Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1885-05-07
WHY THEY DO NOT MARRY
A Young Woman Explains a Soc
ial Problem.

thinkers a few nights ago, says
letter writer in this city | wa
n q group that discussed the dis
taste for marriagelwhich charac'
terizes the girlhood of the day
One young lady had fortified her.
self with a newspaper clipping on
the subject, which she drew from
her pocket and read, as further
sutstantiatlng her position. 1t
was to the effect that husbands
hunting maidens. young or old were
very much scarcer than of yore ;
that instead of being anxious to
marry, girls were slow of induces
ment in that direction.
9 1T is true" said the young lady.
81 scarcely know a girl WHO wants
to marry. They are learning
something in the way Of a profess
= sion, something that will interest
them as we'll as support them, two
rales1 in which husbands just now
tail. The truth is we are all scar
ed away from any desire to marry
9 by seeing how wretched those who
do marry are. Where should we
look for husbands Among the
'snips' and sports and characters
less young men who fill our draw
ing roomsi They are insufferable
as mere acquaintance or oeaux /;
who conld contemplate them as
husbandsf I always thought that
if l could find a young man at all
like my father I could love and
marry him but that school of
men has vanished from the youn-
ger class"
Nobody doubts that she express
ed the convictions of a large rep>
r%esentation of young women.
Their lack of interest in marriage
is not due to the larger activities
which continually open before wo-
men, but to the unattractive, unre,
liable material in the way of huss
bands. Women are women, and
would love and marry as readily
as when the earth was new, ifthey
came in contact with men who
aroused their respect and admira-
ton. The order of maidenhood
that could content itself with an
inferior article Of husband, merely
for the sake of being married, has
also vanished. The young WON.
men Of the period has too much
character ond self respect to dread
being an old maid so much as that
she would contract an uncongen-
ial union to prevent it.
The same evening I had a chat
with my bright young hostess
about inefficient men, a-sort of an
mex to the conversation just recor-
ded. She wondered what would
become Of the human race if the
men kept on deteriorating at the
rate of the last twenty years. She
declared it was almost exception.
al for the young men of first class
society to support their wives.
They married into rich families,
and at the end Of two or three
years were pensioners on the re-
latives Of their wives. ut is ass
stonishing," she says, show few
young women who are supposed to
be rich really depend upon their
husbands for luxuries, or even sups
port. Their fathers or grand>
fathers f urnish the money that
supplies their homes oftener than
the outside world knows of. In,
deed, the daughter of the rich
man is more to be pitied than the
girl who fights poverty. She sees
fewer real men, Naturally she
fancies that her ideal men must
be somewhere, since they are not
within her own circle. and she
looks for them in extraordinary
shoes-on the box of her fathers
each, on huckster's wagons, or
on the stage. Anything in the
nature of efficiency attracts her,
because she ID sick of inefioiency.
The man who can drive a coach
may be very unsteady in his
grammar, but the mastery of the
horse appeals more to her imagin-
alton than the phrases of an inei,
ficient dude. 1t indicates a GERS
tain degree OF force and strength,
and all women like that in men,"
do you think the class of in
men efficient is really increasing 7"
I asked.
"Alarmingly, and in all ranks OF
society, but most among the rich.
l scarcely know a married women
nfimotaIv who fails caouro MI