Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-08-12
The Bachelor as a Bachelor.

That many cullegd men marry late in
life the records OF college classes prove.
That many college men DO not marry al
all the records of college classes. also
prove. The class If 1876 at Harvard COL
lege contained at the time of graduation
Ine hundred ana fOrty-SlN members OF
this number one hundred ana five had
married eighteen years after their gradu-
alton. Thrty-four married in the four
years of the eighth decade of the century
remaining after their graduation, fifty
four married in the ninth decade nf the
century. and seventeen married in the
first four years of the present decade:
forty had not married at All within the
eighteen years The class of 1891 at Yale
contained at graduation one hundred and
eighty-ive members. OF this number at
their last reunion only fifty-Seven had
married, 1t would be easy to extend
these statistics to numberless classes. but
! think the proposition is evident that
many college men 90 not marry At all,
and also that many of them do not marry
till la in life.
one cause which leads to the lateness
of marriage is found in the lateness of
graduation. The average age of gradua-
ton from-'the American college is now
between twenty-five and Il half and TWEEN
ty-three years. The age has increased by
about "A year in the course of the present
half century. 1t has not increased in the
last few years. The increase also in the
present half century represents similar
increase over The average age prevailing
in tile first half Of the century.
The ordinary college class hardly fur
nishes enough children to take the places
Of the members OF the class and their
wives. The class of 1876 at Harvard Col
lege. in 1891. was represented Dy hum
drcd and sixty -four children. These hun
dred and siXty-four children We're the
products of hundred and five marriages
In this class, as | said at the beginning Of
this article. there wire one hundred and
forty-siN members. ana hundred and five
Of these members had married an equal !
number Of wives. Therefore two hundred |
and tiitN-lDp persons We're rpDrpStuIpU i'm !
the class. Eighteen years after gradual |
ton only Z hundred and sixty -four chill |
drcn were living OF the class Of 1891 at
Yale College only forty children had been |
born at their last reunion. These figures |
show not only that the college class does |
not tend to send forth into the race +
its members, but also that the college |
class does not keep itself alive in ade-
quate numbers in humanity. Causes of |
the fact that SO few children are born To
straints which the political economist re-
ferS to. but 4 cause also lies in the sim
pie fact of the limitations of age as APP
piled both to men and to women The re-
suit is sad one for the race.
This article is already longer. | am
sure, than the editor Of the Independent
asked me to write, and | must therefore
content myself with the briefest possible
answer to the question of what is to be
done. In reply to this question | should
simply say that one thing for us to do is
to make every endcavor TO have a man
graduate from college al the age of TWEEN
ty, rather than of twenty-five and a half
or twenty-three, and also to have him en-.
ter his professional life as minister at the
age of twenty-three rather than at TWEEN
tySiX or seven, or to enter the profeS
sional career of lawyer or doctor at the
age of twenty-five or six rather than at
twenty-nine or thirty. The remedy for
this condition lies in the primary
and grammar schools. The first years Of
ones educational career should be far
more productive than they usually are.