Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-01-23
THE BACHELOR TAX.
nEvERIEs FROM ALTON ON THIS
sUBJECT.
THE REASON HEN DO NOT MARRY.
simply Because They Do Not want
To, and They Should say so-neh
who should Never Marry, and They
Should lie Exempt. l-.
Should he Exen

Correspondence of the Dispatch)
ACTON. VA, January A.-Does history
repeat itself?
HIM; 1 should think it did. Certainly
for WAYS that are dark, human nature
IS prone to a reincarnation Of its woes.
Is it just as prone to eschew its deeds
Of virtue? Perhaps.
War and it's horrors come back like the
recurrent echo of doom. Cyclones and
earthouakes vary only in time and place.
Murders, pestilence. and railway acct
dents multiply with a Hateful repetition
that knocks the coolest scepticism TO
smithereens. Everything that has once
happened happens again, If you will only
give it time, and watch the record. Ex-
cept-and this is where some OF the
good things fail to materialize-the
maldens of modern war times do not
make bow-strings of their back hair for
the warriors, as they did in old Carthage,
nor do l find that they dump their lock-
bracelets, rings. and other jewels into the
national mint in a frenzied zeal OF patri-
otism. The spirit of yalor may be
lust the same but its ways have widened.
After the war is over nowadays, Clara
Barton goes out with a trained corps OF
subordinates and wears a red velvet gown
at high teas with the Sultan.
1t is only the ills that come home IN
the olden way to roost.
THE COCOON OF CELIBACY.
All of this. you must know, IS anent
Of that bachelor tax, which, like the
potato-bug is subject to fateful peri
odicy, and not unlike that Varigated
beetle, has also travelled from west to
east.
The bachelor az we know. has been
resting for many decades in the safe
cocoon of celibacy. Is ii meet judgment
that a woman's hand, or. what is worse
out West, a woman's voice, should waken
him from his happy dreams? For this
bachelor-tax bill is the awful result OF
woman's suffrage-the first fruits Of that
Wyoming suffrage tree-and L greatly
wonder that our eastern Lawmakers are
tampering with the bait-or bite-thereot
AS we all know, the women vote in
Wyoming, and the Legislature-clearly IN
cohoot with it's female constituency
nassed a law some six or eight years ago
taxing all bachelors over 30. Considering
that in Wyoming there are not enough
marriageable women TO go around, the
feminine inconsistency OF this law reflects
terribly upon the mother of it. In the
name OF Cupid, what was a poor FELLOW
TO do who could not get any woman 10
marry him?
Bring a suit against the State II al
his suits to enter the married state were
rejected?
Just so.
In the East, there will be no such loop
hole OF escape for the unfortunate
bachelor. If this bachelor-tax bll-whicf
ia cyrating about the legislative brain
should pass. the bachelor will count his
state tax, and his government tax, his
land tax, and his personal-property tax
his school tax-for some one elses chill
dren--his tax for a license 10 work by
and his head tax for him TO vote such
nice laws for himself. and when he comes
90 this bachelor tax, this last feather OF
The camers back will likely cry out
Hold. enoughr'-and the other bac
words that go with II. Worse, he may
frantically rush off to some long forgot
ton Maud or Mary and commit matri
r,orv with scant sentiment In his court
sbin-for this thing OF law and love doe
NOT work well together.
NOT POPULAR IN oLDEN TIMES.
1t wiz be hard lines for him altogether