The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-06-25
NEW POINT OF VIEW,
Women Are More Cri-
tical, and That Is
Why They
-
ARE CEASING TO MARRY.
They No Longer Look Up
to Their Spouses
With Awe.


they would seem to have shown a dis
position to avoid the joys, cares, and
responsibilities of the linen-cupboard,
1t is chiefly, think, because their sense
of humor is often as keen as 1t was
once supposed to be blunted. The proper
adoring feminine attitude does not, it
would seem, come naturally to the
present generation. who are apt not
so muchNin Miltonic phrase-to see
God" in their average suitors as to per-
ceive in these young gentlemen certain
of the least endearing qualities Of the
Anglo-Saxon race.
This new and critical attitude on the
part of the fair is thing of quite re-
cent growth. says Ella Hepworth Dix
on. Before, and up to as late as, the
mid-Fictorian era, the recognized wife
1y pose was one of blind alteration. d.
Tectly a girl married she was supposed
to think her husband perfect, unap-
proachable, wise and beautiful beyond
all men, and of a stupendous under
standing. Most of the married ladies in
the great mid-Victorian novels looked
up to their spouses with admiration
tempered by awe, Now that We have
educated our Womenfolk into a serse
Of humor-and there is no surer test
of breadth of mind-this Wifely meek
ness Is no longer possible. Yet, seeing
how the old masculine idols are shat
tered, and the heroes Of ladies' novels
are no longer Greek gods, or guards
men, or even men of blameless life, it
is impossible not to sympathize with
our masculine contemporaries, ces rois
en- eXil, who have lost a crown, and
who have not yet made up their mir DIS
10 swear Liberty, equality, fraterni-
ty!" with their feminine critics. II is
possible, moreover, that the modern
man has begun to see the humorous
side Of the question also. Occasionally
he shows a disposition to step down
from his pedestal, and even to mix,
on equal terms, with his more enlight-
ened feminine friends. No less mod
ern a person, for instance, than Mr..
William Archer, has publicly stated
that he cannot sit in his stall at the
theatre and listen to Katherine's ah-
ject speech about her lord, her king,
her governor" at the end of The
Tanning of the Shrew."
This was the old idea of marriage. 1t
will be readily seen that we have
changed our ideals, and that if it is
somewhat of an exaggeration to say
that women are ceasing to marry" it
is certain that indiscriminate marrying
has, to certain extent, gone out In
short, lie premier venu is no longer the
successful woOer he once was.
L 81 1t is certain that narriage-and its
attendant sponsibilities, the bringing
up and starting in life of children-is
looked upon far more seriously than
our immediate forbears were wont to
regard it. Elizabeth Barrett Brown
ing (whO, as the author of Aurora
Leigh" undoubtedly proclaimed herself
one of the earliest of the new wo-
men'D was MORALLY afraid of marriage,
and did not attempt TO conceal the
fact from her adoring lover. In her re-
Gently published letters to Robert
Browning, it is amusing to see how
just like any modern woman of 1899
she constantly threatens that if they
do not get on when they are mar
ried, she will leave him and go to
Greece.
The author of the "Sonnets from the
Portuguese" was probably alone in her
generation. Then, indeed was the
happy gO-lucky time of Dan Cupid. A
strictly brOught-up young person was
not supposed to have the only wo-
mans privilege the privilege of say
ing No" She married, as a matter
of course, the first young man who Of
fered to settle down, pay taxes, and
raise a family, and that family, unfor-
tunately for her. sometimes assumed
alarming proportions. This middle-class
recklessness has brought, in this gen
Grafton, its own Nemesis: an enormous
number of young men who are obliged
to seek living in India, Africa, Can
ada, Australia, and New Zealand; a
still larger number of young women
who have to stay at home and partly
earn their own livelihood.
1t is in this way that we have got
our young people not only separated by
oceans and continents, but curlously
afraid of making an experiment which
their fathers and mothers entered
upon-like the French on the war Of
1S70-with light heart The young
girl of today, again, has read Ter
Dolls House" and is, it may be.
firmly resolved TO play the part If
Nora in the COnjugal duologue, and to
refuse, in the now classic phrase, to
be any mans squirrel" On his side,
the modern young man shows a shrewd
tendency to acquire in his wife not so
much one Of those engaging geological
specimens as a young person who will
be able to pay the weekly bills and
help him substantially in his career.
All these things, naturally, make for
circumspectiOn in marriage, and there
are other reasons, chiefly owing to the
amazing changes in the social life of
women, which have gradually come
about during recent years. Some one
has bodily laid it down that it is the
bicycle which has finally emancipated
woman. but it is certain that there are
other factors besides the useful and
agreeable wheel.
For it is, primarily, the almost COM
plete downfall Of Mrs. Grundy that
makes the modern spinster's lot, in
many respects, an eminently attractive
one. Formerly, girls married in order
TO gain their social liberty; now, they
more often remain single to bring
about that desirable contamination. II
young and pleasing women are per-
united by public opinion TO go to col
lege. TO live alone, to travel, to have
a profession, to belong to a club, e
give parties. to read and discuss what
soever seems good TO them, and to &C
to theatres without masculine escort
they have most OF the privileges-and
several others thrown in-for which
the girl of twenty or thirty years age
was ready to barter herself to the first
sutton who offered himself and the shell
ter of his name. Then, again, a cana
Bile woman who has begun a career and
feels certain Of advancement in II, Is
often as shy Of entangling herself mat
rimonially as ambitious young men
have ever shown themselves under like
circumstances. Indeed, the disadvan-
tages Of marriage TO a woman with a
profession are more obvious than tC
a man, and it is just this question OF
maternity, with all its duties and re-
sponsibilities, which is, no doubt. &C.
casioually the cause Of many women
forswearing the privileges Of the mar
ried state. To be quite candid, how
ever, I think this is very seldom the
real cause of a girls remaining single
once her affections are involved, that