltbary a copy
Of love letter written by young
gentleman ia EhaiLAa, tsN.she lady. of
his hearts delight some three or four
thousand years ago. And respected
sir or. madam II sounds good deal
like those ardent missives you sent
and received some years ago and
which are tied together In bundle