The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-18
BACHELORS AND sPINsTERs.


BACHELORS AND SPINSTERS.
The manageable women of the coua-
try owe a debt of gratitude to the CEN
sus bureau. which has just issued a
bulletin showing the number of un-
married persons of manageable age
in the United States, and the proper
ton as regards sex of such persons.
The data show that there are in the
country 6.726.77s bachelors of 20 years
and upwards, against 4,105, 446 spinsters
of 20 years and upwards. That is an
excess of 60 per cent. of bachelors
over unmarried women. 1t means that
If every manageable woman in the
country, not counting widows and those
under 20 years of age, were to be at
once mated with men, there would still
remain 1881, 1888 unattached males who
could not possibly secure wives, I'M
less they got them from among the
very young girls and the widows. And
even then the supply would be very
much less than the demand.
There has been abroad an idea
where 1t originated nobody knows
that there was a great preponderance
of unmarried women over unmarried
men in the United States. And upon
this belief the bachelors have waxed
sassy" They have chuckled to them
selves and laid the fiattering JUNCTION
to their souls that they could get mar
ried at any time they pleased, pc
cause there were so many more women
than men that the women would be
glad to snap them up as good things.
But the cold and implacable statistics
now explode that fallacy. The man
lacks much of having an even chance
to get a wife, according to the census
figures, while the woman has much
better than an even chance to get
husband. Now let the girls plume
themselves upon their advantage.
Why, even in the state of Massachu-
sets, which had come to be regarded
as the center of greatest population
of old maids. actually has a surplus of
bachelors. If every unmarried person
in Massachusetts were compelled by an
inexorable law to get married, some
thing like 5000 men would have to go
out of the state to get wives. And the
same is true of all New England In
fact, there is not a state in the union
which has not preponderance of bach
elors over ipinsters. Wyoming, how
ever. leads the list with the greatest
relative number of bachelors and the
smallest number of spinsters, the fig
ures being 20.927 and 2,437 respectively.
Wyoming, therefore. ought to be
good place for marriageable girls to 60
visiting.
Coming closer home it is found that
there is not nearly enough Georgia
peaches" to go around. If every one
of the 90,S23 Georgia spinsters were or
dered paired with Georgia bachelor
there would still remain 1851 unfortu-
nate men minated, and they would
have to hustle elsewhere to find help
mates. but it would be useless for
them to go to Florida, since that state
is even worse off than this, with a.
674 bachelors and only 1892 maids to
make them happy. They would stand
a little better chance in South Caro-
lima, where the excess of unmarried
men over unmarried women is only q
So4; still if the Carolina "baches" took
alarm the Georgians would find them
selves still out in the cold, with a con-
siderable number of Carolinians to keen
them company. Nor could Alabama
offer any relief, since there are in that
II
to 1o4,951 manageable men. And so
it is on through the list.
An interesting fact contained in the
bulletin that we have been discussing,
and which is commented on by Com
missioner Wright, is that with
IN the last few decades the birth
rate in this country has run down rap
idly. He says: THE idea of limiting
families has more effect upon the
growth of population than war, pesti-
lence and all other causes combined"
In 1850 the average family comprised
five and one-half persons; now it is
only four and one-half. Families in
the Southern states have the most
children, and in New England che fam
lilies are smallest. Louisiana. i'll pro-
portion to population, has twice as
many children under five years of age
as Maine. Nevertheless a baby is
born in this country every IL seconds,
and every minute in the twenty-four
hours five cradles are supplied with oc-
,cupants. Every 20 seconds a death
occurs, and every "a seconds a mar
riage.
If those warning candidates in South
Carolina have exhausted their vocab-
ularies with respect to each other,