The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-06-14
THEY Do NOT MARRY.
WHY YOUNG PEOPLE FIND SINGLE
BLEssEDNEssE so COMFORTABLE.

1t is an oft repeated remark that New
York is the finest place in the republic
to live inf you are rich. But it is
worse than the meanest suburb. the
dreariest of western "boom towns the
dullest country village-if you are poor.
This is the criticism of the person who
does not contemplate life as POSSIBLE
ity-or an agreeable possibility
society, in the narrow sense of the word;
without the pleasures that come from
money, without the social standing that
a good bank account gives, without be-
ing able ''to keep up with the process
sion" of those who are well dressed, well
fed, well situated and well off.
Singularly enough, those who demand
these things-who will not accept mar
RED life without them-are generally
not well supplied with this world s goods.
People who have been rich all their lives
do not realize what it means to go with
cut their luxuries. But people who have
been poor know just the wretchedness
of having to wear patched boots and go
without lunch: of having to walk long
distances, because Car fare mounts up;"
of having to refuse nice invitations, be-
cause they have no clothes or no means
of returning profered civilities. To
these, poverty is a bitter thing. and they
loathe it. Marriage. unless it means
escape from carping cares of this kind,
they eschew as hopeless evil. Better
endure those trials that we have than
| fly to others that we know not of, they
say.
So thinks the everyday, gentlemanly,
good looking, entirely personable young
man of thirty, who draws an income of
| from two to four thousand year, and
| is asked out all over because he dances
| admirably and is good to look at, and
never does anything gauche. So, also,
thinks the pretty, well bred, well dressed,
moderately bright girl of twenty-five,
whose father spends six thousand a year
and has five children. Both of these know
just the way they want their lives to go.
Ever since childhood they have associ-
ated with companions who have had
more money than they have, and they
know how nice it is to be well off. To
their motto. when we make the great
move" they both think, "we make it to
better ourselves materially, or we don's
make it at all"
They do not want to be millionaires,
but they do not want to be really pinched
anywhere. Their house must be large
enough and be comfortable 1t must be
well fitted up-no ''sheet by night and
tablecloth by day" for them. There
must be servants enough to run it. This
girl-who has always been comfortably
placed, but never luxuriously-hasn no
intention Of binding herself down to do
nestle cares, Of busting her own draw
ing room and turning up hens in her
own table linen. No; all that must be
done for her. She has made her own
dresses and trimmed her own hats all
her girlhood, and she wants, when she
marries, to change all that. Better to
go on doing it in your own home, where
it is all you have to worry over, than to
do it in your husbs S, where you
have to keep the hou and take care Of
children as well.
Thus the young lady reasons and re-
jects her suitors with peculiar and good
humored Indifference. She has made
up her mind that she will not marry a
man who has a cent under five thousand
a year, and is not above telling this to
the soupirants. who take the hint and
strive to realize the ideal. The young
lady is quite frank. She is not in the
least ashamed of her worldliness or de-
sirous of hiding it under veil of at
tractive coynesS. She is not mercenary.
1t is not riches that she demands-co
fort, that is all. If she is comforta
she will continue to be very nice,
tractive person, but if she has to scrimp |
and struggle and fight over ten cent
pieces, and turn her old clothes, and |
have her shoes patched, she will not be |
responsible for her temper. She is a |
fin de steele to her finger tips-sensible |
where she might be romantic, practical |
where she once would have been impas-
sioned-a person who is bound to make
a success of her life and keep it on the
lines that she regards as the best.
The young man of her kind holds pre-
cisely the same views. Life with be-
loved object sounds very charming, but
it is not to be INDUCED in unless the in
comes of himself and the beloved object
foot up to from five to six thousand per
lum. The beloved object on three
ousand a year is too expensive lux
ury. He cannot afford it. What might
nave been a courtship dwindles to a
mild friendship. Not infrequently he
tells the lady of his sad predicament and
how impossible a matrimonial alliance
would be on his salary. She condoles
with him and they become friends, for
no violent fires burn in their hearts and
friendship comes quite easily to them.
Marriage would mean a series of sacri-
fees that neither is willing to make.
They would have 10 live in fat in Har-
lem-and no one knows who has not lived |
in Gotham the horror in which Harlem
is held-or a second rate boarding house
beyond Fourth avenue.
Then come clothes and theaters. 4
New York woman spends money Ike
water on her clothes. she would much
rather be well dressed than well fed.
She must be well dressed to be up with
anything The moment she grows
shabby she is no longer of any impor-
lance. Then she may as well give up all
the fun and consent to be relegated 10
dreary insignifcance like the old wives