Letter To A Bridegroom

To become a husband Í3 as serious a matter lo a man as is íor a woman to become a vyife. Marriage is no child's play; it brings ailded care, trial, perplexity. vexatiOD, and it requires a a great deal of the happiness which legitimately springs out of it to make the balan&e heavy in its favor. Very few live happily in marriage, and yet this is not because unhappiness is germane to the relation, but because those who enter it do not know, lirst, how to get married, and second how to live married happily. You have already made your choice; wisely. I am bound to believe. 'JL'hose qualities of character which have attracted yeu to choose as you have, should make your love grow daily while you live together. Aa to the second point: Ifyouwish to live in harmonious union with your wife, start out with the avowed recognition of the faet that she is your companion and co-partner. Marriage usually makes the wife neither of these. In ruany instances she sees less of her husband than before she married him. He comes he goes, he reads, thinks, works, and under the stimulus oí business, brings all his powersand faculties to the surface, and isdoyeloped thereby -not always symmetrically, but vigorously- not always barmoniously, but vith increasing power. Married men do not usially shrivei up nor put on a look oi premature age, but woroen frequently do, and it is plain to me why tuey do. Married women are shut up in the houses, and their chief care is for things that have no inspiring influence. Their time is taken up in meeting the phisical wants of their families - cooking, washing dishes, keeping the house in order, sewing, receiving company - not one of which has in it a tenaeacy even to culture and eleva tion. Married women are devoted to house, and this means a life of vexa t'.on and pettiness. It gives do sort of stimulus to the spirit. So the husband who is out of doors, active, interestec in mensures whieh affect the public good, coming into contact with men greater than himself, who inspire him to better purposes and nobler ends o laoor, aeve;ops mto manjy beauty, and grows in character; while bis wife a home, who has as faithfully performec her share of the work, withers anc decays prematurely. Treat your wife exactly as you yourself would like to be treated, if you had to live under her circumst&nces and you will not go far wrong. Do not entertain the silly notion that because she is of a different gen der frora your own, tbat she is there fore different in her wants, feelings quHlities, and powers. Do not be the victim of any social policy. Stand up bravely for the right, give your wife a chance to live, grow, and be somebody and become something. Try to be thoughtful, considérate and forbearing. You will have new duties, and they will bring new trials Take good care of your health anc hers. Be simple, in your habits be caref ui in your expenditures; oe industrious. If you keep goed health and are frugal, bleasings will come from your united love, and you wil grow happier and better day by day