The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1885-06-25
WHY THEY DO NOT MARRY,
A Young Woman Explains Social Prob.
lom-The Males Deter1orating.

A Young Woman Explains Social Prob.
lsm-Ths Males Dstsr1orating.
At "a small party of workers and think.
ers few nights ago, says letter writ.
er in this city. I was in group that
discussed the distaste for marriage which
characterizes the girlhood of the day.
One young lady had fortified herself
with newspaper clipping on the sub
ject, which she drew from her pocket
and read, as further substantiating her
position. It was to the effect that hus-
handwriting maidens, young or old,
were very much scarcer than of yore;
that instead of being anxious to marry,
girls were slow of inducement in that
direction.
1T is true," said the young lady. II
scarcely know girl who wants to mar
ry. They are learning something
in the way of profession, some
thing that will interest them
as we'll rs support them, two
roles in which husbands just now fail.
The truth is, we are all scared away
from any desire to marry by seeing how
wretched those who do marry are.
Where would we look for husbands
Among the 'snips' and sports and char.
acterless young men that fill our draw
ingrooms? They are insufferable as mere
acquaintance or beaux; who would con-
template them as husbands? I haye al
ways thought that if I could find young
man at all like my father could love
him and marry him; but that school OF
men has vanished from the younger
ranks"
Nobody doubts that she expressed the
convictions of large representation of
young women. Their lack of interest in
marriage is not due to the larger activities
extraordinarily open before women, but
to the unattractive unreliable material in
the way of husbands. Women are wom-
m en-, and would love and marry as
readily to day as when the earth was
new, if they came in cantact 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 woman Of the period has too
much character and self respect to
dread being an old maid so much as
that she would contract an uncongenial
union to escape it.
The same evening I had chat with
my bright young hostess about inef.
versation just recorded. 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 ex-
ceptional 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 the relations of
their wives. ut is astonishing" she
said, chow few young women who are
supposed to be rich really depend upon
their husbands for Injuries, or even
support. Their fathers or grandfathers
furnish the money that supplies their
homes oftener than the outside world
knows of. Indeed, the daughter of
the rich man is more to be pitied than
the girl who fights poverty. She sees
fewer real men. Naturally she fancles
that her ideal men must be somewhere,
since they are not within her own cir
Gle, and she looks for them in extraor-
binary shoes-on the box of her fathers
coach and on hucksters wagons, or on
the stage. Anything in the nature of ef-
fciency attracts her, because she is sick
Of ineficiency. The man who can drive
coach may be very unsteady in his
grammar, but his mastery of the horse
appeals more to her imagination than
the fine phrases of an inefficient dude.
It indicates a certain degree of force
and strength, and all women like that
III men,"
"Do you think the class of inefficient
men are really increasingly" I asked.
"Alarmingly, and in all ranks of So
cietv," but most among the rich. /
scarcely know married woman init
mately who feels secure, who has conf
dence in her husbands energy, ability
and efficiency. Look at the number Of
married women engaged in some kind
of business! It all means something.
I don't know what, but certainly it is the
reverse of promising for the future
greatness of man."