Middletown transcript., 1903-04-25
THE LACK OF MARRYING MEN

The other day / read several re
marks on the question as to why hus
bands at the present day seem to b
what ihe itinerant performer facetiously
describes as $50 backward in coming for
ward" The gifted writer on this subject
was of the opinion that the fault lay
with the ladies, who, he thought, were
apt to specialize in almost any direction
save that which would be likely to
render them good housewives. Thus, for
instance, he held that the intellectual
and book-loving girl is charming to sit
next to at dinner, but her partner is suf-
| ficiently far-sighted to calculate that, il il
were case Of sitting opposite to her at
a dinner she had had the ordering, her
knowledge OF Browning would not ex-
tend to the gravy OF the roast mutton.
Again, he conceived that the smartly
dressed beauty is being with whom a
man loves to flirt, but he hesitates about
going beyond the preliminary stages of
filtration, because he is doubtful whether
his banking account will stand the strain
of the costly costumes, the luxurious lin
gerie, and the expensive etceterae with
which she will evidently expect hus-
band to provide her.
Nov, there is no doubt something in
this; but it scarcely seems to hit the bulls
eye plump in the middle. The real fact
of the matter is that in every depart
ment Of life, at the present moment, we
are beginning to set our standard very
much higher than it has ever been set
before. What was looked upon thirty
years ago as palatial and luxurious ho-
tel is to-day classed as dowdy and thiro'
rate establishment compared with the
colossal carayanseries which have sprung
up in response to the demand for greater
luxury and magnifcence.
And while the standard has raised in
the matter of the creature comforts, it is
only natural that, having grown more exs
acting all round, we should have raj. ed
our ideal OF wife (or husband to sort
of unattainable degree.
The result is that the ordinary every.
day young woman is wearing out the
soles OF her dainty little boots i'm fruit
less search for the god-like hero of her
dreams and find that the everyday young
man, with freckles and red hair, does
not fill the bill at all satisfactorily.
We all remember the little man and
woman who, in childhood's happy hour,
bobbed in and out Of little house to let
the world at large known what the
weather was going to do. But, by the
nature of their mechanism, it was inn.
possible for them both to bob out at
oncel Well, that is very much the ar
rangement with regard to the god.like
hero and the adorable heroine, who, if
they do by any chance happen to meet,
are sure to find that the affections of one
or the other of them are already mis-
placed elsewhere.
1t must often have been observed that
the dowdy and Insignificant little men
and women. who are content to recog.
nize themselves as such, marry all right
and settle down and live happily every
after. But the girls who are gloriously
and adorably beautiful lat this point the
bushes of the "Best Girl" betray the
fact that she is reading this upside down
as I-write it?) are apt if be SO very exi.
deantes that they find themselves settling
down into the gloom of cat-loving and
parrot-tending old-maidenhood, just be-
cause they are what some one has bru-
tally described as ''too beastly particu-
r."-A Thoughtful English Writer in
Modern Society.