Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-21
d O MT s + O r
B a G III E L O r S
By Everett Mcneil

had you married.
Don't be continually talking about what a
great beau you were in your younger days.
That YOU are still unmarried IS sufficient
evidence that you were, at least, unsuccess-
full one
Don't pose as being superior to woman's
charms. You are not. 1t would be impos-
sible for you to be superior to the charms of a
good woman; but you might be inferior to
them. Better remember this.
Don't become cranky and notional and set
in your ways. OF course you are minus your
better half; but make the best of the half
you have, and you can grow old lovably, even
though you are bachelor.
Don't set yourself up as authority on the
cost of living, though married Wait until
you have bought woman's Easter hat, or
opera dress or a set of furs, or winter cloak
The experience will prove to be great edu-
Gator.
Don't become cynical and try to be wittily
smart at the expense of Others especially the
married. 1t only advertises your own dis
content and envy. Besides, cynicism is
friend-poisoner: and bachelor needs to keep
his friends.
Don't forget that, since you have no wife
nor children of your own, you should help
others who have. 1t will keep your heart
from becoming calloused with selfshness and
some one dear to you.
Don't sponge" the homes of others. Some
bachelors act as if they fancied that their
friends had married for their especial enter
tanment and comfort. Visit your married
friends often-they may need cheering up
but don't sponge" on them. Also, do some
of the entertaining yourself
Don't become confirmed" bachelor,
which is only polite way of saving that you
are such fool that you have finally sue
ceeded in convincing yourself that you had
rather remain single Whenever you begin
to talk in this strain your friends smile and
think of the fable of the fox and the sour grapes
Don't get desperate and marry against your
best Judgment 1t is bad to REM in a bach
elor, but it is better to live in single blessed
ness" than in doubled misery. Even as the
right wife is the best thing that can happen
to a man, so the wrong wife is the worst
Beware don't marry her.
Don't be continually advising fathers and
mothers how they should bring up their chill
dren. Your viewpoint will make a sudden
and remarkable change the moment YOU hold
your own baby in your arms. Besides even
if your advice is good the fathers and the
mothers don't want it and won't pay any,
attention to it; SO what is the use of giving
it Better keep it until you need it yourself
Don't outgrow the love of children. Bor-
the children of your friends and neigh
bors Romp with them; play with them;
love them. 1t will do your old bachelor heart
good to fill it with the music of children's
voices. A needs the love of children
much tree needs sunshine and rain.
Without it his heart will dry up and wither.
Don't smile in conscious superiority every
time a friend or acquaintance tells of mar
ital troubles, as if you were thanking God for
having had the sense not to marry. Perhaps
your good luck" all owing to the sense
of the opposite sex. Anyway, it is not much
to your credit that you did not find the right
woman and make her love you sufficiently to
marry you.
Don't try to convince anyone that you are
thoroughly contented with your lot. If you
are sensible man, you know that You would
be a happier man and more contented man
if you were married man. with a loving wife
and home of your own. Real contentment
is found only in a home and there can be no
real home without wife and children. 1t
takes something more than a room and furni-
ture to make home.
Finally, don't give up. As long as there is
life there is hope of marriage for almost any
kind of old bachelor Don't let this hope
get away from you. Hang to it, even as the
shipwrecked mariner clings to the hope of