The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-11-19
A RIGHT OF WOMEN !:

The average woman, if she is IN
rarely becomes more than
5Wenty-four years old, although an
occasional woman of exceptional
truthfulness and holiness some
times reaches the age OF twenty-five.
Married women have no fixed limit
Of age, but they grow old very
slowly. The woman who is mar
ried at twenty does not become
thirty until fifteen years later. It
then takes her twenty years to
reach the age of forty, and twenty
five years more to reach the age of
fifty The precise law which 60
verns this increasingly slow accre-
ton Of years has never been fully
ascertained. 1t is believed by most
learned StatisticianS that the age OF
a married woman varies inYeTSely
as the square of the total number of
her children. Sir Isaac Newton
first suggested that this might be
the law, but he admitted that he
could not demonstrate it, and that,
on the contrary, there were certain
facts which did not seem to be re-
conciled with it.
Few women are troubled with
any scruples Of conscience in re-
gard to assertions that they may
make as to their age. 1t is well es-
tablished that there is a distinct
code of ethics for each sex. For
example, it is proper for a woman
to be afraid Of mouse, and, indeed,
no self-respecting woman would
dream of entertaining any
other feeling mouseward. 1t
is aalso held to be justi-
fable for a woman to tell "ibs !"
whereas q man who is afraid of a
mouse or who is wanting in verac-
ity is hopelessly disgraced. A
woman naturally holds that her
precise age. is her own private bust
ness with which no one has right
to NEEDLE, and that the inquisitive
person who inquiries into her age
deserves to be deceived.
Moreover, in the case Of an I'M
married woman or widow, her age
is a part of her matrimonial capital.
Men have a prejudice against mar
rying women confessedly older than
themselves, and after woman has
reached twenty-five her chances of
marriage decrease with every year.
Thus, it is inevitable that the un-
married woman should cease to grow
old at twenty-five, and we can hardly
ask her to depreciate her own value
by coufessing to thirty-five years.
In like manner the married woman
who desires to remain popular
among men must not grow old too
rapidly. Not only does she thereby
run the risk of Punishment from
the society of the younger people,
but she wastes part of the capital
that might be of inestimable value
to her in case of widowhood.
But although we may concede
that an unmarried woman has rea-
sons that in her own eyes may JUS
tify her failure to grow old, it has
of late been suggested that circum.
stances might occur in which the
misrepresentation of a Woman's age
might have serious consequences
There is growing tendency
| in this country to regard
marriage as a mere civil con-
tract. The old-fashioned belief that
! it is a sacrament, or that it has any
character essentially different from
a business contract between two
partners, has nearly disappeared
Now, when the time fully arrives
when the marriage contract is re-
garded in the eye of the law pre-.
cisely as any other contract, and
when the causes that would render
an ordinary contract invalid are suf-
| fcient to invalidate marriage, will
tit be safe for woman to make tax
slightest misstatement as to hel
age?
Suppose in that enlightened
period man marries woman on
the strength of her representation
| that she is rs years old, and he
afterwards discovers that she is
So. He will claim that he has
been deceived; that inasmuch as
woman of thirty-fve has fewer
years to live and will preserve hel
beauty for a shorter period than
woman of twenty five, he has nOt
received as valuable a wife dis hi
expected to receive, and that his
marriage contract has been VitiateC
by Misrepresentation and fraud, anC
must be set aside. How can an
court fail to admit the force of thiI
lplea? Thus it will come to pass tina
every wife who has miSrepresenteC
i her age before marriage will b
liable to be divorced the momen
her husband discoyers'the misrep
resentation, as he inevitably mus
at some time.
/ Such YVES the rather startling
prospect which presented itself Il
thinking men q week ago. For
tunately a judicial decision has jus
been made in an Illinois cour
which puts an end to the thIeatene'
danger. A woman II years of ag
| lhad insured her life, representing
herself to be only 63. The insurance
company supposed that she woult
live to be at least 70, and that he
annual payments would secure tn,
company against any loss. She died
however, very soou after insurinl
hes life, and the company, on learn
ling her real age, refused to pay tn
amount of her policy. A suit wa
brought and the company was de
Heated, the court holding that tn