The Dickinson press. (Dickinson, Stark County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1927, 1889-07-20
THE SURPLUS OF WIDOWS.
REASONS WHY THEY ARE MORE
PLENTIFUL THAN WIDoWERS.
II Is Becoming Common for Old Men to
Marry Young WoaAn-A Practice Which
Is Grave Menace to Posterity-Some
Statistics and Plain Talk.

IL Is becoming Common for Old Men to
Marry Young WouAn-A Practice Whicl,
Is q Grave Menace to Posterity-Some
Statistics and Plain Talk.
In tho article which we published on "Work
and Women" We stated that "it is not the
spinsters who constitute the surplus female
population and by whom the labor market is
flooded, but the widows" and, atlducing sta
tistics i'll evidence, We added that the widows
number us many rs l,4l0,6S4, and the widow
el's 5S9,G being al excess of S2l, ,O4O women.
So great all excess of widows over wilowers
was scarcely to he expected, and must be re.
garded as dcplorabe thing which seems to
| suggest at once some default or vice in our
social life.'
| We mentioned rs reasons for this excess
'thc greater natural longevity of women and
the many risks to life to which men of all
classes are exposed" The greater longevity
of women than of men becomes factor in
the advance stages of life. On reference to
the census of England and Wales for 1881 we
find that widowers of Is and upward mum.
bered lS0,l2+, and widows of corresponding
age 312, ,317, whereas at IS tho wilowers num-
bered $685. aud the widows 259Sll; and,
again, at 45 the widowers 3,.t,S and tho wild.
ows l9S,GSO. so that the excess is still greater
whcre longevity has nothing to do with it.
While it is true that men are moro exposed
to risk than women, tho mortality from
childbirth must he taken into account; and,
although small i'll comparison to the risks
which men i'll general arc exposed to, it must
count as against tho limited number of the
married.
AS OLD AS THEIR GRANDFATIIERS
We propose to show what We npprchcnd is
the true and simple explanation, viz, marital
disparity In an article i'll the Universal Re-
view OIL Population in France" Robert
Donald says: "Thcre is frequently disparity
between the ages of the couples, which leads
to an abundant crop of young widows. For
every 100 wi'lowcrs in France thero are 1914
widows" How young, too, in our own
country some arc left widows is shown by the
census of England and Wales of 1881, Mt
which date there were 52.Ol9 widows of the
age of "a. Fifty-two thousand widows seem
n great number nt nm ago when, according to
some authorities, most women should first
marry, especially in those 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 bc their fathers,
granlfathrrs or -grandfathcrs toftcn
widowcrsl, from nnwi!lingncss to face tho
battle of life, OF from love of ease and show
so long will there lie Il gross inequality be-
tween the number of widows and wowers.
This custom appears to he growing more
an,l more prevalent every day III this coun-
try throughout all classes, and has frequently
been the subject of comment in the newspa-
pcrs. That marriage OH the part of men is
becoming later through tho greater struggle
of life, the advantages and fnscinatons of
club life and other reasons is n we'll known
fact. Now, from the fact of men not only
marrying often when far advanced i'll man.
hood, but sometimes when nearer the end
than the beginning, to which must he added
remarraSc, often more than once, and mar
ryinS then not women of corresponding OF
approximately corresponding age, but young
women, it must follow in the ordinary course
of things that such women must bc left Wild
ows long before the natural termination of
their lives. Some have seen in the fact of
woman's greater longevity reason why she
should marry IL man somewhat younger than
herself, SO that She may hope to have n com
pnnion III her latter days rs well us in her
rarlicr-;l season, indeed, in which she often
stands sorcly i'll need of n protector. There
are, however, countcrbalancing reasons, and
some of very valid nature, which are likely
to proven, this ever becoming n custom
A CAUSE or TROUBLE
Gross disparity was forbidden by Jewish
lawgivcrs, and also by the most enlightened
of pagan legislators. Is it wise prudent
To permit the vigor Of manhood to be ,lissi-
pated wasted and to allow posterity to
owe its origin to the waning strength of old
men! 1t is certainly contrary to the warm
ing voice of the most intelligent and disntcr
cstcd of the medical profession, who arc un
qIeStionably the hest counselors OH this sub
jcct The British Medical Journal observed
some time back: "rhere is 10 contract into
which people hnbitually enter with SO little
thought for their future health and happiness
and for the moral and physical welfare of
their possible offspring" Every family
practitioner knows in how large Il proportion
} oi cases the wretche,lncss of ill assorted unions
depends OH physical causes rather than on in
compatibility Of temper. The victims them
5 selves are often unconscious of the real cause
of their suffering, and invoke the aid Of priests
and legislators instead of that of tho physician,
who alone can help them"
Marriage, i'll its essence, Is tho duty of one
) Sex toward tho other, and may be approx
5 mately expressed as the complemcntins and
supplcmentns development and utilization
} respectively of manhood and womanlood,
and we arc not aware apart from this, that
it differs from any other union between man
and woman Sd far rs morality is concerned.
The key is not more necessary to the lock, nor
,lic cord to the bow, than is man and woman
4 to each other in respect to the perfection of
] human life; they are, indeed, as tho poet
Longfcllow says, Useless each without the
! other" This widow making vice of marital
, disparity is but one feature in that hymcneal
PROCLAMATION which is the curse and disgrace
Of ou: age, as it was that of tho decline Of
$ Rome. II we wcrc to quote tho following
, words without saying that they are taken
, from Horace, Book 8, Ode IS, anyone not know
ing them might think they were taken from
2 some current writings: "The present age
2 tccming with all manner Of vice, has first de-
. bauched our marriages, our families and our
houses. From this source are derived those
S calanitics which llaveovcrwhelmed our coun-
l try and our people"
The PROCLAMATION Of the marriage covenant,
3 as much in the church as in Vanity Fair, makes
of the moral teaching of today in the name
Of Christianity from pulpit and platform q
complete farce, an insult to manhood and
womauhood and libel on the finished work
: of tie Creator.
4 In our article On "Work and Women" al
r ready referred to, it is said: 1--WE find that
between the ages Of Is aud As the single woyn-
J. Ell are absolutely In the minority, for the
bachelors number 4, l0l ,0l4, and the spinsters
: only 4,U2,llS, an excess of 1886 men,"
!. Looking on our society of today the reader
f will realize the truth conveyed in the words
{ of Hepwo,th Dixon in the "Whito Conquest:
0 Mature puts the sexes on earth in pairs, and
r man destroys that balance at the cost of his
| moral death "-W Wcstluinster Review.
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