Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-03-27
TO TAX BACHELORS.
4 Strange Proposition Being Agt-
 tated in Canada
The Newspapers 6f ths Dominion Are Not in Favor of So Many G6Gd @ Men Going to Grass as There
 Are at Present.

There is serious movement in Can
 ada in fator of placing a tax on bach
 elors. For some time past the Hamil-
 ton Herald has been almost the sole ad-
 vocate of the proposition, but recently
 that paper has been joined by the Mon
 treel Witness, the Winnipeg Free Press
 and the Stfatferd Herald, three infiu-
 ential newspapers, and the merchants
 of Montreal and members of the Quebec
 goseFnment have had the subject under
 their solemn consideration. The Her
 ald confesses that it has been deeply
 pained by the tone of levity adopted
 by the Canadian press in the past when
 discussing this serious and important ftestiQu.. But the close attention now
 given to it Sn3 the directness of the ar
 guments brought to bear npon it grat-
 fly the Herald and cause it to rejoice
 that Canadian bachelors may now be
 brought to their knees. Ut is becom- ing more and more apparent" says the Herald; ''that one great trouble with Canada is the number of bachelors in
 it. They are allowing the country to go to grass, as it were, and instead of
 trying tC establish homes of their own
 they are jogging contentedly along
  themselves together by the ata of shingle nails and bits of rope and other accessories of the bacltelor's wardrobe" This picture, of course, Is little overdrawn. But the evil is seriotts
 one. Cenada just now has many griev-
 ances. Anne1atfon, high rates of taxa
 ton, discouragements Of trade and de-
 pression in farming districts, to say
 nothing of the entanglements into which a half-dozen eager political par ties have dra Hn her affairs, all tend to
 make lif6 in Canada anything but
 happy one. But upon all this comes
 the overpowering knowledge that the
 young men of Canada, the middle-aged
 men of Canada, and perhaps some of
 the old men of Canada, are failing in
 the most essential part of citizenship by not getting married. The actual condition that stares the loyal Canadian in the face is, without mincing matters, that the men, by remaining single, force the young women to become old maids and the population, constantly depleted by deportation to the United States, is not revived by marriage.
 The Herald put the matter in its true light by saying: If the bachelors don't brace up and fulfill their manifest des- tiny what Is to become of them, and what are all the dear, sweet, pretty, loving and lovable girls going to doP If
 the bachelors persist in neglecting them" continues the Herald, 'there is nothing for it but to tax the young men from say one hundred to five hundred dollars year each, according to their incomes, and it will be found that they will very soon be brought to realize that the happy domestic life is the only one that is worth the living" Another fact is apparent in this con nection. The Yankee boys, apprecia- ting the beauty and worth of the Cana dian girls, seek them for wives. and a short residence in the United States transfers the loyal Canadian girl into an appreciative American. This is serious phase of the matter for Cana | dians, and it is true one, as apprecia- | tion for Canadian girls by American | young men is fully attested in poem ! entitled: My Sweet Canadian Girl ! now going the rounds of the Canadian