Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1890-04-18
BACHELOR OR BENEDICT
Mrs. Frank Leslie Discusses an Important
Social Question.

Mrs. Frank Leslie Discusses an Important
Social Question.
From an article on Marriage" by
Mrs. Frank Leslie, we make several
extracts. She says: Until lately, a
young unmarried man was considered
and accommodated as a sort Of bird Of
passage. He had room in his fathers
house, or he boarded somewhere, or he
lived at a hotel, or he lodged in one
house and ate in another or at cafe;
he was on his promotion; he was not
living, but staying; he was the half Of
pair Of scissors; he was transitional
formation, not worth placing or formu-
lating very accurately. II he hung
long on hand, people began to say:
''Why doesn't he marry? He surely has
salary enough, hasn't hep And II by
chance he remained unmarried, he be-
came sort Of phenomenon was called an
old bachelor ridiculed, offered in jest
to each other by merry girls, and made
the subject Of comic songs, stories and
jests. 1t was in those days, not SO long
gone by, either, matter OF course that
young mans one idea OF contented
personal life was to marry nico girl,
set up homo where he should be lord
and master, and accept, with equanim-
ity. the little responsibilities likely to
accrue. But the luxurious and care
fully planned benedict chambers of to-
day do not accord with this idea. They
are evidently intended for men who al
road " ha un Qoanrnl cuNfainnt inpnD,l
for modest marriage, but who do not in
tend to spend their money in that way;
for men who say OF two or three or flvo
thousand year, as the gourmand
did of the gooso-that 1t was
an inconyenicnt roast being a
little too much for one, but not enough
for two. These gentlemen consider
that pretty suite of rooms, where they
may smoke as much as they choose,
stay up until they wish to go to bed,
have guests when they like, or play
hermit If they prefer, havo the morning
coffee and roll served at their bedside
and lunch and dine at Delmonico's, is
better than to establish partnership
household, where tho domestic portion
is more apt to rule than the one whose
business takes him away for most of his
waking hours. From purely selfish
point of view probably Benedict judges
wisely. He can be more comfortable,
he can be more Independent, he can es-
cape good deal of annoyance and per-
plexity, but thon-he can not be married
And placing Benedict chambers in ono
scale and married life in the other, which
has solid gold enough in its composition
to bear down the scales? Is marriage
an essential Of tho happiness of life?
Fifty years ago, as have just intimat-
ed, no such question could have been
seriously asked or answered. 1t was a
matter of course that young people were
to marry just as soon as they had Tho
means. But, taking all ones friends
together, do the married men Of to-day
seem absolutely happier than tho bache-
lors, even II they have means largo
enough or wife economical enough to
make marriage possible? am inclined
to think they are not. Married mon, as
rule, have speculative, absent-mind-
cd expression upon their faces, as
II they were mutely pondering over
some intricate domestic or commercial
affair. The bachelor face on the other
hand has its own handwriting of i'll
success. 1t is apt to wear broad ex-
preston, look Of Is life worth the liv-
ing? or else cynical indifference to
this and every other question outside OF
his own material comforts, which Is
very painful to read upon young man.
An unmarried man grows selfish, Ear
row and material almost as matter OF
course. The unmarried man, and more
especially the unmarried woman, 1has
not filled his or her amplest sphere OF
existence, and can not be called sac
cess, whatever he or she has achieved,
for they leave the place whore they
stood vacant when they fall, and tho
world, although it may be wiser, can
not be the richer because they havo
lived"