Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1905-10-08

A NEW and very real sort of mar
~ riage of convenience is becom-
ing more and more common
among the working men and women of
New York, and, to an extent, is threat
ening to spread over the United States
According to the manager of a depart
ment of big Sixth avenue store, who
has also won some reputation as a
sociologist, changed economic condi-
tions are responsible. TIe describes this
up-to-date matrimony as a business
like arrangement between business men
and women" an arrangement which,
by permitting both contracting parties
to continue their work of earning, is
certain to become more popular with
the fuller entrance of women into the
fields of general business.
1T would probably cause a good deal
of surprise among the clerks them
selves. as well as among outsiders, if
the percentage of those married in my
department alone were known" he
said. II am rather intimate with sew
eral of the clerks, and [ have taken
the trouble to examine into the matter
of this new kind of married life.
Take a case like this, for example:
Here is Katie working in the book de-
partment and earning $12 per week.
And there is joe who is a clerk in the
clothing department at SIS. They meet,
fall in love and begin to save for the
wedding. But it's slow business and
like as not they'll get married with the
knowledge only of their parents and
G. few close friends and set up house
keeping, while both continue to work
in their usual capacities. The girl is
still known as Miss by her employers,
and their working life goes on much
as it did before they were married.
Suppose they can get a big unfur-
nished room for $6 a week. Their par
ents will furnish most of the necessar-
les, and with their joint salary of $27
per week they can manage to live fair
ly we'll and save something besides.
They can get a woman to look after
their room for three or four dollars a
week; 1t would be a big loss to the
firm if the girl should give up her $12-
a-week position to do that. Breakfast
they can very conveniently take In
their own room, and their dinners and
luncheons in restaurants and roof
gardens about the city.
There is one feature of this sort of
married life which might be considered
bad one, especially with persons i'm
q
suicide. Naturally babies are not well
coined in such homes. But to make
up for that there is a camaraderie be-
tween husband and wife, the true fell
low feeling the lack of which is the
greatest fault of the system in which
the wife has her little world of home
and the husband his world of bust
ness"
But probably this new sort of mar
ried life is even more frequent among
business men and women of a higher |
earning capacity than department store |
clerks. A woman told her story re-
Gently as follows:
Jack and / worked in the same Of |
flee and did the same work. 1 got $1O0 !
a month and he got $125. When we |
fell in love and decided to marry we |
faced the proposition of losing nearly |
half our united income. Between us
we had had an income of 1925 month. |
If 1 gave up my place and remained |
at home in the ordinary way of mar
ried women we would have to begin
our married life on $125 month.
One Couples Plan
II confess the proposition looked APP
palling to me. We did not demand
luXuries nor ask to live in an elevator
apartment house. We cared nothing
whatever for style. and we had no
social position to keep up, but we did
demand light. airy fiat to live in. in
n