The Baltimore County union., 1886-06-19
On Bachelors.

First, word on bachelors in general.
The largest class of single men, of
course, are those to whom bachelorhood
is only transition period through
which they scramble in eager haste to
reach the matrimonial stage. For a
time they lead a bachelors life, and
must be called bachelor, but they have
hardly any right to the title.
The real bachelors are the mot mar
rying men, The number of these is
on the increase, fact to which the at
tention of students of modern society
has often of late been directed. Like
Benedict, those who vow to live and
die bachelors may often end in destroy
ing the unity of their lives by going
over to the camp of the welded race,
but such turncoats are generally allowed
to be not so common now as formerly.
Many causes may be held to contrib
ute to confirmed bachelorhood. The
first great cause, according to belief
current we believe among young ladies,
is an early disappointment in love. This
is plausible sentimental explanation,
but perhaps few men, or women either,
out of story books, are found remaining
single forever through taking to heart
any such mishap.
1t is better reason to say that man
is terrified at the expense. A certain
amount of money is essential to marri-
age, and the opinion that two can live
as cheaply as one will not bear being
reduced to practice. A man who has
to maintain respectable position on a
small income may be excused for paus-
ing before committing himself to matri-
mony. Perhaps he has found his voy-
age through life skirting for the greater
part of the way the bleak shore of ne
cessity, and common sense suggests that
it is wild scheme to WOO woman he
cannot maintain. A bachelor can GER
tainly endure poverty with more phil
osophy than married man, for there
is no one to suffer but himself.
Many a bachelor estimates the ex-
pense of married life, shudders, and re-
mains single. He first makes condi-
ton with himself that, if ever he marries
his wife must have enough to keep her
self, and after awhile he raises the terms,
and decides that she must have not only
that but something over. 1t is a reso-
luton, we confess not to be applauded.
We agree with a writer of large expert
ence who says that, of all the marriages
he has witnessed, the happiest in the
end have been those in which the bride
brought to the altar what she stood in
and nothing more.
Often men do not marry because they
are too busy. They want to make the
most of life, and marriage does not seem
to them essential to that result. Most
of them are workers who have fallen in
love with their work. They are not cut
out for the married state, and no one
can imagine them partaking of domes-
tic joys without feeling of incongruity.
But perhaps the unmarried man is
only so because he has never come
across one who, in his opinion, would
make good wife. This often happens,
and especially with people of sense.
The unthinking plunge into love at first
sight. The experienced man, however,
says: Il would be fool to become at
tached to that girl before l knew more
about her. and when he does know more
he often decides to let we'll alone.
In few cases bachelors remain SIN
gle because they have low opinion of
women. Ignoring their tenderness and
their deep-rooted self-sacrifcing afec-
ton they exaggerate what an old writer
calls their variable humors and un.
searchable deceits.' These are the peo-
pie who encourage the belief that there
are Just two women in the world, oi
whom one is dead while the other has
never yet been found, and applaud the
statement that when woman was created
Adam was taken sleeping, for had he
been waken he would never have con-
sented.
If one takes up low opinion of wo'
men, it is as we'll to back it up by an
equally low opinion of men, like the
French marshal who when laughed al
by Louis XIV. on account of remaining
a bachelor, replied:
Il have not yet found the woman to
whom l would like to be the husband.
or the man to whom l would care tc
stand in the relation of father.
Observations on unhappy marriage:
have bad influence in the way Of keep
ing men single. Unfortunate, the squab
bling of a. solitary household make:
more noise than the placid career of
thousand happy families, and the bach
elor who draws inferences only from
what he hears is very apt to exaggerate
the risk involved in change of condi
ton. From perhaps one terrible exam
pie he infers general conclusion, anc
spends the rest of his days in reading
the proceedings in breach of promise
and divorce cases, and accumulatin&
stories to the disadvantage of mothers
in-law.
Many bachelors are literary men, an(
it may be that the disastrous experience
of not few of their predecessors in th'
craft have had an influence in keeping
them as they are. IF the literary man.,
says Isaac D'Israeli, unite himself to
woman whose tastes and whose tempe
are adverse to his pursuits, he must cour
ageously prepare for martyrdom,' ant
martyrdom is what few people are cage
for. Even in the best of circumstances
marriage must be accompanied by man,
embarrassments for the head and heart.
Bachelors, it cannot be denied, hav
an i'll name. If marriage is warfare