Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1901-01-03
QUIET HOUR A
By Laura Jean Libbey.
GIRLS AGE TO WE'D.
By Laura Jean Libbey.

"The Age at Which Girls Should
Marry" is one of the questions which
people are prone to consider by the
light of their own personal experience.
Ideas on the subject Of the age at which
girls should marry vary considerably.
When wives and daughters were the
goods and chattels and men had the
principal say in the matter little girls
were cruelty forced to marry at the be-
ginning instead of the completion of
the change from hildho to woman
hood
They were made wives, that is to say,
while they were still far from being
perfectly developed women physically
and were utterly immature mentally,
with all their naturally Womanly in
stincts which are the only safe guide
in the matter still in allegiance. For
tunate1y the iniquity and a~bsurdity of
this have been thoroughly exposed, and
now if parents attempted to pitch forth
their little daughters of from twelve
to sixteen into matrimony as they did
. with impunity not SO very long ago
I the whole world would cry shame upon
! them.
The whole tendency of the modern
education for girls is to prolong their
girlhood. The CHASTITY doctrine that
this is necessarily a wicked world, in
| which misery must be our portion, no
longer finds general acceptance. 1t is
! a favorite axiom with US nowadays
that every age has it's pleasure, or
should have, with a fair chance-chlld-
hood, glrlhOOd, WOmanhOOd-and to get
the full value out of each.
| Our intelligent girls begin to have
! ideas of their own on the subject of
the disposition of their lives, prompted,
no doubt, by mothers of a new rider.
| They do not care to be put off with
half an education and hustled into
! matrimony while they still should be
doing their school course. They k
to enjoy as they go along. They COM
go recreation with study, and delight
in everything, and it is not until they
(; have had the foundation of a good gen
; eral education that they begin to be
serious on the subject of matrimony.
Serious is quite the right word for
their attitude. The meaning of life
has begun to interest them, and they
pause to inquire. What they demand
lover-a superior in attachments and
talents, by all means-if possible, but
one who must appreciate her all around
for what she is.
She decidedly objects to marrying an
extinguisher, who would tell her that
her proper place is in the nursery and
kitchen, with an infection on the words
that tell her that the nursery and
kitchen are more WOrthily regulated
without mental advancement, and the
care of them necessarily precludes any
further degree of cultivation. To such
a sutton the modern girl replies, MOT
for me, my good man. I am a versatile
being, in whom are infinite possibilities,
and I mean to make the most Of myself.
By so doing I make the most of you,
too, and of every n with whom
come in contact"
Thinking thus for herself, the modern
girl grows gradually more self-respect-
ing. She recognizes the full indelicacy
of being bought up as wares for the
market, to be disposed of to a sutton,
and sees no sense in it either. Let the
sutton come and find her.
She knows that a woman's life is nc
longer considered a failure simply be-
cause she does not marry, and this
somewhat defiant, the position being
still sufficiently new to be wondered
at and not wholly approved.
The pendulum, however, swings
toward approval. We have consider,
ably less jeering at old maids than for.
hear of single women whose indepen
, dence and fuller interests make then
the envy of many a married sister
whose health has suffered and liberty
been circumscribed by what are only
too often the thankless cares of mar
ried life.
The modern girl marries later in lift
than her predecessor. She feels ther'
is no hurry and takes plenty Of time tt
look about her.
Ny own experience as to the age a
which girls should marry is that tn
~well-educated, s~e1f-rel1ant, modern
maid does we'll to marry as soon as Sh'
fluids the right man. A good HUSBAND
will help even a very young girl t.
make a success of marriage, but L thlnl
that a girl of the old-fashioned typ
runs a great risk of making a mistake
both in her choice of a husband and II
the matter of marrying at all, If sh
marries before twenty-five.