The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-02-06
HUSBAND HUNTING.
Women, Marriage and Modern CivIIi-
EatiOn---The Old and the New Times
...BaeheIors, and IheIr ProcIiNItiea.


EatiOn---The Old and the New Times
---BaeheIOrs, and Iheir PrOcIIVItiea.
From the London Saturday RerielD.
The difference between civilized and
savage woman may perhaps help to in
dictate the reason why, now-a-days,
matchmaking should, as a matter of
fact, be associated with husband-hunt-
ing, in spite of the theory that it is the
woman who has to be hunted, not the
man. Popular phraseology has an
awkward trick of making people un-
consciously countenance the theories
against which they most vehemently
protest Husband-hunting is a far
more generally obnoxious word than
even the much-injured match making,
simply because it flies in the face of
the pet theory which they have de-
scribed. But, if the theory really held
good in modern practice, why should
man, not woman, be recognized as the
professional match-maker's victim and
Legitimate game? Why does not wife
bunting, the word which this theory
entities us to expect, take its proper
place in society? Heiress-hunting, in
deed, is well known, but this can scarce
ly be considered a form of wife hunt
ing, for it is not the woman who is the
object of pursuit, but her money-bag
We have the word heiress- -hunTing for
the very obvious reason that heireSses
are recognized game. The word hus-
band-huntIng exists for the same
reason. Are We to infer from the nom
existence, or at any rate the non-appear-
ance in good society, OF the word wife
hunting, that the practice is anything
but commOn-that, since q hunt neces-
sarily implies pursuit on one side and
flight on the other, man cannot well
be said to hunt u woman who is either
engaged in hunting him, or else only
too ready to meet him half way? Are
we gradually tending toward an ad-
vauced stage of civilization in which
woman will be formally recognized as
| the pursuer, and man as the pursued?
We are not bold enough to take under
| our protection n view so Elaringly het-
erodox, but still we think it only COM
| mon justice 10 point out that there are
difficult problems in the present state
of society which the view helps mate
/ rally to solve. We fear, for instance,
there can be no doubt that there is a
| good deal Of truth in the Belgravian
mothers lament that marriage Is grad
ually ceasing to be "the thing among
the young men of the present day; that
girls of good families and even good
| looks are taking 10 sisterhoods, and
| nursing institutions, and other new
tangled denominations, simply because
there is no one TO marry them. 1t is
| not merely that the young men are get
ting rareri though, unless there is some
I system, like Pharaoh's, for putting male
infants to death, what can become oi
them all is mystery. India and the
colonies may absorb good many,
though these places also do duty in the
absorption of spinsterhood. But this
| will not account for the alarming fact,
that in almost every ballroom, no mat
ter whether in the country or in town,
| there are usually at least three crino.
\ lines to one tatl-coat, and that dan
cling bachelors are becoming so scarce
| that 1t is a question whether
hostesses ought not, for their OWL
peace of mind, to cOnnive al
the introduction of the Oriental nautch
| Yet even the alarming scarcity of mar.
| riageable young men is not so serious
an evil as their growing disinclination
] to marry. With the causes of this dis.
4 inclination we are not now concerned
| Some attribute it to the increase of lux.
uries and expensive habits among
| bachelors-habits specially fostered by
| sEthose hateful clubs;n some to the
| "snobbishness" which makes n woman
consider it beneath her dignity to mar.
ry into an establishment less stylish
| than that which it has perhaps
taken her father all his life to secure
some to the demi-nOHde-an eXplana.
ton very like the theory that smallpox
Is caused by Pustules. But, whatever
| may be the causes of the edisinclination
| there can be no little doubt that il ex'
lists, and the worse part of the matter is
that it is found among rich men no less
than poor. That really poor mer
should not wish TO marry is, even the
Belgravian moth must admit, an ad
tmirable arrangement of nature. But
it is too bad that so many men-about
town should seem rich enough fol
i yachting, or racing, or opera boxes, oil
! even diamond necklaces-fora anything
in short, but wife. The fact is, tha
4 in the eyes of poor man wife Is asso
ciated chiefly with handsome carriages
snowy dresses, fine furniture, and olhel
\ forbidden luxuries, and, inasmuch a.
there is not one law of association fol
the rich and another for the poor, thii
view spreads, until even rich men con
4 slider whether it is not possible to secure
the luxuries without the wife.