St. Paul daily globe., 1888-02-19
SPINSTER VS.. BACHELOR.
What's Sauce for the Gander Is Sauce
for the Goose.
AN INEXHAUSTIBLE SUBJECT.
Reasons Why Eligibles Do Not Find
Wives, and Why Girls Will Not Take
Advantage of Leap Year.

the young men OF the day Such para
CONS that the burden of reprOach would
fall only on the ''Sweet girl-graduates"
and the maturer girls who have not
been in haste TO mate?
1t would certainly seem so. And now
there is going the round of the news
papers an article, which not only harpS
on the well-known string, but also
undertakes defense of bachelors, and
attempts to demonstrate that they are
the cOner stones of society, if not, in
deed, the most useful contingent of a
community.
1t is cheering to be told that ''there
are pages in the history of every man
meaning bachelor -men-''which are
never read by the world" and that
Notwithstanding they are sealed pages,
they control the lives and actions of
those why are alone able to read them,"
for certainly very little of this implied
good influence ever comes to light; but
it is not at all clear that bachelors
have a monopoly on the Sealed-page
business, or that, as BenedictS, they
could not still control the lives and
actions" of select few, while asSum-
ing the higher responsibilities and dis
charging the more public obligations of
married life. 1t is further maintained
that men do not remain bachelors be-
cause they cannot find any one willing
to marry them, but that 4 leading cause of
bachelOrhOod is the difficulty of finding
a young woman who is fitted for the
duties deYOlVing upon the wife of
business man. The first assertion may
be true-there is an ancient saw about
there being a Jill for every Jack; but
if there is any measure of truth what
ever in the second, it can be accounted
for only by the SuppOSition that the
effort made is exceedingly feeble, or
their vision deplorably defective, in
these broad days of practical education
by which young women are prOfiting.
The real trouble lies, not in the incOm-
peteI>oe of our girls, but rather i'll the
inferiOrity of our young men. The
average OF capability, moral and phySi-
cal, as we'll as mental, struck by the
marriageable men of the day is not
high one. and thoughtful girls, the
number of whom are increasing every
year. wisely hesitate before linking
their fateS to the more than doubtful
futures of such SuitOrS as fall to their
lot. The majority of our young women
have felt and are learning to appreciate
the liberal advantages and more gener-
Gus latitude for Self-aSSertiOn. which
the age accordS them, and observation
soon teaches them that the men, into
whose society they are thrown, would
be but reeds to lean upon. They see
the rich mems sons coming from college
with no definite aim, or healthy
ambition, giving their youth and any
talents they may possess to frivolity and
dissipation until, placed at an age
when all should still be fresh, they re-
sort perforce to matrimOny for new
diversion, with ability and disposition
for naught save the speedy Squandering
of the money they hope to inherit.
On the other hand are young men
with no capital but their brains Seizing
all manner of risky positions bearing
spurious promise of a short cut to aff1u-
ence. Instead of the courageous pa
tience and active ambition which should
aid them over the first uncertain years
and beget the present OF a future fit to
offer worthy girl, they spend their
slender incomes in desperate effort to
win society'S smile, contracting debts
and ruinouS habits, and at last diSheart-
ened at the end of their resources, and
realizing, perhaps, when too late, their
folly, they turn to sympathetic ears and
meekly say the words they would have
done well to have said in the beginning:
'Marry me and help me save" But
though the ears may be sympathetic the
heads are level, and the young women,
mindful of too many instances
wherein it came to pass that
Natures law declining, the oak did
the supporting, while the vine did all
the twining," senSibly decline tn part
nerShip of the men of this stamp, who
form so large percentage of the mas
culine element in society. Could he be
made to understand in what small eS-
TEEN they are actually held by girls
whose good opinion they covet, it might
work Salutary change. True, these
same girls go on in their incipid CONVEX
satiOn with the equally inane chit-chat
to which they must accustom their
tongues if they go much into society.
They accept their attentions and their
flattery; but when it comes to serious
consideration, they will have none of
them. Neither is this because they are
holding themselves for wealthy Suitors,
as is too often imputed, but entirely be-
cause there is no apparent guarantee of
either happiness or prosperity where
home management, however able, would
be handicapped by incompetence or i'm
prOvident habits on the part of the
bread winner. Girls who have good
homes are 10th to exchange them for the
uncertain prospects offered; and girls
who find it necessary to rely upon their
to make place for themselves
in the world to undertaking
the doubtful task of helping to
construct comfortable middle-age out
of the fragments of misspent youth.
Some ore has said that conspicuous
reason for the decrease in marriages
lies in the fact that as society grows
there is less chance of men worth hay
ing being thrown with girls worth mar
rying. If girl has means or position
she is identified with the social life for
which young men of ambition have
neither time nor money to spare, and
where such men are rarely met. If the
girl is poor, obScurity settles her fate:
or, if she turns her hands and BRAIN to
account, the men she has opportunity of
meeting are, as rule, not these she
would wish to cultivate in her brief
hours of leisure.
This suggestion bears good deal of
thought, and it seems as if it might. in
deed, be one of the most important fac
tors III solving the matrimonial problem.
After all, it is not likely that the
country is in any danger of depopula-
ton, or that all the articles ever
written, Singly and collectively, will
increase the number of marriages.
But when young men become earnest,
strong of purpose, capable of being
the founders OF homes and counSelOrS
of wives, then there will be more we'd
dings. And as for the bachelors-not
young sprigs fresh from college who so
style themselves. but the genuine bald
headed, club-inhabiting type--if they
are so "actiye, polite, generous and
progressive" and otherwise desirable,
why all this agitation about our girls
not marrying?-for there can't be
bachelors without old maids. Why
does the French government contem-
plate from time to time special taxa
ton, premiums and other means to
discourage bachelorhoOd? Admit that