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THE MARRIAGE QUESTION.

Dear Linda I wonder if you know Edwin Long’s wonderful picture of the “Marriage Market in Babylon,” of which I saw a reproduction at a friend s house the other day. The market is held in a hall, the walls of which are artistically decorated with mosaic. Upon a marble slab in the middle of the building stands the centre of attraction for the moment —a beautiful, maiden, who having mounted the steps, now turns to face the eager crowd, raising her veil and displaying her charms to their admiriug gaze. Leaning over the handsomely - carved rostrum is the auctioneer, pointing out her various attractions and bent upon making the most out of the wares which he has to dispose. Bold glances, sordid, calculating looks, cynical eyes are turned upon her, but close by stands an intending purchaser —young and handsome —whose clasped hands and rapt, upturned gaze plainly indicate that if his fortune will buy that human chattel she will be bis. Happy girl! Not all who stand upon that slab are thus favoured.

In the foreground of the picture their backs turned to the scene above described —sit a row of, dark-haired girls awaiting their tum. k One studies her face in a mirror, a second puts on a look of reckless indifference, while beside her, overcome by the sad uncertainty of her fate, crouches a companion who weeps bitterly, her face hidden in her hands. Others are whispering together, and two or three more sit silent, their grave, serious eyes trying to pierce the hidden future. “What a degrading spectacle! I exclaimed, and my friend rejoined “ Yes, and yet a spectacle repeated every day in our very midst. Girls are as truly bought and sold now as ever they were in Babylon.”

And this is true, as many an unhappy wife who reads these lines can testify. “Mamma” has several marriageable daughters with whom something must be done, so she invites to her house every young man of her acquaintance w T hose prospects are promising, or whose social position is a little above her own. Too often character is of no consequence at all —“ young men must sow their wild

oats, and they will settle down into good husbands by-and-bye.” All regardless of the bitter reaping-time which assuredly follows such sowing, the girls are taught to lay themselves out to “catch” the young men, being brought up with, the idea that it is their sole duty in life t© “ make a good match.” They are told that it is a disgrace to he an “ old maid,” and as they hear the proverbial “ shelf ” are twitted by “mamma” and scorned by their younger sisters. Which of us has not heard remarks something like the following P —“ What could have possessed her to marry a man like that ?” “ Oh, I suppose she thought it was her last chance; she must he getting pretty old now.” Only a few weeks ago our papers contained the story of an unhappy girl who eloped with a young gentleman representing himself as belonging to a good family “at Home,” etc., etc., only to discover subsequently that he was a coachman. In the latter capacity an honest, true man would have been eminently respectable, but I don’t suppose she would have looked at him, though when her fancy was caught by show and glitter she was quite ready to marry one to whom she had been a few weeks before an utter stranger. “ Marriages are made in heaven,” but a great many weddings are of an entirely different character. And it is these unions—if such a term can be applied to them —which fill our papers with divorce cases and call forth such measures as the Divorce Bill, around which the battle has raged so hotly. “Is marriage a failure ?” asked the London Daily News two or three years ago ; and for weeks its columns were deluged with letters replying to the question. Very sad revelations some of them contained, and yet they awoke an echo in many a weary, sorrowful heart. Such questions could never be asked if people would only remember that God’s universe is founded upon certain laws, and if we set them at naught we do so at our own peril. True love is founded upon mutual respect, and both are necessary to stand the wear and tear of married life. Shamrock.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SOCR18941013.2.31

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 29, 13 October 1894, Page 11

Word count
Tapeke kupu
736

THE MARRIAGE QUESTION. Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 29, 13 October 1894, Page 11

THE MARRIAGE QUESTION. Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 29, 13 October 1894, Page 11

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