The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-02-08
DEVELOPMENT OF GIRLHooD.
Advantages Pointed Out For Defer
rine Marriage to a Late Age.


Girlhood. or young womanhood'
which is such delightful phase of hr-
man life among the higher races, is
unknown to the savage and barbar-
Gus races. With them the female child
passes directly from infancy to wife
hood and maternity. This is one rea-
son why. among such peoples as well
as those in the lower stages of civil
cation, women age so rapidly and why
there are no beautiful old women or
even comely middle-aged women
among them. Early marriage is abetted
in its mission of youth destruction by
the hard work imposed upon the fe-
male children of such races. Henry
T. Finck contributes an admirable ar
ticle on this subject TO the January
number of Harpers.
1t is astounding to learn from his
pages that among forty-SiX savage
races the average age at which the
men of the tribe appropriate the girls
to themselves is 12.2 years. The aver
age age of marriage for girls among
fortv-eight barbarian races is IA. Such
nations as the Chinese and Japanese
marry their girls at the average age
of 1863. Among the working classes of
Europe the average of marriage is 23.2
and among the upper classes 26.4. Inc
figures for America are not procurable;
but. though our foremotherS married
at tender ages. the average age OF mar
riages among the more fortunate
classes has advanced many years
within the recollection of living per-
sons.
Added to what our women gain from
having marriage deferred to late age,
and relief from stunning and dulling
e. 1n s,,H nf p6qrg1lOn and
culture. The bright, educated mind
lends charm to girlhood, prolongs that
fascinating period, adds dignity and
power to the matron. gives attraction
TO old age and saves it from dotage
and responsiveness.
In respect to the education of our
women we are UNNECESSARILY ahead OF
even those intellectual races of an
tiquity among whom the women of the
upper classes were not subjected to eX-
cessive labor 1t was a truism with
the Greeks that the beauty of woman
soon vanished. while a man kept his
strength and comeliness. II may be
said that the only women of antiquity
who retained their charms were the
courtesans, and they were precisely
The women who enjoyed personal free
dom a sort of educa ton and an oppor-
sunitv TO use their minds. 1t would
seem that the fascination these IA
nous beauties had over the men of
their time would have taught the lat
ter the golden lesson of education for
the women of their own households
and hearts Indeed in all ages those
celebrated dangerous women who have
had so much to do with the shaping of
history. who fascinated men at the
same time they led them to destruc-
ton. were women of superior intellec-
tuaI gifts and educa ton. Generally
these qualities were united with ply
steal beauty but il was the woman
superior intellectually. if inferior NOR
ally TO their own women, that capti-
waited great men.
How much superior is our civilization
to that Of the Greeks and Romans on
this score. of the development of wom
en-. alone, If there were nothing else
in which we could claim pre- eminence
over them the education of our women
with its attendant prolongation of girl
hood and its establishment and bet
torment of the whole life of half the
race. with its inevitable elevatinE eff
fects upon the other half, would stamp
our civilization as better than theirs.