The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-09
vAssAR OUT IN THE COLD.
The Prospects of Educated Girls in the Mat
rimoniaI Market.


Frank Lese's Weekly.
Is the man of the period shy of the educated
girl of the periodl That is the question Must
the popular plea for high education for females
encounter the objection that a woman who has
read Virgil and the Eneid in the original, and is
posted on the differential calculus, is therefore,
and in direct consequence, more unlovelyi
1t is stated, on what looks like authority, that
out of 500 graduates of Vassar College, only 1S8
have married since that climax of their career.
Of course, in the cases of some, only year or
two has elapsed; but most of them graduated
years ago, and some of them are now
old maids of the deepest dye. What is the
matterf 1t cannot be that they are so
unatUractive as to have had no offers.
Every Gill has her Jack-sometimes whole
platoon of them-and every girl can get married
if she will. Does intellectual training make girls
fastidiousl-fnical, perhaps9-dificult to please,
unwilling to accept the honest hands and sincere
hearts of youths less brilliantly veneeredl
1t should not have this tendency; for in most
Of the happiest marriages in the land the bride
has nearly all of the education. AS our indus
trial and social machinery is at present man
aged, the girls have better chance than the
boys to study; the wives than the hus-
bands, So, notwithstanding the fact that
the most profound scholars of our time
are chiefly men who have had long and
severe professional training, a majority of the
educated people of the country women.
Thousands of men who make the best Of hus
bands-not only kind, amiable and tender, but
shrewd, intelligent and thoughtful-kuow
nothing of any language but their own,
and never in their lives used
were" to interpret the subjunctive
mood. Armies of girls have made mistake in
this matter, unwisely rejecting a sutton who
spelled separate with three ees, or who said,
1T is me, but who might yet be tender hearted,
sagacious and even mentally profound men,
worthy of all aceeptation.
In fact, we are by no means certain that edu-
Gated and professional men mako the best hus-
L., .1-,lr- -
hours and more likely to talk shop" and to
establish the everlasting shops in the home than
are mercantile men, or brokers' or bankers, or
railroad managers They are more likely to be
distracted even when their hands are not oc-
cupied.
Girls should remember that men of genius or
of overshadowing literary talent have seldom
made successful husbands. They almost always
lack domesticity, and love ideas better than
their wives. Look at Shakespeare, who
lived at the theater and the club,
and, when he died, gave his wife
merely his ''second-best bedstead. Think
of Milton, who was one of the most domineering
and uncomfortable of husbands that ever tor
mented gentle woman. Think of Byron, and
Dickens and Bulwer whose marriages were
each hideous mockery. Thing of Gree
ley and Raymond, not to mention other
men quite as famous, who are
still living, who have had little or no
home life. Don't hesitate to marry, girls, mere
~ oeute4tbp- gentlemen who nay syit .:fVHUo GU
not pronounce as you have been taught to do,
I. do not always observe the infexible rules
: English grammar
Il An unblemished character is more importa
than knowledge of music and good natu
4 more desirable than correct spelling. Better
a a stammering tongue where love is than fl
y foreign languages and heart with first mo
+ gage on it held by another girl.
4 Perhaps the sweet graduates of Vassar ha
> been Hbeled, and the figures we have quoted a
r incorrect; but, even then, this little sermon c.
!, do no harm.