The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-12-04
HOW WILL they L,vEq


A Social Problem that Demands IN Imms-
diate and satisisctery Answer.
"How on earth will they livee" asked
an eminently respectable citizen . few
days since when informed of the APP
preaching marriage of . Detroit young
lady to gentleman from another city.
HE has a salary of 5000 q year." he
continued, land the young lady's an
nual expenditure, exclusive Of board, is
double that. They can not possibly live
on $500 a year."
In the case referred to. the problem
will probably be solved by the party that
has already done so much in the way Of
solving similar problems. The bride s
father, if he can afford it. will stand in
the gap and make up the annual deficit
until the young mans salary grows to
the dimensions of his needs. If he has
two or three other daughters he may
find the burden an onerOus one and be
compelled to drop it before the son-in-
law is quite ready to assume it. This
will be bad for the sOn-in-law and the
bride; but it will not be the first case of
the kind.
In another solution of the problem the
young mans father carries the load.
But he, too, may be compelled TO drop
it before the young couple can take it
up. And to cOmplicate the situation,
every day that anybody else carries it
makes it more difficult for them to do so.
The habit of eating unearned bread is
as demoralizing when it is eaten off q
mahogany table with an accOmpani-
ment of silver and china and glass as it
is wher taken at the back door and eaten
without butter. When the young cou-
pie are thrown on their own resources
the old problem recurs with additional
emphasis: "How wilt they live?"
Singularly enough no one seems to
think for mAment of answering ''On
their income" The suggestion that two
persons can live on six hundred dollars
y year seems as visionary and imprac-
ticable as the proposition to flood the
Desert of Sahara or establish telephone
communication with the moon. Such
an income barely suffices to keep the
young man of the period in cigars and
gloves, while the young woman could
hardly keep her head decently covered
or uncOvered-fOr it. How then
could they manage to carry on house,
hold with SO Insignificant sum? Pre-
posterOus!
Yet the chances are that the father
and mother on one side at least, and the
grandparents on both sides, began their
married life OH quite as small an income.
There are couples. indeed, in the City of
Detroit to-day who have no greater in
come and who live within it, neither
suffering privation nor running in debt.
But the lives they lead and the economies
they indulge in, the sacrifices they make
and the simple pleasures they enjoy, are
quite beyond the comprehension Uf the
young man and the young woman of the
period.
tits pity that this answer will not
do, and that there is no other adequate
one. For want thereof the young man
and young woman of the period fight
shy of the marriage compact and cling
to single blessedness., This is not rs it
should be. The future of the race de-
mands different condition of things.
Some satisfactory answer must be found
for this important question. 1t behOOves
the social scientists, if they expect to re-
tain the confidence of the community. to
set their wits to work speedily and eff
fectively.-DetroI Free Press.