The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1903-05-14

Reasons Why Some People Do Not
Marry.

The increase of wealth and the growth
Of luxury in the life of the American
people have produced the effect among
the wealthy classes of decreasing the
size Of families. Children are a great
trouble to mothers who are devoted to
the pleasures of fashionable life, and
the result is, as it always has been I'M
der like conditions in every age and
country, that the size OF families is
greatly reduced.
1t would not be strange If the same
idea should be adopted by the poorer
classes on the ground that the larger
the family the greater the expense Of
maintaining it. At any rate, it appears
that the size of families in the United
States is rapidly decreasing. But worse
than this, worse than all, is the notice
able falling off in the marriage rate
This matter has recently come
into notice through letter written by
President Roosevelt to Marie VaneIorst
who is writing a book on the subject,
l. his letter the president said, in re-
gard to the falling off in the marriage
rate:
IF the men Of the nation are not
anxious to work in many different ways,
with all their might and strength, and
ready and able to fight at need, and
anxious to be fathers of families, and
II the women do not recognize that the
greatest thing for any woman is to be
a good wife and mOther-why, that ma
ton has cause to be alarmed about its
future
Much is being said on the subject, and
many reasons are given why SO many
men and women refuse or neglect to
marry. Of course, there has been no
change in human nature The senti-
ment Of love is just as powerful as ever
it was, and the sexes are just as neces-
sary each for the companionship of the
other
Nevertheless, many young men fear
to marry because they are not able to
maintain wife in the style in which he
supposeS she will demand to live. Some
OF the happiest and most prosperous
les have married poor Any girl with
the right sort of bringing up is willing
to share her husbands lot if he be an
honorable, Industrious and worthy man,
and any such man can support wife if
She be true woman and not butter
fly of fashion
In household where the man works
and earns, and where the wife keeps the
gear together there is no such thing as
poverty. The small beginnings are
gllded with love and are magnified by
brave endeavor and worthy hopes, and
there happiness abides But if the people
marry for show and realize too late
that they are not able to make or main
tain it according to their ideas, then
theirs is the abode of disappointment
and misery. An old gentleman, who in
his time had held high public trusts
and hOnOrs, told the writer of these
lines t. a, when he married his wife,
the dal ~ er of a distinguished family.
he took her to cabin in a mountain
region, where he owned land, and they
commenced life in the most primitive
fashion, the earthen floor of the ca bin
being covered with the skins of beasts
killed in hunting. They were not afraid
to begin life under such conditions be-
cause their humble home was illumin-
ated by love. Years afterward, when
they lived in grand mansions amid all
the surroundings of luxury, they were
perhaps no less, but certainly no more
happy than when they were in the
mountain cabin
The young people of working class
es are not afraid to marry because they
are not afraid Of work, and they make
up, after all the great body of tire peo-
pie. One reason that sets not a few
women against the nuptial knot is that
they have had too much experience with
idle and worthless male relatives. They
have had in too many instances to sup
port such drunken or loafing fathers
or brothers, and they are afraid to take
the chances with a husband who NAV
be no better.
Without doubt, men are steadily. if
not rapidly, degenerating under the in
temperate use of liquors, tobacco and
other drugs. 1t should be remembered
that while wine and beer have been in
use from early times, alcoholic liquors.
like whisky, brandy, rum and gin, have
been known but a few centuries while
tobacco came into use after the discov-
cry of America. Modern commerce and
chemistry have put opium, cocaine and
other narcotic drugs in the reach of
multitudes, and thus it is that under
their destructive influences there has
been a perceptible degeneration, which
is vastly more prevalent among men
than women.
1t is a terrible state OF things, and
there appears no remedy for it. Here is
for the reformers and social
to cOnsider.-New Orleans
Picayune.