Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1901-01-17
QUIET HOUR CHATS.
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 winch
I 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 chatte1s 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 childhood to woman
| hood
They were made wives, that is to say,
while they were still far from being
| perfectly developed women physically
| I'M were utterly immature mentally,
with all their naturally Womanly IN
! stincts which are the only safe guloe
! in the matter still in allegiance. For
! tunately the iniquity and absurdlty OF
this have been thoroughly exposed, n
now if parents to pitch fortn
their little daughters of from twelve
! to sixteen into matrimony as they did
with impunity not so very long ago
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-child-
! hood, girlhood, womanhood-and to get
i the full value out of each.
{. Dur intelligent girls begin to have
ideas of their own on the subject of
j h disposition of their lives, prompted,
no doubt, by mothers of a new order.
They do not care to be put off with
matrimony while they still should be
, doing their school course. They like
to enjoy as they go along. They com
bine recreation with study, and delight
= ~-5 3 Sr ~~+ r1@+f1 $hnyY
; 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
has begun to interest them, and they
| pause to inquire. What they demand
in a husband is comrade. friend and
| 1over-a superior in attainments 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
1 that tell her that the nursery and
| kitchen are more wOrthily regulated
without mental advancement, and the
care of them necessarily p~recludes 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 one with whom I
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,
J and sees no sense in it either. Let the
sutton come and find her.
She knows that a woman's life is no
longer considered a failure simply be-
! cause she does not marry, and this
makes her not only independent, but
somewhat defiant, the position being
still sufficiently new to be wondered
at and not wholly approved.
toward approval. We have consider
| ably less jeering at old maids than for
merly, and we frequently nowadays
hear Of single women whose indepen-
! dence and fuller interests make them
the envy of many a married sister,
! whose health has suffered n liberty
! been circumscribed by what are only
| too often the thankleSS cares of mar
/ ried life.
The modern girl marries later in life
than her predecessor. She feels there
is no hurry and takes plenty Of time to
/ look. about her.
My own experience as to the age at
which girls should marry is that the
well-educated, se1f-re1iant, modern
finds the right man. A good husband
will help even a very young girl to
make a success Of marriage, but I think
that a girl of the o"ld-fashioned y p
runs a great risk of making a mistake,
both in her choice Of a husband and in
the matter of marrying at all, if she
! marries. before twenty-five.