The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-09-01
CUPID IS LOSING.
Marriage Age Is Rapidly on the
Increase.
The Man Waits Until He Is %
The Girl %.
MODERNITY THECAUSE
High Living Expenses Alarm
Young Couples.
Shawnee County Records Reveal
Startling Facts.
MODERNITY THECAUSE


and grandfathers could peer into the
marriage license records at the court
house today they would rub their
eyes good many times before they
would believe that at this time and
age the average age of the man who
courts and wins his lady love is 81
and the so-called pretty maiden has
reached the mature series of % sum-
mers and winters
In looking over the marriage
docket which is kept under the care
full supervision of Miss Hazel Rich
ardson, marriage license clerk, the
startling fact is revealed. The rush
and vim of modern times does not
extend to matrimonial circles-here
the tread is slow and thoughtful.
1t would be a hard matter to make
some of the older generations believe
that the marriage age for the man is
81 and the woman %, but this is the
State Journal reporter out of the
county records.
''It looks to me as though all of the
old real love and sentiment OF the
days gone by is passed" said one OF
the county officials who is student
of such matters today. Il nave
watched the people as they come here
to obtain their license or as they nave
been fling in here together to be mar
ried and let me tell you it is getting
to be a strictly business proposition.
It is true that some of them are shy
and look at each other in that same
old fashioned way but I can't help
but notice the difference"
And so it is-loVe is tottering under
the sway of modern methods. The
business world is demanding the sin
gle ambitious young man VINO IS not
tied down by the bonds of matrimony
T. r.
and interest for his company and ms
employers. There is nothing that
proves all of this better than the
marriage records-and their story to-
day opens the doors to the whole
secret.
The old story about how much
cheaper it is for two to live
than one is not practical to the Wlde
awake young man of the present age
When he takes a wife into partner
ship with his meal ticket and his nat
rack he invariably breaks into the tax
rolls and in any city the taxes are
mighty problem and he finds that the
old theory is dispe1led into quickly
the hardest cities in the country for
the new1y-wed on this account and to
such a kind man as the probate judge
the young man is always willing to
tell his tale of woe.
Never before in the history OF the
county records has the average been
so high and the results been so alarm
ing. 1t is getting customary TOT some
large port1y middle aged man TO aP-
nIv for a license and without a smile
sign his name and give the name OF
his lady. AS a rule it is 35 for himself
and IS for his would-be spouse. He
applies for his license as II ne was
ordering a ton of coal and pays for
the license in the same, spirit. He re-
peats the name of his betrothed as II
he was asking for ''McAllister Nut
fI1o rar-dB 81
'sI can hardly believe these figures
is the general expression that was
heard on all sides at the court house
when the reporter gave out MS estl-
mate And then followed a discourse
of the good old times when young
man received from his sweetheart's
father as his twentieth birthday pres
emit the girl he loved-and she was
and possibly eighteen variety
VERY few marry at the age of six
teen and twenty nowadays. Ihose
that do o. are tbe r" Wat trb b
"But, oh, how I love to have them
come and receive the official knot.
said one of the old timers in the Of
flee. ct am a firm believer. in the
early marriage idea and it does my
heart good to watch them start out in
this icy world by themselves. know
that the people of today laugh and
scoff at the cottage built for two
idea but they have dry blood in their
veins-tfey are impenetrable by the
arrows of Cupid can't place any
confidence in their cold decisions"
And thus the opinions differ-the
older good old men and women who
still have in their minds the days of
real chivaIrv stand UP for the early
marriage n slr age idea@they cling to the idea
as they did when they were young
sters-and because they were married
young and they know just what Cupid
had in store for them and all they
endured and sacrificed for each other.
After all only those who know by ex-
perience are able to tell the real hap
piness of an early marriage.
It is invariably the younger person