The Washington herald., 1911-08-05
MEN ARE ONLY READY FOR
MARRIAGE AT TWENTY-SIX
A Wedding in Which No Element of Judgment and
Practicablity Enters Has Little Chance of Success
in Spite of the Young Love Upon Which
1t May Be Based.
By JULIA CHANDLER MANI.

A certain young man who had just
graduated from law school, after
long period of plugging at a day job
to earn a living and applying himself
to his books at night, made serious
misstep.
He was just twenty-one years of age
when he went into an older mans Of
fee to begin his life in his chosen pro-
fession.
To make a long story short. he be-
came infatuated with silly little girl
who had not reached the twenty-year
mark, and so near-sighted and impul-
sive were the twain that they rushed
headlong into marriage before the man
was making a decent support for one.
Cupfd's Inevitable Argument.
They argued that two could live as
cheaply as one, an old deception that
has been practiced by Cupid from time
immemorial.
The struggle to make ends meet for
the first year was hard enough, but
when the baby came. when doctors and
nurses bills piled up. and the young
wifes appalling ignorance resulted in
the baby's illness, the man was dis
traught with worry, and, being imma-
ture himself he developed a bad case
of nerves" which. in turn, affected his
work and incapacitated him for mental
concentration.
Somehow or other they pulled through
another two years, saving the frail
child's life by almost a miracle, until
another little one came into the home
Law was going slowly. The young
mans practice amounted to barely
enough for a living for one, which had
been made to serve the family so far.
by all sorts of denials and unhappi
ness.
Gave Up His Ambition.
So he gave up the work for which he
had fitted himself and went into some
thing that promised faster financial
progress.
The life for which he had felt him
self peculiarly fitted went by the board
at one clip, and, through the years that
have since gone by there has been
deep bitterness far down in his heart;
an overwhelming disappointment; the
full assurance that he has missed his
real life's work and Its accompanying
satisfying happiness
No man should marry before he is
twenty-six years old, and particularly
does this apply to the man who must
make his own way, depending only on
himself
He does himself an irreparable wrong
and the girl he makes his wife still
greater one.
When a man who is mature and wom-
an who has lived long enough to have
some experience marry in poverty. there
Is hope in the managerial ability of each.
but the kittenish couple rushing on
board the ship of matrimony before they
have either brain or Drawn to pull the
heavy oar that guides their boat over
fha = l-gr
shoals Of distress.
Equipment Necessity.
This is an age when equipment for life
is an absolute necessity to success.
The man without it lives in a vain hope
If he expects to attain a high standard
without it.
When he asks a girl to share his life
before he is ready to meet the actual
necessities of her life. and lures her with
his vain hopes of success with her at his
side, he asks her in reality to step from
her happy, Care-free girlhood into a life
of pure and simple drudgery; into a life
the requirements of which her own brief
years have not yet taught her how to
meet
A marriage in which no element of
judgment, of practicability, of pure and
simple common sense enters has little
chance Of success, in spite of all the mad
impulsive infatuation and enthusiastic
young love upon which 1t may be based.
have known men whose spirits were
as gay as the proverbial larks's SO
changed by the responsibility of support
ing family after a few years of married
life that their most intimate friends
would shake their heads in sympathy, and
even a passing acquaintance would no.
tice this gloom.
This sort of man carries the same
gloom home TO the little family that is
not responsible that he has been so near
sighted as not to have seen into the
years beyond the alter rail.
There are a multitude of other strong
reasons why a man should not marry
until he has reached maturity and ac-
cumulated some degree of wisdom. but
I believe the one discussed to-day is the
most vital OF them all, because 1t is the
most common.
Failing a law enacted by folks who
are wise in years and experience, every
boys mother should be unto him law
TO protect him from running his future
by too early marriage.
And she can IL sne will begin in his