The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1910-03-10
MARRIAGE 70 YEARS AGO
Ultra Modern Idea Not New
After All.
OLD TINE SIMPLICITY.
Woman's Reply to Charges That
Welded Life is a Failure" Still
Holds Good-Idleness is Fa;al.
Carelessness of Partners-Homc
Life Dying Out.

Life Dylng OUT.
Persons who profess The Christian
religion must keep in their hearts
green spot wherein the sanCtity of
marriage is preserved as a natural
law from which there Is no rcccding.
Marriage has been from the begin.
ming, and must last indisputably until
the very end, and let us hope that It
is not in all cases a failure" says
Theresa Corletta in San Francisco
News Letter Dec. 10, 1855.
It is we, the inhabitants of this
world, who are failures. not the in3ti-
tuition, which is the only one out Of
which law and order can spring
There are two sides of the question
to be discussed.
In the past we may remember that
marriage was looked upon rs holy
alliance; one TO be entered into after
mature deliberation and only under
fortuitous circumstances A man
would as soon have thought of putolns
his head in the fire as asking wo.
man to be his wife unless he had
comfortable home to take her TO.
Husbands found pleasure in home.
life long ago, and when tired, after
the professional or business employ
ments of the day. would ask no
greater happiness than to pass their
long. happy evenings with their
wives; or when little vo.ces and pa:.
tering feet echoed through hall or
cottage, to gather the children around
the winter fire and gambol with them
on nOwer-scentcd lawn or grass.car-
peted fields.
Long ago, the thought of which
comes to us who have seen it like
the reflection of bright dream wife
and children looked eagerly for the
coming of the beloved parent, whose
image held sway in each heart dur
ing absence, and each married woman
felt happy in her wifehood, glorying
in the joy of her home.
Men did not startle the world with
the theory they promulgate today,
that they won't be owned They
were happy to be owned by good and
faithful wives, and even the youngest
men were not satisfied until they
had their own firesides. Families
went to church together and brought
up the little ones in the right way
and no one was ever heard to discuss
the possibility of marriages being a
failure"
Things are different today. Just
as soon as girl leaves school she
is on the outlook for a man with
money" no matter how old the gen
tleman may be. If he can give her
diamonds and those other accessories
for which the woman of today seems
solely to live.
The woman who marries a man in
medium circumstances only would
scorn to keep house" No, indeed;
she wants a good time" She boards,
and here her first troubles commence
To be boxed up day by day with one
person. with only the one room, or
even suite, except meal hours, 70 cah
their own. would lead the most is
voted couple to the brink of suicide
Gagged up in this way, every llttle
foble and fault stands out in Dold
relief, and man and woman both
grow weary and arrive at the con
clusion to each ego their own way
It is not the marriage tie that Is IN
any way a failure. why should 1t be
more so now, in the enlightened nine
teenth century, than ii was III the
DAYS of darkness and superstilonF
There can be no reason, except that
possibly we are growing too much
enlightened. educated too much' ana
yet too little.
1t is "the people of the people VINO
are slipping back, who are sauateu
with the wine of pleasure, the peoP'e
who do not grow from infancy 10
youth slowly, and from youth TO age
in temperate pleasure, but VINO are
born babies only to be thrust by thelr
silly parents into the caps ana gowns
of womanhood ere their second leeIh
are cut.
While men and women live III
round of pleasure, oVer-sensual' o'''.
bearing, having no religion OF SeiSe
Of decorum, how can welded love live
in such an atmosphere? II husnahu'
and wives do not love deeply ehous"
to live for each other, renounclhs the
frivolties of life for the serene loys
Of home. why marry at all until they
have sobered down and feel the hee'
of rest. -,
There is nothing the matter WIN
marriage; it Is today as II mas o'o'
been, but the people are diHereis
different in their ideas, in their al
fectons, in everything, and iorgev
ting their own shortcomings they LAY
their grievance on the shoulders u
marriage, and by their own ihcu,n
petence make it a failure pu
woe to us when marriage Is "'Po0
out.
Bible Society Reports
A n pI