Omaha daily bee., 1915-09-22

young folks manage the matter for them
selves.
This view OF the matter Is one in which
Independent young America will never
acquiesce. In this country marriage is
not entered into primarily as an estab-
lishment for the perpetuation of the
family. 1t Is an experiment in individual
happiness. We want to pick out our own
husbands and wives, and at least have
the pleasure and excitement OF making
our own mistakes.
To my mind there are three cases, and
three only, in which parents are justified
in interfering in their childrens love az
fairs and breaking off a match II they
can. If parents know that a man Is i'm
moral, or a drunkard, or lazy and shift
less. they are right TO move heaven and
earth to prevent their daughter from
marrying rim. ana thus bringing certain
misery upon her own head.
p Or IL parents know a girl to be care
less in morals, of shrewish temper and
lextravagant and slovenly. they do no
more than their duty in trying to save
their son from wrecking his life by
marrying her.
In each case 1t IL a matter OF the char
,acter OF the individual to which the
parent mas a 10 ODIeCI-
else counts. and the father and mother
far exceed their privileges when they
object to their son or daughter choosing
a wife or husband because she or he
happens not to be OF the same religious
faith. or shade of politics. or have the
peculiar colored hair that they admire.
Religious bigotry should have no place
IN this country where people come be-
90
worship God according to the dictates OF
conscience. yet just now / know of
heart-broken young woman who has
been parted from the man she loved be-
cause her mother does not believed in
,'mixed marriages" The young man Ia
all that one could desire in a son-in-law
except his faitn which doesn't please the
girls mother-and which is none of the
old lady's business.
In such case a young couple are
foolish to let the prejudices OF a narrow
minded parent wreck their happiness.
She belongs to the days of religious in
tolerance and persecution. the rack and
thumb-screw, when people thought 1t
pious and pleasing to God to torture
other people into their way of think
ing. The young people belong to a
broader and saner and more tolerant
era of human thought, and II each is
willing that the other should seek
Heaven I'm his or her own way they
should refuse to be parted by an old
woman's anaticism. II there's nothing
TO object to i'm a man except the church
Ne goes to he is certainly matrimonial
prize that any girl should grab without
stopping 10 argue It out with her mother.
Another stumbling block In the path
Of true love Is the family tree. Fathers
and mothers, and particularly mothers,
feel that they have a perfect right 70
break off match II their son or daugh-
ter is going to marry some girl or boy
who isn't in their particular little social
set This is ridiculous in democratic
America, where every man makes his
own place in the world, and is con-
ltinually changing It. so that unless
mother has the gift OF prophecy she
never knows where the poor boy she
keeps her daughter from marrying is
going to end.
!, A bitter old maid OF my acquaintance.
who ekes out bare living as a type
writer. often points out to me the name
OF senator OF the United States TO
whom she was engaged when she was
girl. and whom she loves to this day.
But her mother broke off the engage
,inent because she didn't consider that a
carpenters son was fit to marry into
her august family.