9.  THE BEST KEEPER OF HOME.—­As to who is the best keeper of this transition home, memory pictures to me a woman grown white under the old slavery, still bound by it, in that little-out-of-the-way Kansas town, but never so bound that she could not put aside household tasks, at any time, for social intercourse, for religious conversation, for correspondence, for reading, and, above all, for making everyone who came near her feel that her home was the expression of herself, a place for rest, study, and the cultivation of affection.  She did not exist for her walls, her carpets, her furniture; they existed for her and all who came to her She considered herself the equal of all; and everyone else thought her the superior of all.

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ADAPTATION, CONJUGAL AFFECTION, AND FATAL ERRORS.

ADVICE TO THE MARRIED AND UNMARRIED.

1.  MARRYING FOR WEALTH.—­Those who marry for wealth often get what they marry and nothing else; for rich girls besides being generally destitute of both industry and economy, are generally extravagant in their expenditures, and require servants enough to dissipate a fortune.  They generally have insatiable wants, yet feel that they deserve to be indulged in everything, because they placed their husbands under obligation to them by bringing them a dowry.  And then the mere idea of living on the money of a wife, and of being supported by her, is enough to tantalize any man of an independent spirit.

2.  SELF-SUPPORT.—­What spirited husband would not prefer to support both himself and wife, rather than submit to this perpetual bondage of obligation.  To live upon a father, or take a patrimony from him, is quite bad enough; but to run in debt to a wife, and owe her a living, is a little too aggravating for endurance, especially if there be not perfect cordiality between the two, which cannot be the case in money matches.  Better live wifeless, or anything else, rather than marry for money.

3.  MONEY-SEEKERS.—­Shame on sordid wife-seekers, or, rather, money-seekers; for it is not a wife that they seek, but only filthy lucre!  They violate all their other faculties simply to gratify miserly desire.  Verily such “have their reward”!

4.  THE PENITENT HOUR.—­And to you, young ladies, let me say with great emphasis, that those who court and marry you because you are rich, will make you rue the day of your pecuniary espousals.  They care not for you, but only your money, and when they get that, will be liable to neglect or abuse you, and probably squander it, leaving you destitute and abandoning you to your fate.

6.  INDUSTRY THE SIGN OF NOBILITY.—­Marry a working, industrious young lady, whose constitution is strong, flesh solid, and health unimpaired by confinement, bad habits, or late hours.  Give me a plain, home-spun farmer’s daughter, and you may have all the rich and fashionable belles of our cities and villages.