El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-12-28

w soulful eyes and a peaches and
cream complexion-should
girl have for matrimony? Should a girl
be permitted to marry, Just because
some man is fool enough to ask her. if
she is utterly unskilled in domestic
arts, and can bring nothing but a few
perishable good looks TO the making OF
q happy hOmeg
When a young man who wants TO
marry a girl has his memorable inter
view with papa on the subject If papa
has grain of sense IN his head he asks
the suitOr: Can YOU support my
daughter in the style in which she has
been accustomed to liver" And before
the young man gets the girl he has to
prove that he can take care of her ana
provide for a family.
That IS nothing more than sane and
right, for every man knows that no mat
ter how much in love a young couple
are they cannot stay in love, nor be
happy, unless they have enough to eat
and a roof to cover them and plenty Of
IRE to keep them warm. 1t may not be
poetic, but it's true, that all romance Is
based on physical comfort.
But when a -Oung man goes to get
married why should not his mother go
to the Girl to whom he is engaged and
put a few questions to her concerning
her fitness to marry? Why shouldn't
the mans mother turn a stern and IN
curing eye on the girl and say: Young
woman, can you take care OF my son IN
the way in which 1 have always been
accustomed to doing? Am / safe in
trusting his digestion to your cOOking3
Am / justified in leaving his pocket
book in your hands % And before the
mans mother says, tBless You, my chill
dren," why shouldn't she require the
girl to show that she knows how TO
manage a house well and economically
Love and Dyspepsia.
This would only be reasonable, for
the welfare OF family depends Just as
much on the wife being an expert in
her business as it does upon the nus
band being capable in his line. It's a
blighting thing TO romance to admit, but
the continuance of domestic bliss de-
ponds upon the state of ones stomach. !
Dyspepsia turns loves young dream into (
a nightmare before you can say scat.
Norway has taken up this important /
subject and there is now & bill pending I
before the legislature that provides |
that girl must show that she can cook 1
a dinner with her own hands, sew and 4
mend, slTperintend the laundry, and take I
care Of a child in sickness and health /
before she viii be granted a license to !
get married. Tt makes no difference /
whether the girl has enough money to !
employ a dozen servants or not. She /
must be able to do her own work If it /
should be necessary.
That's a wise law, and It would be a .
glad day if one ike it was passed in |
this country, for It would do more to set
tie the divorce question and promote
eonnubial happiness than anything else
in the world.
Not many of us have the courage to
face the truth, but it is true, neverthe.
less, that the principal one of the 81
different reasons why marriage Is so
often a failure Is because the wife does
not know how to cook and keep house
when she marTies. Of course, when a
man is counting a girl he thinks that
il doesn't make any difference whether
she can tell a kitchen range from a /
or not, because he's under
the impression that when he S married to
his charTner he'll live in a sublimated
state, where he'll be entirely above such
sordid things as beefsteals and pies.
To his surprise, however, he finds out
that after marriage his appetite returns
with a rush, and that the physical COM
forts of a clean and peaceful place in
which to live are as necessary to him as
they ever were.
He Wants a Home.
Indeed, men marry Just to get a home
more OIJen IMAM women 90 ana mere
can be no other thing so uttery disillu-
sioning to the man who has dreamed of
home, sweet home all Of his lie, to re-
turn of an evening to place where a
-ed-eyed and weeping bride Is struggling
7ainlv and incompetently with a problem
she has not been trained to solve. One
week of dinners of sOggy bread, and
Tatery vegetables, and burnt meat viii
lin the brightest romance, and most
Young wives subject their husbands to
three or four years of this ordeal.
Doubtless the reason that the men who
marry widows are proverbially happy IS
because by the time a woman has killed
IF her first husband with her cooking (
ihe has learned the trade.
Neither can any mans love long sur ]
i've his wife's wastefulness. This Is not
because he Is stingy. but because it Is so