WHY ENGAGEMENTS SHOULD BE SHORT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 3, 3 January 1903, Page 3

WHY ENGAGEMENTS SHOULD BE SHORT.

CBy MAX O'RjSLL.)

The usual plea in favour of long , engagements is that young couples should know each other thoroughly before taking the final irretraceable step of matrimony. Poor, dear couples! What do they learn of each other while being , engaged? What has an engagement to do with matrimony? Absolutely nothing. You might as well tell them to learn horse riding* on a wooden horse, or swimming: by practising- the movement lying , on the carpet of >our drawing-room. There Is no learning matrimony without being , married. I have met couplbs who have been engaged trti rears and who were apparently still trying , to know each other. They wight be engaged fifty years without the slightest chance of success. Sweethearts may see each other every day, but every day is not all day. Ii is the thousand and one little drawbacks and miseries of conjugal life that often kill joy and happiness in matrimony, and none of them are confronted during the engagement. After all, what Is life during an engagement? The repetition of an old story, sentimentl walks, sweet professions of love, billets dottr. Both man and woman are on their best behaviour. They are careful of their words, careful r> f their appearance. \ri fact, the whole time, the sky

clear, serene, tlie sea is absolutely calm. Well, let me ask you: How do they know, how can they know, that they are good sailora tintil they have been together on board the same boat in a good big , storm?

An engagement is.no rehearsal of matrimony, however long it may lasfc. Alas, hap-piness in married life Is a mere lottery ticket. You must draw your lot and take your chance. The warmest lovers have turned out the very worst husbands, and there is a great danger in entering the holy matrimonial estate when all the proviftfons of fweet words and kind acts are exhausted.

The fewer kieses have been indulged in before the wedding , ceremony, the more kisses mil be administer* ed afterward. Woe to the husband ■who has not to court his wife and win her! Matrimony to him will be fearfully flat. If both lovers really lore devotedly, U both are of strong character, they have a chance. But the others have not. Let misfortunes come, to say nothing of the price of butter, and the whole thing . Is. gone. If I had my own way, I wonld never allow a daughter to engage herself before I wae satisfied that the man she loved, or imagined she loved, was ready to look after her; not before I had ascertained, to the very ibest of my ability, that the men was likely to make a woman bappy. Then I

would say to her: "I think every-* thing is right, as well as I can judge. And now, n<J nonsense, no love walks for years, no liberties of any sort, even more or less innocent, to bd taken with you by that man—to the altar by the first ti-ain."

I admire the way in which the Catholic clergy of the province of Quebec, Canada, deal with young people among the lower classes. If tiiey suspect that Jacques and Marie are. in love, if they have seen them walking together in rather spots, they them if it- is true t&at they are in love. If they s>ay yes tu c 'priest takes th ,?, m to church and marries* them' right away.

This may go a great length toward explaining why the French Canadians are the most moral people in the world,.