The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-08-19
JUST THINK OF THE WIDOWS.
Why There Are So Many More ofThem
Than of Widowers.
From The Westminster Revie,g.

stated that 1T is not the sDinSters who con-
stitute the surplus female population and by
whom the labor market is flooded, but the
widows, and adducing statistics in evil
dence, we added: THAT the widows num-
Der as many as 1,410,64 and the widowers
5S9,644, being an excess of S21 ,040 women.
So great an excess of widows over widow
ers was scarcely to be expected, and must
be regarded as a deDIorable thing, which
seems to suggest at once some default or
vice in our social hfe." The greater
longevity of women than of men becomes a
factor in the advanced stages of life. On
reference to the census of England and
Wales for 1881 we find tnat widoWers of 65
and upward numbered $50, 1874 and widows
of corresponding age 372. 81, whereas at So
the widowers numbered 90, 995 and the wild
ows 259, 81; and, again, at IS the widowers
e, 92S and the widows 1873 $50, so that the
excess is still greater where longevity has
nothing to do with it. For every 100 wld-
overs in France there are 1874 widows. How
young, too, in our own country some are
lett widows is shown by the census of Eng
land and Wales of 1881, at which date there
were 5000 widows at the age of 25. Fifty
two thousand widows seem a great number
at an age when, according to some authori-
ties most women should first marry, es-
pecIally in these times.
As long as women do not submit to the
fate which weighs on their natural mates or
companions, but marry men old enough to
be their fathers, grandfathers or great
grandfathers often widowers) from unwill-
ingness to face the battle of life, or from
love of ease and show, so long will there be
gross inequality between the number of
widows and widowers. That marriage on
the part of men is becoming later through
the greater struggle of life, the advantages
and destinations of club life and other rea-
sons, is a well-known fact. Now, from the
TACT of men not only marrying often when
far advanced in manhood, but sometimes
when nearer the end than the beginning, to
which must be added remarriage often
more than once, and marrying then not
women OF corresponding or approximately
corresponding age, but young women, it
must follow in the ordinary course of
things, without the necessity of any calcu-
| lation or reference to statistics, that such
women must be left widows long before the
| natural termination of their lives. Some
| have seen in the fact of wOman's greater
| longevity reason why she should marry
| man somewhat younger than herself, SO
| that she may hope to have a companion in
her latter days as well as in her earlier-a
| season, indeed, in which she often stands
| sorely IN need of a protector The difficulty
of finding a suitable companion later in
| Importance, SO far as practicable, of secur-
ing lifelong companion. 1t is hardly nee
| essary to mention that to do so is one of the
| essential conditions of true marriage-the
| ideal marriage, which, be it said by the way
| Is often a very different thing from the
| base, mercenary counterfeits of to-day,
which pass under the euphemism of ''holy
| matrimony.'
1t is obvious that the idea of endeavoring
| n a
many reasons, be uppermost in the mind of
a woman intent on marrying. Does obser
vaUlon show that woman invariably eXer-
| clseS the foresight just indicated? We think
| not, but should say rather to the contrary.
| So eager are some, we do not say ALL to ca
ter the bonds of wedlock, that if they can
reasonably hope that the prospected coveted
husband will get through the marriage cere-
mOny and the honeymoon, they seem toler-
ably contented. Even in this limited fore
cast they are sometimes led astray by
enthusiasm. Only last spring we knew an
| elderly swain of 65 sum ners, or there
abouts, who, being captivated by fair
young charmer, must needs marry ner; it is
| true he got through the ceremony, but he
was not so successful with the honeymoon
for it came to pass on the fifth day that his
soul was required of him. These amorous
veterans, nevertheless, do not always SO ex-
peditlously shuffle off this mortal coil and
leave this sphere of marriage for the one
where ''they never marry, nor are given in
| marriage but rather seem to take a new
lease of life. What is. however, the lease
of life of man of so or 90 in comparison
with tlat of a maid Of 20 or 2J?
One of the correspondents of the DAILY
| Telegraph correspondence of last autu nm
showed we'll how the union of May and De-
| cember was one of the most fertile sources
of the failure Of marriage While
May was full of pleasure to come, De-
cember was chewing the end of past ones
| The one had lived, the other wanted to live.
and here they parted company on the
| threshold of their married life. A young
| woman marrying man of like age may
| have to exercise self-denial, the very quinL-
| essence of true marriage, but she inspires
and encourages him; she is the key to I'M
lock the treasures and stores of his man
| hood; she is the light person il the right
| place. On the contrary, for many obvious
reasons, i'll marrying mau at the end of
his manhood she often drags him down
Gross disparity was forbidden by Jewish
law-givers, and also by the most en-
| ligh ened of Pagan legisla ors Is it wise or
prudent to permit the vigor of manic ID t.
be dissipated or wasted, and to allow poster
ity to owe its origin to the waning strength
! of old mens 1t is certainly contrary to the
warning voice of the most intelligent and
disinterested of the medical profession, who
are unquestionably the best counseIors on
this subject.
Marriage in its essence is the duty of one
sex toward the other and may be approx
mately expressed as the co nplementing and
! supplameu ting development and utilization
respectively of manhood and womanhood
and we are not aware, apart from this, that
it differs from any other union between
man and woman so far as morality is con-
cerned. The key is not more necessary to
the lock, nor the cord to the bow, than are
man and woman to each other in respect to
the PERFECTION of human life; they are, in
deed, as the poet Longfellow says, useless
each without the othern This widow
making vice of marital disparity is but one
| feature i'll that hymeneal proclamation which
is the curse and disgrace of our age, as it
was that of the decline of Rome. Looking
on our society of to-day the reader will
realize the truth conveyed in the words OF
Mr.. Hepworth Dixon, in the white Con
quest" Nature puts the sexes on earth in
pairs and man destroys that balance at the
cost of his moral death"
The social evil" is but the reflection or
shadow of an unsocial evil aud we must
not. therefore, wonder If all the agencies of
the philanthropit and the missionary
efforts of the evang list fail when we know
how imp )ssible it is to remove a shadow
while that which causes the shadow re-
mains
Self Defense Against Dangerous Foe