The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1889-02-16
SHOULD WOMEN PROPOSE.
Belva A. Lockwood Answers the Question
In the Affirmative.

In the Anfrmatives
Why not? In the ages past men
have married their preferences;
women, their opportunities. The
man may choose, the woman refuse,
but she refuses at her peril, as her de-
cision may condemn her to a life of
celibacy, especially in our thickly pop
ulated New England or Middle States,
where the women outnumber the men.
The man she accepts may be in no
wise the man Of her choice;> but it may
be marriage of complaisance. of con-
venience or OF necessity under our
present system, while the woman looks
calmy on to see another fill the place
that she has coveted. without any init
nation in the male breast of her desire.
when little more frankness on the
part of the woman might have added
to the happiness of both. A woman
would be slow to make application for
divorce from the man who had married
her on her own calm deliberation and
request; while the positive privilege
of making another selection should he
refuse-and the man should have the
same right of refusal as the woman
would give her confidence to approach
the man whom she deemed best suited
to her condition and happiness.
Matches would be more carefully made
when considered from both stand
points. and the glamour and indefinite
ness that usually hedged around pro-
posal would be wiped away in the cool
consideration of a mutual business con-
tract.
And why should the woman not have
a voice and choice in the man who is
to be her life partner-the father OF her
children. and who is most likely to give
the tone and color to all of her after
life? The majority OF women never
rise above the character given to them
by the man whom they chance to wed,
for chance in the past has usually had
more to do with marriage than reason.
The Catholics make marriage a canon
| of the church and indissoluble, but it Is
| considered in most of the States as a
| civil contract 1t should undoubtedly
be q civil contract with the utmost
mutually, with both of the contracting
parties at liberty to propose and to RET
| ject proposals without offense and with
out any violation of any of the ordinary
rules of propriety. This contract should
also be construed to contain equal
property rights for the man and the
woman, aud an equal control over the
children OF the marriage. Why should
the woman have more diffidence in
selecting the man who is to wed hel
than in the selection of the house she
is to live in and its intricate furnish
ings, when the former has infinitely SC
much more to do with her happines:
and prosperityP
To propose has always been consid
cred the prerogative of queens. but il
this respect every American woman
should consider herself a queen. L
was not until Queen Victoria had sig
nifed to Prince Albert that propose
from him would be favorably received
that he ventured to make advances t.
that honored lady. Queen Elizabeth
years before, had claimed the right o
proposal as England's sovereign Queen
The incident recited in Scripture be
tween Ruth and Boaz, after the day G
cleaning in the field, was virtually
proposal by Ruth.
After the formulating of the Gre
gorian Calendar in 1882, giving t
every fourth year 500 days, it was &C
; counted proper tor women to propos
every fourth or leap year, but so niue
righteousness and ridicule has attache
to it, that the custom has been NOR
g honored in the breach than in the oil
e servance. At this time, when we col
0 cede to women equal educational faci
|, tiles; have arrived at a proxiina1
0 equality in property rights; have give
g to her to limited extent the ball'
d and the privilege of holding offic
t when the trades and the profession
a are so far thrown open to her that st
may compete with man in none,
making and money-getting, l can st
!, no good reason why she may not u
; der suitable circumstances propos
+ but the proposal on her part would
!; ways carry with it the tacit agreemel
! to perform her part in the domest
u economy of the household. The rigl
n of proposal vouchsafed to woman won
= undoubtedly have moral tendency.
% Belva A. Lockwood, in N. Y. World.
% AROUND THE PlG-PEN.
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linz RaraNrQnba.