The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-10-02
WOMAN'S WORLD

/ lure US most. and that we are most
! anxious to get.
Perhaps the chief reason that men
show a dissemination to marry may
be accounted for by the freedom OF
| companionship that prevails between
| the sexes. In the olden times, when
! the only way a man could enjoy a
wOman's society was by marrying her,
he was in a rush to hustle with her
TO the altar but when custom permits
a man to monopolize a wonan's even
ings, when they may spend long days
together on the golf links, when they
may attend theaters and parties to-
gether and even enjoy the pleasures of
[ a little meal for two in a perfectly
proper restaurant, the man is in no
hurry to wed. He has, in reality as
much OF the woman's company as he
wants without the necessity of assum-
ing her bills or giving her the right
to lecture him.
The long engagement is a modern
invention of mans, not woman's, and
it is a handicap that our grandmothers
never knew. Nothing that the new
status of women has brought to her
is so delightful as the possibility of a
platonic friendship with man, but we
get nothing in this world without pay
ing for it, and the price that women
pay for comradeship with men if often
spinsterhood. When it was a case of
either lover or nothing it was generally
lover
Another reason why men are less
eager about marrying now than they
used to be is because the modern fami-
nine Barlds is too willing. Many
things change, but human nature never
changes, and the primitive instinct of
Of man is for the chase. The harder
thing is to get, the more he wants it.
The more inaccessible a thing is, the
more anxious he is to climb after. the
more sure he is to dare it. Women
have forgotten this masculine pecuIi-
arity, and instead of permitting them
selves to be pursued they have turned
around and have become the pursuers,
with the inevitable result that men
have lost interest in the chase and
dropped out of it.
Probably, our grandmothers were
just as anxious to get married as any
girl is now. but they had the gump-
ton to affect a coy and reluctant atti-
tude, and because a man believed that
t was difficult task to capture the
citadel of a maiden's affections, he
wooed her with fire and passion and
all the energy of which he was capa-
BILE. Because she appeared Indifferent
to his visits, he kept the path to her
door hot with his foot steps Be-
from her hand in the shape of letter
was line or two of discreet, copybook,
maidenly reply to his numerous mis-
sives, he weighted down the mails with
burning billet doux. How is it now?
The modern girl has left him in no
doubt as to the state of her affections,
and so he takes no trouble in wooing
her. She'll say Eyes, and thank you,
too" whenever he asks her, and any
old 1--we ma IxiDcr will do TT he 6Oacn't
come to see her, she calls him up by
telephone. and so he goes when there
is no more exciting amusement and
prospect. AS for letters, she'll write
anyway, so what's the use in bothering
to keep up his end of the correspond
ence? It's the old story of the over
ripe peach no one wants to gather.
Our grandmammas also had another
advantage that their granddaughter
lack-our great grandmammas under
stood the value of the unattainable.
They didn't throw their daughters at
eligible young mems heads. They built
fences around them. When a young
man came a-wooing the entire family
didn't take to the back yard so as to
give him a chance. The stern parents
stood guard over a girl, and put him
to his wits end to steal a moments
converse with her. or press her hand
in secret. Sometimes the willy father
even went to the extent of locking the
girl up in her room to keep her from
a sutton. and then the man. who very
likely couldn't have been driven in at
the front door. was ready to break
his neck climbing up to her window to
steal her.
In word they made courtship ro-
mantle and difficult, and in conse-
quence there were many elopements
and few old maids. Without doubt, il
is parents palpable anxiety to marry
off their daughters nowadays that
scares so many men off, for while
man may be thrilled at the prospect
of being pursued by an irate father
with horse pistols to Gretna Green, 1t
gives him the cold shudders to feel
that he is being taken in in a conf
dence game.
The moral of all which is, that in
affairs of the heart, women don't know
so much as their grandmammas did
after all. Dorothy Dix.