Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-10-05
When to r1arry.

There is a very general impression
among the young of both sexes that the
best time to marry is whenever they
get good chance. In one sense this is
all right, but there are other senses in
which the subject must be considered.
The advocates Of early marriage are
many, and have number of good argu-
ments, yet the custom does not seem to
be growing in favor. Tie best argu-
ment in favor of early marriage is that
the affections of the young are strong
and pure and will afford superior en-
vironment for the growth and develop
ment of that conjugal love that
characterlzes the model home. Another
argument is that young people, and es-
peclally young men, are apt to become
more or less erratic as they grow older
and begin to look upon marriage as a
sort of lottery and cease to rate love at
its full value. First love is all-absorbing,
but when the spell is once broken it is
said that it is beyond the power of even
the most subtle enchantress to restore
it. 1t is also urged that unmarried men
waste their best days, squander their
earnings and become more or less de-
moralized After the best of life is
spent and they have loved q dozen
times and forgotten it they seek the
love and confidence of some young
woman who can be used in some way to
advance their social or business in
terests. There is something IN these
arguments, but they haven't much show
before the facts and figures that have
been collected during the past year or
two. In his inaugural address Prof. A.
Il. Simpson, president of the British
genealogical society, furnished num-
Der of facts cleaned from recent statis-
tics that are valuable to the world at
large and deserving of careful attention
by parents as well as by those contem-
plating marriage. He proves, in the
first place, that marriage, provided it is
not prematurely entered on, is salutary
to both sexes. The mortality of the
unmarried, including in this class the
bachelors, widowers, spinsters and
widows, is considerably above that of
the married. If we take, according to
Bertilion, the number in a community
that at given time would furnish 100
deaths among the married men, and
ask what is the mortality among the
same number of bachelors and widowers,
we find that for 10U married men who
die between the ages of 80 and So there
die of bachelors 169 and of widowers
2Sl. Between the ages of 50 and 40 the
proportion is It's bachelors and 233 wild
overs to 100 married men; between 40
and 45, ia bachelors and 1913 widowers;
between 10 and 80 the figures become
III and 1874; between so and SO, 165 and
172. According to the data collected by
Prof. Simpson, marriage before maturity
say before 20-has very preiudicial
influence on life, particularly on the
male sex, the mortality between the
ages of 10 and 20 in the unmarried youth
being only $50 per 1000, while those
who marry under 20 die at the rate of
5l.32 per 1000, the proportion being
about II of the first to 100 of the latter.
Such marriages are not only dangerous
to the lives of the individuals, but they
have worse effect Oh the vitality and
the development Of the products of
such union. Marriage, according to
statistics, tends to extend the average
age of women. This is very noticeable
after the age of %. Bertilion, of France,
has given this phase of the question
very careful attention and concludes
that Glove and motherhood, in the san
itary condition of marriage, far from
exhausting vitality, preserve and pro-
tect it in the present and IN the future,
because the mothers Of families, wives
and widows, at every period of existence
after the age of 25 pay smaller tribute to
death than the spinsters Of correspond,
ing age 1t thus appears that we'll
considered and well-regulated marriage
is the proper thing for all who want to
live long and happily. No doubt the
unfavorable side of these figures is part
ly due to the fact that ill-health or in
herent disease is responsible for many
of those being single who die prema-
turely.