The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1885-02-06
EDUf,ATED GIRLs.
Are Men shy Of Them3-vassar Girls -
Old Maids.

L. the man Of the period shy of the
educated girl Of the periodp-that Is the
question. Must the popular plea for
the high education of females encounter
the objection that a woman who has
read Virgil and the Eneid in the origin-
al, and is posted on the differential cal
culus, is therefore, and in direct conse-
quence. more unlovelyp It is stated, on
what looks like authority, that out of
500 graduates of Vassar College, only
1873 have married since that climax of
career. OF course, in the case of some,
only year or two has elapsed; but
most of them graduated years ago, and
some of them are old maids of the deep
est dye. What is the matterp 1t cam
not be that they are so unattractive as
to have had no offers. Every Gill has
her Jack--sometimes whole platoon
of them. land every girl can get mar
ried If she will. Does intellectual
training make girls fastidious, tinical,
perhaps-dislicult to please, unwilling
to accept the honest hands Of and sim
cere hearts of youths less brilliantly
veneeredp
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 industrial and social
machinery is at present managed, the
| girls have better chance than the boys
to study; the wives than the husbands.
So, Notwithstanding the fact that the
most profound scholars of our time are
chiefly men who have had q long, and
severe professional training, majority
of the educated people of the country
are women. Thousands of men who
make the best of husbands-not only
kind, amiable and tender, but shrewd,
intelligent and thoughtful-know moth
ing of any language but their own, and
never in their lives used 'were" to in
terpret the subjunctive mood. Armies
of girls have made a mistake in this
matter, unwiscly scorning sutton who
| spelled separate" with three .e's, or
who said ''it is me-" but who might
yet be a tender-hearted, sagacious and
even mentally profound man, worthy
of all acceptation.
In fact, we are by no means certain
that educated and professional men
make the best husbands. They are
less likely to keep regular 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 clerks, or rail-
road managers. They are more likely
to be distracted. even when their hands
are not occupied.
Girls should remember that men of
genius or of overshadowing literary
| fol f,,1
husbands. They almost always lack
dolnesticity, and love ideas better than
their wives. Look at Shakespeare, who
lived at the theatre and the club, and
when he died, gave his wife merely his
"second-best bedstead." Think of
Milton, VINO was one of the most domi-
neering and uncomfortable of husbands
that ever tormented gentlewoman.
Think of Byron, and Dickens, and Bull
wer, whose marriages were each O
hideous mockery. think of Greedy and
Raymond, not to mention other men
quite as famous, who have had little or
no home life. Don't hesitate to marry,
girls, because the gentlemen who pay
suit to you do not pronounce as you
have been taught TO do, or do not al
ways observe the intiexibie rules of
English Grammar.
An unblemished character is more
important than knowledge of music,
and good nature more desirable than
correct spelling. Better is stammer-
ing tongue, where love is, than five
foreign languages and a heart with o
first mortgage on it held by another
girl.
Perhaps the sweet graduates of Vas
sar have been libeled, and the figures
we have quoted are incorrect; but even
then, this little sermon can do no
| harm