e marriage on an equality, there would be
no objections, and hence no inducement to clandestinity. In almost all
cases it means the lowering of womanhood. Observe this law: a man
marrying a woman beneath him in society may raise her to any eminence
that he himself may reach; but if a woman marry a man beneath her in
society she always goes down to his level. That is a law inexorable,
and there are no exceptions. Is any woman so high up that she can
afford to plot for her own debasement? There is not a State in the
American Union that has not for the last twenty years furnished an
instance of the sudden departure of some intelligent woman from an
affluent home to spend her life with some one who can make five
dollars a day, provided he keeps very busy. Well, many a man has
lived on five dollars a day and been happy, but he undertakes a big
contract when with five dollars a day he attempts to support some one
who has lived in a home that cost twenty thousand per annum. This has
been about the history of most of such conjunctions of simplicity and
extravagance, the marriage of

OX AND EAGLE.

The first year they get on tolerably well, for it is odd and romantic,
and assisted by applause of people who admire outlawry. The second
year the couple settle down into complete dislike of each other. The
third year they separate and seek for divorce, or, as is more
probable, the man becomes a drunkard, and the woman a blackened waif
of the street. "Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is
pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there."

These truant marriages are also to be deplored because in most
instances they are executed in defiance of parental wisdom and
kindness. Most parents are anxious for the best welfare of a child. If
they make vehement and determined opposition, it is largely because it
is a match unfit to be made, and they can see for their daughter
nothing but wretchedness in that direction. They have keener and wiser
appreciation, for instance, of the certain domestic demolition that
comes from alcoholism in a young man. They realize what an idiot a
woman is who marries a man who has not brains or industry enough to
earn a livelihood for a family. No bureau of statistics can tell us
the number of women who, after marriage, have to support themselves
and their husbands. If the husband becomes invalid, it is a beautiful
thing to see a wife uncomplainingly, by needle, or pen, or yard-stick,
or