The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-10-09
COLLEGE BRED WIVES.

A Western college professor, in lee
turing to an audience of young men
the other day, is reported to have
warned the young gentlemen against
falling in love with ladies of literary
tendencies and to have wound up his
fervent admonitions by saying 'Heav-
en- help the man who tnarries a col
lege bred woman
Whether the professor spoke from
theory or experience is not stated. He
may suffer from dyspepsia as a re-
suit of marrying a wife who takes a
deeper heart interest in the classics
than she does in the cook book, or
he may merely be one of those preju-
diced individuals whose imaginations
conjure up bogeys whenever you men
ton woman and education on the same
day, but. in any event. the subject is
of great interest to everyone.
Many of us have daughters whom
we are making sacrifices to educate
under the belief that we are thereby
adding to the sweetness and light of
life. If, instead of this, we are dis
qualifying the girl as a matrimonial
partner and bringing sorrow on some
innocent young man who may marry
her, we want to know it in time to
snatch her away from school and pre-
vent the catastrophe. No one can
deny that there is altogether too much
domestic discord in the world but 1t
Is a brand new theory that it is the
result of the wife having too much
sense. Most of us had thought that it
was the lack of sense, and not the
preponderance of it, that led silly
women into ways that end in the d.
vorce court
Nothing has died a harder or more
lingering death than the old idea that
ignorance is bliss. as far as women
are concerned, anyway. We feel that
1t is our duty to prepare a boy for the
battle of life by arming him with
knowledge of all the difficulties he is
liable to meet. We think the best way
to safeguard a girls innocence is by
keeping her in absolute ignorance of
the dangers she is bound to encounter.
We teach our boys how to earn money
and protect their property, but our
idea of kindness to a woman is to keep
her in ignorance of all the practical
affairs of life so that she is the victim
of anybody INSCRIPTIONS enough to
take advantage of her lack of knowl
edge of business. Common observation
shows that it is woman's ignorance
that spells continual disaster for her
self and other people, but we continue
to hold to the cherished belief that it
is for her happiness and good not to
know things.
Yet it was woman who earliest crav-
ed knowledge, and risked everything
to gain it. 1t was Eve. and not Adam,
who took the first bite of the apple.
So far as a college education for girls
is concerned, it seems to me that it
admits of exactly the same arguments,
pro and con, that the question of a
college education for boys does. First
the individuals desire for it, secondly,
the parents ability to afford it, and,
lastly, the career that the individual,
whether boy or girl, means to follow.
If / had a son who was naturally
studious. and desired to be a doctor, or
a preacher, or lawyer, or follow any
learned profession, l should certainly
send him to the very best university l
could find. If he had no taste for
books, and never read anything in the
papers but the sporting column, and /
ascertained that he had traded all the
other boys in the neighborhood out of
their jack knives and white rabbits, l
should waste no money on sending him
TO college. Just as soon as he was
through the high school l should put
him in a store or office where in the
next four or five years he would be
grounded In commercial knowledge in
stead of football, and learn the vital
details of business instead of a coll
lege yell.
If l had daughter should let her
looks decide the college question for
her. If she was ugly and unattrac-
tive, would move heaven and earth
to give her something to offset her lack
of beauty, and at least provide her
with the way of making a living for
herself. II she was a dimpled darling.
with rose leaf skin and melting ewes.
on the contrary, I would know that
matrimony, and not the higher mathe-
nlatics was her predestined career. and
] should be very careful not to circum-
vent nature by making her blue
stocking.
For, in considering this question. II
is well to bear in mind that for a girl
TO be highly educated-and for the
dreadful fact to be known-is about the
heaviest matrimonial handicap that
can be put upon her. There are sew
eral reasons for this One is that In
this country our young men are not.
as class, college bred They go To
work and not to school, and this pro-
duces curious condition of affairs
that the college bred woman has to
face. AS a general thing, the man
$3.50 No-4t 'NkROiN AtIs can't entertain
her, and the man who can entertain
her can't support her. Nor does the
average business man desire to marry
highly educated woman He wants
Q, Jolly girl whose tastes are IN tha
same key as his own, whose grannrna =
is not standing reproach to his. ana
who prefers ''Bedelia" and 'sIiawatha"
TO "Tannhauser" and symphony con-
certs.
Nor is the college bred girl partiou-
larly sought after as a wife bv the
college bred man. Half the extremely
clever men you know are married ia
women so dull and stupid it keeps Won
wondering how they ever came to do
IT.. There are exceptions to all rules
81 course. but If mothers and fathers
are bent on keeping their daughters
hanging on the parent stem, they can
take no method that is so likely Ia
achieve this result as by sending them
20 college. Statisticians are trying ia
prove that the higher education for
women disinclines them towards mat
rimony, but this is nonsense. The real
reason that college bred women so sell
dom marry is because that they so sell
dom get the chance.
There is also another and a pathetic
phase TO the question OF a college ed
ucation for girls. If the college bred
A LoS2G