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Show MAItKIAOK A ( ( t l US. Let a domestic tragedy occur anywhere any-where within the domain of the United States, the telegraph will speedily announce an-nounce it to a curious people; but let tho bliss of marital affection rest upon a whole community and nobody will be any the wiser for it. In this way virtue is its own reward. Tho rotten apple swims on tho surfacn of the water, in sight of every eye, while the sound fruit sinks to tho bottom, aud out of sight. That is the reason why we hear so much of unhappy marriages anil so littlo lit-tlo about tho happy ones. Our loose divorce laws, too, invito to hasty unions because tho contractors know the risk they run is comparatively small since the yoko can bo easily lifted if it prove in the least irksome. Ami it is just tho long array of legal dissolutions that frightens the timiil aspirants for connubial honors nnd furnishes the cynic with the most telling arguments. And yet, after all that has been said and can bo said against marriage, it is still the most satisfactory state of existence. exist-ence. It entails vast cares aud extraordinary extra-ordinary responsibilities nnd often results re-sults in disappointment, but on the other hand it arouses the noblest instincts in-stincts and stirs the loftiest ideals in the human soul. There is no need of dwelling dwell-ing hero upon the moral or social as fleet of matrimony. It is too well tin- derstood for that. Rut a word might be said concerning the hygienic aspect of tin; case as culled from the vital statistics sta-tistics of the United States. According to the Manual of Hygiene married men from 25 to 80 years of ago dio at tho rate of (i, unmarried at the rate of . 10, and widowers at the rate of 2'2 per 1000 per annum; from 30 to 3.", the death rates, of these several classes are respectively 7, 11. l'JJ; and from 35 to 40, married men die at the' rate of TJ per 1000 per annum, unmarried unmar-ried at the rate of lit, and widowers at the rate of 17J. On the other hand, men who marry between the ages of 18 and L'O years die as rapidly hs men aged from 615 to 70. From 30 to ar years of age, spinsters dio at the rate of 11, and wivea at tho rate of 0 per 1000 per an- num. while under 2." the mortality is about tho same. The expectation of a man married at 25 is that he will live to tho age of O,",, whilo that of the unmarried un-married man of tho same ago is that he will live to the age of fit). The married woman at 25 may expect to attain the age of 1)5, the unmarried that of 5(1. These figures are suggestive and tolling. toll-ing. And then the roligious conception, which declares wedlock holy, is not the least important. For all that marriage is not a perfect institution; it is only the most perfect we know of, and one incomparably better bet-ter than celibacy. Give tho young men ami women all tho pleasures and delights de-lights they cravo for and they will not satisfy their inner longing for a higher and purer exaltation. And as age creeps apace and the comforts of home life outstrip the frivolities of earlier years; and as love, tried in sunshine and in sorrow, nestles closer and sinks deeper into tho heart, bo it lor gladness or solace, so-lace, those who lack it and never possessed pos-sessed it, feel as never the anguish of a lone aud solitary existence. All nature is born to mate, and providence provi-dence never makes a mistake. Hence matrimony is a natural state; nnd hence also, we find persons just relieved from tho bondage in which they believed they were held, return freely to it. And what about the hopes and fears; the smiles and tear?; the joys and griefs; the mirths and cares, that come with children? . We are moved to the contemplation of this subject by an interview in the New York Sun which strikes a sweeter key than that too often sounded by the crusty pessimist who usually vents his grievances in print: '1 would n-vcr have bien an old maid." said a lady of forty, "if I hod known aa much twenty years ano as I know now. Wheu I w as at a mai rlaKeJbic time of life i heard bo much aliout unlnif py couples that I was afraid to become a wile. Hut 1 have looked a'oindlu later times and have chanped my mind on the j sube t Lust year I toik up a list of twenty I wives of my ac iiialutanc whom I had known In foro I hi'tr wedlock and to whom I upoke about their experlencen In life. I found that fifteen "f the twenty were h )tly married, that four of them Kt alonir tolerably well with their htiabands. and that 0'ily one of them bewailed be-wailed her matrimonial lot. The tirtMen happy wives are amiable women, fond of their child leu and helpful to their husbands. Ab.utth unhappy one of them I can only s.iy that he is a grumbler married to a growler, and would he unU.ippy anyhow, and as to the other four, the fault Ik not all on one sidi . I suspect that the twenty married women I have s ok n of are fair epflm-n of wives In (reneral, most of whom find by experience tha" it !s marriage that make lite worth living. As I myself am amiable. I believe that I would have made a happy marriage If I had not l ee i frightened by the stories that I heard twenty years ago." |