St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-02-05
WHY WOMEN DON'T MARRY.

The North American Review, in its
current number, contains an article in
answer to the inquiry why more women
do not marry. 1t says that rich young
women remain spinSters for two reasons.
One class refuses offer number one be-
cause it has not made up its mind that
it cares to marry just yet. Having be-
come hardened to tragedies by sue
cessful repulse of this first attack, it re-
fuses offer number two aud offer num-
Der three out of the force of habit, and
offer number four never comes. The
other class gets offer number four and
offer number five and so on, but by that
time it is in great demand for dinner
parties, and it finds these quite satisfy
ing, and does not care for matrimony.
1t soon becomes seXless, so that men do
not think of it in connection with love.
OF Door women the writer says, some
become engrossed in professional Or
business pursuits, and, finding that they
can keep the wolf from the door with
out mans assistance, do not want to
marry. The rest, seeing the sorrows of
their own homes through poverty and
the brutality Of the fathers, are afraid
of the yoke and of the thought that
they may bring children into the world
to suffer as they have. The writer
claims to be simply reporter, but she
euloglzes and indorses virginity.
This is pernicious nonsense, as bad in
its way as the teachings of 1.-THE Kreut-
ger Sonata" All healthy, right-minded
young women want to get married. just
as all healthy, right-minded young men
do. And the best of them succeed. and
ought to. A great many worthy women
of personal attractivenesS remain un-
married, but the reason is not that they
prefer to, but because the opportunity
does not present itself. This is true,
also, however, of most of the bachelors
ia the world. A few of these people, on
account of personal idiosyncrasies, are
happier as they are. But even these.
and surely all the unmarried except
them, if they have good sense, have no
quarrel with matrimony, and are will
ing to admit that the great majority are
better off when welded than they would
be if they lived and died in single
blessedness. The same God who took
away from mems eyes the fear of death
and equipped us to work valiantly as
though we should live forever has
planted in our breasts the instructive
desire for wedlock. There is no grown
boy or girl of high spirits, no
matter how gloomy his experiences of
home life, who would not make the ven
ture on his own account any more than
he would object to living because he has
seen his father or mother die in great
agony. All philosophers have agreed
that married life is honorable, and that
lite-laSting vlrginity, although it may
not be crime, is misfortune and not
a credit to any one.
People who generaliZe glibly about the
sorrows Of the married state seem to
think that it is possible to live without
suffering. But it is not. Life is only a
balance of evils. The man or the woman
who does not marry because he wants
to avoid responsibilities is a fool. No
one can escape responsibilities unless he
lives in desert. The bachelor and the
SpinSter have just as many as anybody
else, and they have to bear them alone
and without compensation. 1t is bad
thing for woman to have a drunken
husband aud for man to have a nag
glng wife, put it is great deal worse