The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1891-03-14
WHY GIRLS DO NOT GET MARRIED
BY 4 MAN.

BY MAN.
The primary reason is no doubt be-
cause men do not ask them, or, rather,
because the right men do not ask them.
But why don't they? In the words OF
the heart broken old comis song,
Why don't the men propose, mamma,
why don't the men propose?
OF course there are many reasons
some on the mems side and some on
the girls but l mean to speak here
only of the latter. A "Mother of Five"
thinks it IS because the girls are too
modest. 1t seems, she says, that girl
must be ready to fly in the face of
good many of the elementary rules of
decorum if she is to get husband in
these days. No, my dear madam, with
all due respect to you, be to assure
you as man that such is not the case,
and that modssty IS still (Heaven be
praised y one of the greatest attrac-
tons a girl can have. The lack of it
leads to filtration, it is true-to the ap-
pearance of creatures who lock like
sultors-but not often to marriage.
The very case, at which she not OBJ
scurely hints proves it. The young
lady did not get husband. She got,
or was awarded by sympathizing jury
41o,ooo; but the experiment was
hazardous one, and hardly encouraging
on the whole. AS far as marriage was
concerned, it was dead failure. The
experience of every day shows the same
thing. In one particular social sphere
it has been crystaIzed into that cruelty
appropriate phrase, a garrison hack.
How often does the flirting beauty see
her admirers ride away while her m od-
est sister carries off the prize. Indis
cretion on the part of girl (or her
mother) will carry man to a certain
point; a point determined precisely
by the measure of the indiscretion but
not step further-towards matrimony
if he Is worth having. Men with heads
on their shoulders have net the smallest
intention of making indiscreet or in
decorous girls their wives, though they
will flirt with them to the end of the
chapter. When they mean matrimony
they choose the modest ones-women
whom they can respect. Girls who run
fast outpace respect altogether and
leave it hopelessly behind. Such do
not often get husbands, but on the
contrary become a mockery to their
enemies and a sorrow to their friends.
Courage, madam your charming
daughters will yet meet with their re-
ward. never doubt it.
Putting aside such questions as means
and position, there are, according to
my observations, two great reasons why
many really charming and attractive
girls do not find husbands, as l regret
fully admit they do not. Those rea-
sons are precisely opposite in charac-
ter. Some girls are too particular, and
some are Lot particular enough. The
former class, without necessarily enter
tanning any very high flown or romantic
notions, are apt to repe. many worthy
though not brilliant seeming wooer by
foolishly scornful demeanor. This
is all very we'll for a time-no girl
should sell herself against her own in
cinations but it is often carried too
far. When it grows into a habit and
the years roll by Gas they do with a
good deal more certainly than the
clouds) there comes time when the
worthy wooer fails to present himself at
all-for not every man is Major Dob
bin and the fairest maiden wakes
up 10 the humiliating discovery that
husbands do not grow like blackbernes.
once knew maiden lady of the
respectable age of eighty seven. Her
memory wns little gone, and she used
to tell me the same things every day.
One was that was looking very thin
and another that if she had her time
over again she would marry the first
decent man that presented himself. |
consider it a most essential thing for a
woman to marry-most essential, she
used to say. l always replied that |
was sure it was not for lack of oppor-
tunity that she had not married at
which she laughed heartily and was
not i'll pleased. Indeed, she was still
handsome old woman, could play the
piano to a marvel, and was as full of
eSbyit as an egg is of meat. She must
| have been most attractive in her youth.
That old lady was one of the too par
ticular class, and she had been regrett,
ing it for half century. There was
sound sense in her remark.
The second class IS, | am sorry to
say, more numerous. They are not
particular enough in this sense: they
seem somewhat too anxious to be mar
ried, and without the slightest immo-
desty or want OF decorum make them.
selves too cheap, to put it bluntly.