The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1895-08-22
THE MARRIAGEABLE AGE.
Sensible Suggestions Regarding the Edu
cation of Girls.

cdIlOh OI
Taking it for granted, which all
sensible, clear-headed, right-mlnded
and good-hearted people do, that mar
riage in the average is anything but a
failure, the question arises What is
TIE best marriageable age?
There is very much to be said in
ntEor of both late and early marriages.
Those who start out in life early may
have the satisfaction of gathering a
large family of grandchildren about
them, and spending the latter portion
of their lives in comparative freedom
from care and anxiety. Having brought
their children up in the way they
should go, and established them COM
fortably in prosperous occupations,
they may feel relieved from the imme-
diate responsibilities of everyday life,
and feel that all the children will have
an interest in their happiness and
welfare. Of course, where youngsters
begin life together, they usually do so
with small means, and if the little ones
arrive in rapid succession there may,
and almost inevitably will, be more or
less hardship in making both ends of
the year meet, and in providing food
and clothes and education for the fast
growing BROOD but if parents will
only take ration al view of the situa-
ton, and understand that simple food
is not expensive, that plain clothes are
quite as good as fine ones, and that ed
ucatiOn and knowledge is the one
thing of all others to give the chill
T1rnr in nr1n 70 f,,,.y fSh =
working capital, they will have simpli-
fed life to a great extent, and can
pave the way to prosperity and
peaceful and plentiful old age.
People who marry when quite young
are likely to live together more harm o.
niously than those who enter into this
relation after their ideas, minds and
methods are fully settled. 1t has often
been remarked that people get along
better under such circumstances, but
if one will take the trouble to investi-
gate the subject little it will be seen
that they get along better because the
woman has too little character and
will-power to do anything but submit
to her husbands dictation The
younger woman marries the less
| likely she is to set up her will in the
household. For this reason many men
prefer very young wives; indeed, they
sometimes say that they would choose
very young girl and bring her up, so
to speak, to their liking. Mature
women have their own ideas, and these
are very frequently not specially in
accord with the views of the average
| man.
Physiologically there is a good deal
to be said in favor of early marriages,
provided the family does not increase
too rapidly. If women would observe
all the laws of health, they could mar
| ry later in life with much greater
safety than at present; but health is
usually the last thing to be thought of
until it is gone perha ps forever.
Marriage is the only proper state for
rational beings to live in; and if it is
a failure, it is not SO from general
laws, but from the caprices and wrong
methods of those who enter into it.
| From twenty to twenty-five is a good
age for young WON en-, and men would
do well to marry before they are
twenty-five If young people are
| properly educated, and not allowed to
fritter away their time in senseless
follies and idleness, by the time they
have reached the age of twenty to
| twenty-five they will have acquired the
rudiments of an exec llent mental and
| physical training, and will be so famil-
lar with the ground principles of much
that is desira BILE for them to know that
interested reading and that investiga-
ton that all we'll balanced minds crave
will keep them abreast with the times.
An abundance of good literature is
as important in the household as good
food, if one would have the best phys
| ical and mental development. If
women were as physically able to as
sumo the most important duties of the
marriage relation at twenty-five or
thirty as at twenty, there would be an
excellent reason for delay; but all
Psychologists are aware that the re-
sponsibilities of motherhood are at
tended with much greater risk after
twenty-five years, and after thirty the
dangers are increased tenfold.
There is one serious defect in the
education of the average girl: She be-
gins her training for the most impor-
tant duties of her existence at the
wrong time. She only learns how to
avoid suffering after she has borne
pain. Instead of being taught to put
herself in perfect physical trim from
her girlhood, and being able to meet
the contingencies of life with calm
ness, confidence and the certainty of a
successful outcome, she is left to pro-
found ignorance of those things that
she has the most need to know. At
twenty five or thirty woman has
more intelligence to guide her, but
less favorable physical conditions As
health is the most important of ali
things, it would seem wise to so
arrange our life that it's most taxing
cares come with as little injury to the
physical system as possible.-N. Y.
Ledger.