Evening journal., 1891-03-26
NEWSPAPER OPINION.
The th ice IN nl..rlmonr

pittsburg Times.
Is the choice Of mates among human
beings governed by natural law similar
TO that which Darwin describes as gov
erning the mating OF birds, for instancef
Ia that case, coujugal attraction depends
upon dissi1nilarifies, the dull hued female
falling in love with the brightest hued
male she meets This is the law Of rat
ural selection. BY constant complement
ing In the conjugal relation there Is
constant advance, development by which
we have risen from masses of jelly-like
protoplasm on the shore Of some prime
val sea to what we are now Consistency
IN this theory would seem to require
that the higher creatures ascend Ia
the scale of development the more de
finite and complete this process OF com
plementing should be, because In the
highest. in man, intelligence to appre-
ciate the advantage of it ought to come
Ia to the aid OF instinct. But one OF the
most eminent OF embryologists, Herman
Fol, finds IN circumstances particularly
favorable TO observation that this Is not
true aud that men and women mate &C
cording rather to similiErities than to
dlssimilarit les The city of Nice, on the
shore Of the Mediterranean is the Mecca
Of the uewly-wed as as It Is TO invalids
The bridal couples who go there to spend
the honeymoon are, Of course, persons Of
more or less wealth and therefore Of
the highest average intelligence aud
culture. Fol while staying there made
observations by study Of the peraons and
by means Of photographs to determine
the point in regard to the mating OF men
and women. He found that out Of 1893
couples t39 mated because Of their re
semblance To each other. The man and
woman were attracted to each other by
the physical similarity OF each to the
other, "The viyidly large percentage Of
physical similarity between young mar
r'ed couples is emphasized by the calcu
lation that Ia marriages made at random
by chance-the number Of resembances
would not amount to more than two in a
hundred !" It is emphasized by the
further fact that In some instances the
man and woman, though dissimilar in
other respects. exhibited In common an
ugliness which bordered on the
ridiculous. 1.-THE inference Is that can
dldates for marriage do not fear the
particular form of ngliness to which their
mirror accnstoms them. iudeed the
fact iustides the inference that this par
ticular form of ugliness is precisely the
thing which each is looking for in looking
up mate. On the other hand, the par
ticular form of beauty Is the thing sought
when the mate Is sought
When quarrels continue between man
and wife, due TO lncompatibility of ten
per or taste in living, the neighbors say !:
"Weli what IN the world possessed him to
marry such woman or "What Ia the
world possessed her to marry such a
MANI Qualities Of mind aud heart did
not enter into the question Of matrimouy
when they were considering IT, or
ct least only TO minor degree the
controlling factor was physical similarity
Each fell IN love with that which each
saw when looking into the mirror. When
a large man narries little woman, or a
large woman a little man, we all laugh
The women laugh everytime they think
Of IL. and they never tire Of talking Of It.
SO ridiculousl II is SO unlike what they
have done or would do. 1t Is the same
with men, only they arenot so ready with
their tongues as women, and besides
have less leisure for gossip, But it all
goes TO strengthen the argument that the
law controlling the mating Of men and
women Is the law Of similaritles
not Of mind or heart, but Of physical
similarity. OF course, there are some
very noble instances In which beautiful
women have married men as ugly as last
years bonnet, and instances Of handsome
men marrying homely women, but In
most Of them are circumstances which
removed them from the list OF what are
prorerly marriages Of inclination.
Finally, the law OF natural selection, so
useful In the process Of development.
seems TO have run out when II reached
man. Human beings are mating accord
Ing to Bimilarities and not dfseimilarties