Litchfield enquirer., 1871-01-05
WHY DON'T THEY MARRYa
A MATRIMONIAL ESSAY.
From tho London lExsmiper. ,

snaS young ladies and anxious mammas oft @ asks and will never cease asking unti tne one only satisfactory answer is given
 They have married" As, however, tha happy ume seems, at present, about as dis tant as the millennium, we must remain content with less decisive answer. ", are aware that this is momentous topic rom which the rash and profane should b, warned off It profoundly affects twt great lnterests-~the hearts of young ladies and the pockets of their papas. Thes' two interests find their deepest expression n the most ineradicable passion of tht human mind, the maternal anxiety for tht settlement of female children. Who car conceive the joy that would run through society were the mighty secret discovered and matrimony made universal? To con vert all the marriageable young men into pared with which the discovery of the phi. losopheris stone would bs child's play. Ench projects are to great for us; be ours the humber and less grateful task to point out one of the chief impediments to mat rimony. This imposes the duty of look ing at the subject in it's least lovely aspect, in its pr0saic troubles, and ingIorious cares. Very different is the case of the novelist. These things he keeps most re. ligi0usly ont of sight. His readers are presented with fascinating pictures that heat the imagination. They feel grateful to him for the illusions, although they are not helped one step towards realizing the blisstul visions upon which their imagina- ton feeds. Now if we had no stomachs. If nature had kindly furnished us with an epidermis proof against the extremes of cold and heat, the treatment of the novel. ist would be as comprehensive as it would be delightful. But our constitution is very different. In the lower classes it is well known that the marriage-rate has an inti- mate connection with the price of wheat; and in the highest, money has great deal deal to do. not with the desire for matli- mony always, but certainly with the exe- cution of it. 4
 Who are accustomed to complain that women do not marry? Not the working class. A mechanic just out of his appren- tiCeship is as able to support @ wife as he is likely to be at any future period of his life. Unless he hopes by saving money to rise out of his class and become an em- ployer, he has little inducement to refrain from marriage. It is where gentility be- gins. and the hankering after gentility, that the disinclination to pass under the yoke becomes apparent; and the more gen. feel the grade, the stronger does the reluc. tanCe become. Shopkeepers and clerks, who have aspirations towards, if not affin. ities with, higher circles. hold out longer. Doctors, as become creatures higher in the scale of being, reach maturity cousidera- ply later; as for young solicitors and bar risters, they 60 sm almost like the angels in heaven. who neither marry nor are given in marriage, although we fear, there the comparison ends.
 While in the ascending scale there is growing unwillingness to contract mar riage, ths usefulness of the wife appears to diminish. The wife of workingman is cook, housemaid, nursery maid, every thing; all the manifold forms of service de- veloped by the division of labor are sum- med op Tn her own person. When the poor woman. as is too often the case, has large family, her work is, in proportion to her strength. more severe than her nus bands. She costs less than Q servant, so that if she dies, leaving young children, her widower has no alternative but to mar " again. If we measure her services in money, they will. compare favorably with her husbands; indeed she contributes to the common expenses, if not to the same
 
 strength. Gan the same be said of wife in the middle class? Her position is greatly superior. She is infinitely better provided with the necessaries. and has al- most exclusive enjoyment of the luxuries of life. She IS released from domestic drudgery, her chief serious occupation be- ing to look after servants. The pay has grown better, while the work has become less. Does not the lady get more and give les, than the working-man' wife? But it may bs said that the same is true of her husband compared with the working-man. It is one of the stock reproaches of prole- tariat orators against the present distribu- tion of property, that the harder the work the less is the pay. There is, however, clear distinction. Where men are highly paid, their work must be of a kind that few are actually found competent to pei. form, or 1t is such that no one can do it without long and expensive preparation. Great artists command their own price, be- cause the public prefer to compete for the works of the best men, rather than to re- main content with the productions of those who are only little way from the front. A doctor is more highly paid than an apothecary. because the profession in- wolves a more expensive education. But these reasons do not seem to have much application to women. Every girl is. or is fondiy believed to be, able to manage a household; and the educ ltion of girls IS neither so protructed nor SO costly as that of boys. Women, and especially literary women, when given to magnifying their office, may tlemur to this view. We may be told that the management of two or three servants is gigantic undertaking. Women of an active disposition make work for themselves wherever they are; but their energy, when confined within the four walls of home is rather misc cniev- ous. Having no sufficient occupation, they ''meddle and muddle;' they worry the servants, they keep the house in a turmoil, and achieve barren perfection by saori. icing all comfort. Viewing the wife as a honsekeeper, we fear her value cannot be rated very high. There are few house keepers who are not very much cheaper. If man marries for ths sake of house. keeping, he has decidedly poor bargain.
 CANAAN.-No incident has produced g like sensation, as the absconding of Pat. rick Miles. who it apps ars has gone sswhere the woodbine twineth, to the discontinue of his numerous creditors in this vicinity. He had recently completed the grading, and masonry of sections 10 and II of tue Connecticut Western R. R The amount of hio la l. .x =