The Adventure Club Afloat
TO H.P. HOLT, WHOSE THUNDER I HAVE STOLEN ILLUSTRATIONS THE TWO CRUISERS WERE CHUG-CHUGGING OUT OF THE HARBOUR "IT IS!" HE CRIED. "WE'VE GOT HER, FELLOWS!" "THOSE WAVES WILL BATTER HER TO PIECES" "THEY OFFER YOU--" MR. HYATT LEANED FORWARD IN THE PROTESTING CHAIR
"good-for-nothing" husband. No one can justly charge you with sordid
motives, for scrutinizing critically his capability to secure to
you, and such family as may gather around you, a maintenance that
shall insure you against poverty and want.
His habits should be unexceptionable. He should be honest, upright,
truthful, industrious, and economical--pure in his conversation and
tastes. Not only should he have the ability to obtain a livelihood,
but should possess prudence and frugality to lay up and secure the
fruits of his industry.
Above all, he should be strictly and rigidly _temperate_. On this
point I would speak with emphasis. Most earnestly would I admonish
young women never to unite their destiny with, that of a drinking
young man. Alas! how many a wife, when too late, has lamented in
bitter tears her short-sightedness in this respect. A young man,
who, in this age of temperance, has not sufficient self-respect,
pride of character, and good sense, to refrain from the intoxicating
bowl before marriage, will be very likely to sink into a common
drunkard afterwards. This is not always the case; but the exceptions
are so rare, that she who ventures the risk, places herself in a
condition which hazards her happiness for life. However proper his
other habits may be, however amiable and pleasant his disposition,
however bright and promising his prospects, however high his
position, or respectable his family connections--if he drinks the
lethean draught, even but sparingly, he is tampering with a viper,
TO H.P. HOLT, WHOSE THUNDER I HAVE STOLEN ILLUSTRATIONS THE TWO CRUISERS WERE CHUG-CHUGGING OUT OF THE HARBOUR "IT IS!" HE CRIED. "WE'VE GOT HER, FELLOWS!" "THOSE WAVES WILL BATTER HER TO PIECES" "THEY OFFER YOU--" MR. HYATT LEANED FORWARD IN THE PROTESTING CHAIR