Evening journal., 1897-08-04
WHERE WOMEN ARE SCARCE.
SIX Men There Are to One woman in
Parkway AIrerin.

carth's surface, chiefly in Africa and /
Asia, but including also many islands of |
the Pacific. The total area that has thus |
come under European flags is nearly |
as large as North and South America |
together. Some of these regions have |
been found to be well adapted Tor white !
settlement, and emigrants have been
encouraged TO go 10 them. The Eu-
ropeans call these far-oI lands their
colonies, and they are very anxious to
make them self-supporting and develop
them into markets for home manufac-
lures.
There is n question which is attract
ing more and more attention, and that
is the scarcity of white women in these
colonies. In the French colonies, for
instance, even where the conditions are
most favorable for colonization, as in
Algeria, there are from four to six
| French men for every French woman.
For the most part, there is no family
life, and dissipation is more general
than would be the case if there were
more homes and more of the social life
! that is possible only when the sexes are
in nearly equal numbers. NJ. Challcy-
Bert, who recently wrote in the Paris
Debates about the paucity of white
women in the French colonies, said that
the young men there were like the roar
ing lion. who "goeth about seeking
whom he may devour."
1t is not easy TO solve the problem in
the French colonies, for the young wom-
en- of France are not at all eager TO
expatriate themselves, even TO find good
husbands and comfortable homes.
There are hundreds of colonists who
would like TO get married. A colonist
in Algeria has recently been telling his
experience. He says that for three
years he sought, in his own social circle
in France, for q young woman who
would share his fortunes in the colony.
At the end of that time his perseverance
was rewarded and he is now married.
The fact is, however, that he did not
find n wife among the young women
with whom he had been accustomed to
associate. They liked the colonist, but
the colony terrified them. His wife is
worthy woman, the daughter of a
farm laborer, and she is making him a
good helpmeet in his colonial home.
British and Dutch colonists do not
find 1t SO difficult to induce the fair sex
of the old homes to share their lot in
newer parts of the world, and when
they have found II really difficult to get
wives from the mother country, many
of the Dutch in the lsast Indies have not
dsdained to be joined in lawful wedlock
with the daughters of the natives.
Many white men are now living in
tropical regions, like equatorial Africa,
where they have really no right TO ask
a white woman 10 share their dangers
and hardships. Few women from the
north temperate zones are able 20 sur
viye one or two child-bearing expert
/ ences in tropical Africa. Some white
men who live there have expressed the
e opinion thatitis little short of q crime L
I bring n white woman of their own rac'
. TO those regions. The late DR.. Wolf, the
! German explorer said that any whit,
man there who wanted wife should
marry one of the natives of the country
Some of the Europeans in Africa have
followed his advice. and among then
DR.. Grenfell, the explorer and mission
airy, who married a negro girl who hat
been educated at q mission station OF
e the west coast.
e Two months ago the Canadian news
2 papers contained an advertisement
from mining camp In British Colum
bia in which IL was announced that the
: camp was wholly destitute of women
that neither gambling nor the sale oi
intoxicating liquors was permitted il
the settlement, that the miners were in
r dustrious, had saved money, and now
r. they wanted wives and homes; anC
d young women of the Dominion were in
y vited to enter into correspondence will
e a committee as preliminary to possible
e immigration 10 the camp and marriage
s with the bachelors thereof.
: Even to-day, in large parts Of Canada
Australia and Cape Colony, there ar
not women enough to supply the de
mand for wives. But when the societies
Il that promote the emigration of womei
a TO the colonies send out party the las
d thing in their minds apparently is tn
+ better chance these women win have Z
y get husbands. They simply send won
:. en- who lack work to colonies that lacl
II women. Their character and fitness 70
r emigration must be approved, and thel
Il they are sent out on the long journey il
i- charge of matrons, who see to thei
10 comfort and are responsible for thei
d safety until situations that will yiel'
- them living are found for them. Tn
: United British Women's Emigrant as
D sociation, the largest OF all these 50
cieties, would refuse to assist any won
an to emigrate if she should openl.
70 avow that she was seeking n husban
n rather than opportunities for work.
a. n. Y. Sun.
= Europeans ns Travellers.
Ie The frequency with which the val