Freeman's champion., 1858-08-26
Why They Don't Marry.


more unmarried men and women in
this age than any that the history of
the past has given any accountof In
other words, the tendency Of celiba-
cy was never greater than at present.
Undoa6tedly the observation rs a true
one, and it is calculated to give rise
to serious reflections as to the causes
which have combined to produce this
unnatural and unhappy state ofthings.
II cannot be ascribed to the young
men, for we answer for it, they in
cline as ardently toward the tender
sex as their fathers did before them (;
nor to a want of sensibility and ap-
probation on the part of the young
women, for now, as it ever has been,
marriage is the alpha and omega of
their thoughts, the first and the last,
1t occupies their waking hours and
fills up the measure Of their dreams,
1t hath been so from the beginning,
and will be so till the end,
Seeing, then, that both sexes are
wiiiing; seeing that under whatever
disadvantages of bad education, a
stupid policy, the artifciolities of So
ciety, the gloze of romance, the non
sense Of fashion, whatever things may
happen, that nature will assert her
supremacy and turn the sexes always
kindly towards each other, it may
well be asked why with this perpetual
attraction they do not marry. 1t is
an unfortunate state of things, and
the blame should be placed where it
properly belongs.
1t is always deemed ungallant to
say anything that is not hattering and
agreeable to the ladies. We fear that
both sexes have been injured by this
prediSposition to say home phrases
on the one hand and to expect them
on the other. Flattery is a mixture
into which nonsense and lying enter
as the principal ingredients, and truth
is sometimes disagreeable. We shall
lay aside Aattery' altogether on the
present occasion and present few
plain truths for tho consideration OF
the sex, however diSagrecable they
may be. Our position is that the rea-
sons "why the don't marry" are
traceable, all, to the women to their
pernicious bringing up, to the extrav-
agant habits they have formed, and
to their incapacity to attend to house
hold duties or take upon themselves
the responsibilities of maternity and
of family government.
Young men who are about entering
upon the business of life, who are
destined to be the fathers of the next
generation, want something more in
the companion of their lives than a
painted doll. They want something
more than delicate, lisping, roman
tic thing, who cannot move except
with an air of languor, who drawls
through the hours of the Gay in pont-
less lassitude, doing nothing but eat
and dress and dream the time away,
and only bloom in the night along
side of others as useless as herself,
making the balmy hours hideous by
execrable drumming on q piano, ac-
companied with execrable singing,
floating through q waltz, and flirting
with young men, who, true to their
nature, love the fairy vision she pre-
sents, but for no other purpose than
the qualification of the hour, while
all the time she is thus wasting her
bloom and fragrance and precious
health, her poor scrub Of a mother
may be locked in sleep which her ex-
hausted nature demands.
This kind Of woman will not
make a man happy nor will any man,
except he is as frivolous as herself,
offer her honorable marriage. Men
want to see in their wives, some glim-
mer, at least, Of common sense
And they want to see some evidence
that they are competent to sit at the
head of u household. But how is it
with q majority of young women =?
They turn their backs upon domestic
duties, and know nothing of domestic
joys. AS soon as they can get away
from their mothers care, they rush
into shops, and factories, and trades.
1t has got to be SO now that four
fifths Of our young women don't know
enough about the kitchen even to
make cup Of coffee, or to cook a
beef steak, or broil mackercl. In
deed, in too many cases, it would be
deemed an insult to ask them the
question if they Fnew how to cook,
Instead of home duties, they are fierce
after accomplishments not thinking
or not knowing that what they call
accomplishments become defects m-
less associated with home groccs,
which most adorn woman.