Year: 1873




What with divorce suits in our civil courts,
and parrici1es and wifo-murderers crowd
ing the docks in the criminal, the New
Yorker who tempts matrimony to his undoing
this Summer must have n Benjamin's share OF
pluck. These disgusting domestic revelations
of tho courts ought to affect the marriage
market if love and lovers were subject 10
ordinary rules of commerce. lt Is not alone
Dennis and Mary in the back alley or tene-
ment garret whose squabbles and broken noses
lately offend the public eye: 1T Is tne ola
KnickerbOcker families that have fastened to
offer the most pitiable spectacles OF loose
living and infdelity on the part OF
wives aud husbands, who write books to ex-
pose their domestic broils, who end their yul-
gar disagreements with vile and horrible MUIR
ders. Our young men preparing to pass the
season at Newport or Long Branch would do
well to betake themselves instead to Nevada
or the AdirOndacks, where petticoats cannot
venture, or ut least to put on double armor OF
proof before entering the lists with their an
tagOnists in tulle and muslin. This modern
jousting, ycept flirting, seems a pretty play
enough with its surroundings Of delicate flowers
and delicate dresses, dainty feelings and dainty
gifts, from the first futtering blush to
the wedding ring but it. these newspaper
reports can be trusted in their bald savage
truth, it is apt to end in a struggle more
fierce and bitter than death, wherein love and
iealously and hate each take a part. or
course this is an extreme view of the case.
For one wretched, ,,utterly discordant marriage,
or one parricide like Walworth, trained by
ha
stratum of our social life is made up OF IN
Vulnerable peaceful, quiet homes and families,
whose existence even is unknown to the pub
lie.


But it is nevertheless true that q certain
discomfort, an uneasiness, has penetrated to
the very tranquillest of these homes during the
present generation. Any shrewd, bOnorably-
minded girl or young man, listening TO an
hours conversation between an average mar
ried couple of middle age, would in all proba-
bility bo strongly repelled from matrimOny;
and this not because of any crime, open or
hidden, or any active disagreement between
the husband and wife, but simply because
tho glamour, the sOftening light and shad-
ows of love which processes to be eter-
nal are all gone, and nothing remains but the
bare hard fact of a mutual social partnership.
Now we are in no whit less fit for welded
constancy and happiness than were our grand
fathers. The young couple who were married
at Grace Church the other day in all the
sheen and splendor of laces and diamonds, or
the mechanic and his young bride taking
their weeks wedding journey, are just as
honest and devOut in their love and high
purpose as even Benjamin Franklin and
Deborah his wife, who, after their long hYes
of sober Quaker bliss, sleep side by side IN
the sight of great city. Husbands were as
ant TO be unfaithful in old times as now, and
wives as querulOus. Yet there was undOubted-
IL an accord habit of affection, Of mutual
Welding, care, consideration in marriage then
which is too often lacking now. The reason
is probably that with advanced culture both
men and women have become more many
sided, and therefore find agreement less
easy. Especially is this the case
with the wives. Martha Washington
and Dolly Madison, apart from being
keen managers OF Il household and well-bred
hostesses, had little development for their in
tellects beyond possibly q slight knowledge
of French or Latin grammar, the use of the
globes, and the ability to tinkle little on
guitar or harpsichord. Whatever shrewdness
or judgment they had, found exercise only on
such share of their husbands affairs as was
expounded to them by their husbands. But,
other times, other manners. The young bride
at Graco Church and the mechanics wife
have each, if they are average American
women, their own notions on all the veXed
questions of the day, from the Darwin
ian theory to the last murder; each has her
social, domestic, literary, and artistic tastes
and beliefs. The more strength or ability
there is in her the more strongly these creeds
and habits of thought are defined and enter
into her character. With the husband, the
same is equally true. Now two cannot walk
together unless they be agreed, and out OF
these very differences, so trivial at first, grow
almost all the dissension and wretchedness of
welded life. John and Maria fall in love on
the ground of half-a-dOzen conversations,
wherein each descries in the other nobility
benevoience, and tenderness of which the
world is not worthy: plus fine manners, and
again plus soft lips and kindling eyes, &c,
sc. WhereupOn they marry. John is .. z.
Presbyterian, and sees in a hymn short cut
to hell :; Maria a Broad Church woman, who
fraternzes with Pope and pagan, PhiliStine
and free worShiper John knows no delight so
keen as laying by sum weekly in the saw
ings bank Maria filings money away on
bouquets and bonbons, or leaves the
butchers bills unpaid and rushes home triumph
anty with cracked bit of antique pottery.
Still there is hope that the two will work to-
gether TO passable accord if they are left
alone; well fermented wine is finest in both
body and bouquet. But there the mother-in-
law and family come in and all is over. Each
memher of each familY asserts O claim Just