The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-01-15
Tho Strange Case OF q Bachelor.

This letter of inquiry comes to us from
Bridgeport, in Connecticut. with the name
and address of the writer; and both the
handwriting and manner of expression in
dictate him to be q man of intelligence:
"To THE EDITOR OF THE sus-sfr: In all sincerity
and sober.mindedness ask you to kindly give me your
solid advice as to what steps I should take to secure Q
wife. I am O welleducated young man, 80 years old.
have never smoked or drank. and I seek all recrea-
sion from books. I know ] can love. but I have never
yet seen q woman 1 could love. perhaps becauseI
never spent SUFFICIENT time IN the company of women.
Nor am I diflcult to please.
IA dressmeker or milliner 10 what I look for. since
o young woman in either such business is almost cor
tain to possess that domesticity which precludes the
danger of o love for drink, as we'll as ambition to Sc
cure comfort for advancing years. I am OF an active
turn of mind that will not brook idleness. and. be-
sides education. I have q good constitution. and the
combination should enable mo to secure constant
employment.
1T am really tired OF bachelor life and feel certain
I could make q good, willing helpmate not only con-
tent and satisfied with her lot. but even happy in the
~strictest sense OF the word. They say I am good
looking. have no money. nor do look for any. I
did have considerable money. but lost It In an honest
effort to increase 1t in business. loan make more.
and only seek for q woman who may add to It. but
who will certainly help to hold It through economy
and thrift. BACHELOR"
1t seems somewhat remarkable that a
man of 35 years, situated as our CORE
spondent is. should write to us for advice
on such a subject. According to the Fed
eral Census of 1890, there are more than
10000 women between the ages Of 10 and
"a years in Bridgeport, the great majority
of whom are unmarried. How, then, comes
it that a man who lean love-" who is not
"difficult to please" and is "tired of
bachelor life" remains unwillingly in his
single state because he cannot find a woman
to love and to marry7 The wonder is that
his own eyes and his own heart do not
direct him to some one of that vast aggre-
cation of feminine loneliness, without the
help of any other guide, and compel him to
| efforts to win her for a wife. He might
complain that he Is embarrassed because
| of the richness of the field into which his
impulses lead him, but to be at a loss to
find In Bridgeport a woman upon whom to
set his affections Is amazing. Desiring to
marry, how can he keep from marrying in
that prosperous Connecticut town, with
thousands OF engaging maidens and bloom
ing widows all about him3
1t is remarkable that there are any bach
elors at all In Bridgeport it is unaccount-
able when. like our correspondent, they
are strong men, capable of strong affec-
ton yet he says that, though he is 80
years old, he has "never yet seen a woman
I could Lowell What has he been looking
at all these years7 Has he been blind as
he passed along the streets of Bridgeport
/ Has he been gazing at the stars and not at
the procession of womanly beautya
1t is true that the longer a man puts off
marriage the less likely he Is to enter into
it, until the day comes when awakening to
a consciousness of the misery of prolonged
bachelorhood he finds that he has lost the
art of attracting feminine interest and
even the instinct for discovering fem
mime charm. He becomes IN unnat-
ural being his affections do not move
out spontaneously, but turn in upon
himself. He gets into the critical and
skeptical mood of our correspondent,
and instead of falling in love with a woman,
like a sound and genuine human being
with natural impulses, sets himself to con-
sidering abstractly the qualifications he
requires In a wife. He philosophers about
marriage instead of starting out boldly to
win a wife.
But why Is a dressmaker or q milliner
more desirable as a wife than a woman en-
gagged in any other respectable occupation2
1t is not the accident of her employment,
but the quality that is In her that consti-
tutes her value. IS a matter of fact, too.
dressmakers and milliners are no more ex-
empt from the appetite for drink than those
occupied otherwise. The great majority
Of women are without that appetite In