Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1891-03-25
WHY DO MEN MARRY?

In q r6c6QG drG1Ci6 LILO QUIZ, uuuGr buo
heading "Why Women Marry" indicated
the present state of the discussion as to the
comparative merits of man and woman as
candidates for martimony, with the result
that man was concluded to be coarse, self
ish, tyranncal, quarrelsome and brutal
creature, whom woman marries only be-
cause-despite her refinement and general
superiority in all graces of character-ages
of suffsrance have brought her to the pass
that she loves brute, must have master
and adores big hands and feet Man is a
failure, it was found, if measured By the
standard of feminine perfection. His in
feriority is unquestionable. Lacking in
beauty of body. deficient in quickness of
perception, wanting tenderness Of heart,
without purity of life or intensity of emo
tion, he is not, it was shown, to be compar-
ed for moment with tie fine being who
possesses all these graces and more. Wo-
man, therefore, in condescending to marry
man, confers upon him a favor for which he
cannot be too humbly grateful and subservi-
ent.
Such was the conclusion. 1t is not fiat
teripg to the barbarous sex. 1t was not
meant to be. It was meant to be the truth,
according to the feminine philosophers who
have undertaken recently at Washington
Man did not, perhaps, relish his prospects,
but felt a certain satisfaction in knowing
that the thing was settled. But every
thing, unhappily, is unsettled again by the
communication The Sun has just received
from a correspondence woman and
mother-who describes herself as ''having
Travelled about as much as the average
woman and having seen as much of men
probably as most women.'' The state.
pents of this witness, if confirmed, must
arrest the attention of the most needless.
They are in fact most startling, and well
calculated to cause precipitate man to hes
itate to insert his neck into the matrimo-
NAL moose. 'There are as many good men,"
says this correspondent, ''as women. Call
them 'brutesp If man is a brute, it is be
cause he has tyrant in most cases for a
wife, and she makes him brute. What a
wretched place many women make home,
if you can call that unhappy place home
to which man so often comes at night after
working hard all day at his business Or
professionl He comes tc a sour, fault
finding, selfish, discontinued woman, who
is never pleased, never has enough to satisfy
her whims, never has smile with which to
greet her Woodworking husband. ! have
seen many such; they are not uncommon.
The world, sad to say, is full of them.
When my son speaks of marriage | feel,
confess, a chill pass over me, fearing he may
be victim of a tyrant such as I've describ-
ed-beautiful, but lacking in the sweetness
and self-control that make companionship
agreeable. I am ashamed to speak thus of
my sex. Men are more noble, more gener-
ous and kind-yes, more loving than wo-
men. Did any one ever know manly man
to be gossip, lover of petty mischief?
Women, on the other hand, hate in little
ways, they love gossip, they are mean to
each other, jealous and envious. Was Adam
worse than Eve? Was not she in transgres-
sion? / will repeat my first remark: There
are as many good men as women in the
worldr"
This, of course, shifts the discussion to
new basis. "Why do men marry?" would |
seem, in the light of these facts, to be a
possible question. Is man, after all, more |
noble, more generous than woman? Is he |
more "kind?' Is be more than she pos
sessed of the qualities that tend to make
home endurable, not to say attractive and |
agreeable? Is there no nagging in his ma
tire, no fault-finding, no plaintive note? Is
he more frequently able to discipline his
discomfort and suppress lamentation over
irksome but incurab BILE domestic facts? Can
it possibly be that in matrimony he may be
"a victim" instead of beneficiary, droning
away the years in mute but voluminous
anguish? Can these things ever be? Our
correspondent, occupying the vantage
ground of an expert, asserts their posi-
bility-nay, their actuality-in many cases.
She puts her sex distinctly on the defensive.
Her revelations must, however, be pro-
nounced almost incredible. We cannot but
believe that the average woman is at least
as sweet-natured as man, and is often more
so.-Baltimore Sun, March 17th.