The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1920-03-20


was to have been expected. Interna-
tional marriages are very seldom sue
cess even in those cases In which the
bride has millions with which to atone
to her husband for her being different
from the women OF his own race. and
the husband can give his wife a coronet
as a compensation for leaving home, and
friends and family. In the long list OF
so-called brilliant marriages which
American girls have made with foreign
noblemen there has scarcely been one
instance Of a happy marriage.
How much less chance OF success then
had these marriages between poor men
and poor girls. who have neither money
nor position to gild their lot! Nothing
but blindness of love could have made
anyone believe that they could be
happy. And the trouble with the blind
ness OF love Is that 1t Is always tenn
porary complaint. Time invariably
cures 1t.
The only chance that an international
marriage has OF being happy Is when
the man settles down to live In the
woman's country, for men can be trans
planted much more easily than women
can. Women are as hard to move as
a cat. The love of place Is imbedded
in their very souls. Also family ties
are much stronger with them than with
men, and so one can have only pity for
for their Sammies was not strong
enough to enable them to endure an
alien country. and an alien people,
whose customs and ways were strange
to them. and whose language they did
not speak.
tween people OF different race and diff
ferent religions very seldom turn out
we'll Nor Is this strange. No matter
how much man and woman really love
each other the process OF adjusting
themselves to each other is n difficult
one. even when they have a common
background. and pretty much the snme
point of view.
This Is infinitely complicated when
they trust in difference in racial temper
ament different habits and customs. a
Numerically opposite way of looking
at things. different God, and differ
ent theology,
How could you expect Jew and gem
tile. protestant and Catholic to har-
monte? How could you expect an
austere. purltanical New Highlander to
get along in peace with volatile Latin
with quicksilver in her veins? What
congeniality would there be between an
exotic Russian and a plain. practical
American business man? How could
you transplant Partisan elegnnte to n
little midwest village and really give
her heart interest in the sewing cir
Gle and the missionary circle?
And tho answer Is. you can't. 1t Is
one OF the impossibillties. and so the
man who marries out OF his own coun-
try. and out of his own circle. end his
own religion, does well to adopt his
wifes at once. 1t is the only thing that
saves the situation.
He Is the wise man, however. who
seeks wife among his own people and
of his own faith. She will be yhole-
some bread and butter to him while the
strange woman will always be caviare,
and while caviare is a most alluring APP
petizer we soon acquire indigestion II
we attempt to make meal upon It,
Also steady diet of 1t soon pals upon
our appetites and we lose our relish
for It.
Nothing in life is crueler thnn the
law of the attraction OF opposites that
draws men and women irrestibly and
fatally towards those who are their d.
rect opposite i'll every respect, and
with whom they will be miserable If
they mate. This is natures way of
preserving the general average OF the
species. and to keep humanity from
segregating into groups of giants and
piglmes. of angels and devils, OF super
intellectuals and fools.
1t Is this which makes the little
woman make eyes at the prizefghter.
and the college professor marry the
baby doll, and the Sunday school teach
or wed the black sheep, but while 1t is
undoubtedly good for postcrity, 1t Is
indisputably hard on the individual.
For the very quality of oppositeness
that draws n man and woman together
before marriage, makes them fly apart
after marriage. They never understood
each other because hey have no meet
ing ground OF mutual temptation and
Weaknesses To the self controlled man.
for instance, the emotional woman who
flies into tempers, and repents, and
weeps is a repulsive weakling. About
the only thing they have in common
Is the perpetual wonder of why they
ever married each other.
The happy marriages nre those In
which people marry the same kind OF
folks as they are, those who have been
rea rcd In the same environment, who