St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-08-01
ROMANCE AND REALITY.
Material Considerations WhiC
Lessen the Number of MARRIAGES.


Lessen the Number of Marriages..
If in the spring a young mans fancy
lightly turns to thoughts of love, such
thoughts become very serious during the
summer. American girls never look more
lovely than at the seaside or in the country
during this out-of-town season. Nature
makes most appropriate background for
their natural charms. The light robes in
which they attire themselves give an almost
ethereal character to their beauty. In the
excursions on lake Or river, through shady
woods or up long, dusty roads, they are at
their best. happy themselves, and anxious
to make their cavaliers happy. and yet with
that feminine dependence which is woman'S
greatest attraction to a manly man. To
see them is to fall in love with them. To
fall in love with them Is to begin blissful
romance, to which the sweet summer
nights, the twinkling stars. the pale moon
lend their poetry. But after the romance
of making love comes the reality of matri-
mony, and this thought gives many young
man grave perplexities just at present.
There are philosophers who wave away
any discussion of the pecuniary side of
marriage. They declare that it is cow
ardly to count up dollars and cents when
q U0WllCulllS WiillllS W UG WOn.
They scOrn the careful knight who loves,
calculates the expenses and rides away.
They assert that what is enough for one is
enough for two. They point out that our
parents and grandparents married happily
and brought up large families upon much
less money than the young men of the
present day spend upon themselves. There
is some truth in all this, but it is only
half truth. The bachelors who are now
spending their vacations and falling in love
at the watering places and summer resorts,
cannot derive much instruction or comfort
from it. They could not. if they would,
initiate the economies of their parents or
live the lives of their grandparents. Times
have changed, and the rising generation
has changed very much with them. Every
man who loves girl honestly desires to
marry her. but he cannot argue the financial
question upon general principles. Can he
afford it? Has he or can he be reasonably
sure Of making enough money to support
her comfortably and creditably? If he, or
she. be wealthy, the question is easily
answered; but the majority of young men
have only moderate incomes, and we have
no doubt that some of them do really
prove their love by declining to propose.
A young bachelor can live handsomely
upon a couple of thousand a year. The
English phrase is, Live like gentleman"
but many gentlemen in all countries expend
much less. He is perfectly at his ease
until he comes to think of sharing it with a
wife. Then how small it seems! How
poor he is! Why one-half of it would be
eaten up by the rental of flat and the
wages of a servant of all work.
Bread and cheese and kisses are all very
we'll in novels hII1 nobody cOul6 pYiSt un0n
them as a daily diet. No man who truly
object of his affections worse off by mar
ryng her. He cannot consent to have her
turn washerwoman for his sake. She
women promise this to themselves while
Cupid mocks them; but. if he were weak
enough to agree, his wife would no longer
hard enough at the best, without making it
harder by demanding sacrifices of ease. of
comfort, of society, of refinement upon the
altar of Hymen. Our girls possess common
sense as well as beauty, and they should
render the matrimonial problem less diff
cult by proving that they, too, know the
value of money, and how to make the most
of little, and how to exc out dollars by
tact and taste and skill. If young men
were convinced that in marriage they Sc
cured true helpmeet, partner for life.
instead of talking doll to be petted and
costumed, or pretty bird, to be Gagged and
fed, there would be more matrimonial all-
anceS this summer than are likely in the
present state of the money market. Flirta-
ton is the fashion, but the old. genuine love
is too expensive to be experienced except by
wealthy people