The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1894-02-25
TIE DECLINE OF MARRIAGE.
Grant Allen Asoribes It 60 tho Cumulative
l.frrt Of Nerxnna IHrllemant.

Grant Allen Asoribes It TO tho Cumulative
i.icot Of Nervous Excitement.
Mr. Grant Allen. ia what no T. pleased
90 call "a philosophic View Of the Mar
ringo Question. undertakes 10 explain
why marriage Is less common today than
10 was a century ago.
"Thiriy or forty years ago." DO says.
"young men used 20 rush by blind Instinct
into tho tolls Of matrmony- because they
couldn't help themselves Today they
shillyshally, they pick and choose, they
discuss, they oriticise, they sny foolish
things about the club and the fiat and the
cost OF living. They believe In Nautilus.
Fancy young man who believes in Nal
thus But they don't marry and IL Is be
cause they are less Of young men than for
merly. Wild animals Ia confinement sell
dom propagate their kind. Only a few
Gagged birds will continue their species.
Whatever upsets the balance Of the organ
Ism in an individual or race tends first
Of all 90 affect the rate Of reproduction.
Civilize the red man, and he begins TO de
crease nc once In numbers.
els not the same thing true Of usf Civ
ilization and It's works have come too
quickly upon us. The strain and stress OF
correlating and oo-ordinating the world
we live in are getting too much for us.
Railways, telegraphs, the latest edition,
have played havoc nc last with our nerv-
Gus systems Wenre always on the stretch
rushing and tearing perpetually. We bolt
our breakfast; we catch the train OF bus
by the skin Of our teeth. The tape clicks
perpetually In our ears the last quotation
In Eries; the telephone rings us up at in
convenient moments. Something Is al
ways happening somewhere 20 disturb our
equanimity Life IS one turmoil Of ex-
element and hustle Financially, tits "A
series Of dissolving views; personally, It's
"A rush; socially, It's "A mosaic Of deity
fitted engagements. Drop out one piece,
and you can never replace il. You are full
next week from Monday to saturday,
business oil day, what calls itself pleasure
save the mark , all evening. Poor old Lei
sure is dead. We hurry and sourry and
furry oternally. One whirl Of work from
morning till night, then dress and dine.
One whirl Of excitement from night till
morning. a snap Of troubled sleep, and
again da capo. Not an hour, not IA min
ute we can call our own.
1.-THE first generation after Stephenson
and the Rocket pulled through with il
somehow. They inherited the sound CON
stitutions Of the men who sat on rustic seats
in the gardens Of the twenties. The second
generation-that's you and me-felt the
strain OF IL more severely. New machines
had come In 60 make life still more com
plicated. Telegrams, Bell and Edison sub
marine cables, evening paper, perturba-
tions pouring in from all sides incessant
ly. The suburbs growing, the hubbub in
creasing, metropolitan railways, trans,
bicycles innumerable, but we still endur-
Ell and presented the world all the same
with a third generation. That third gen
eration-ah, mel there comes the pity Of I'll
One fancies the impulse to marry and rear
n family has wholly died out of it. Ii
Stems TO have died out most in the class
where the strain and stress are greatest.
don't think young men Of that class TO-
day have the same feelings toward women
OF their sort as formerly. With certain
classes and In certain places primitive
instinct Of our race has weakened. The
present crisis in the marriage market is
due not 20 clubs or the comfort 81 bache-
Tor quarters, but to the cumulative effect
Of nervous oyerexcitement. - Chicago
Tribune