The Washington herald., 1911-07-07
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Dorothy Dix Says that Marriage Should Not Be Too
Long Postponed

a fool If she accepts 1t and ties herself
down in a bargain that is bound to be
losing one for her.
Also Affects a Man.
Nor does the long engagement work
out any moro happily for the man than
it does for the woman. Some Of the
most pathetic tragedies in the world have
been the result of a boy who is start
ing out into the world to seek his for
tune binding himself to marry some VIII
lage sweetheart.
He went his way. He developed. He
changed. He grew. He met brilliant
and sophisticated women who were the
fitting mate for the kind of man he had
become.
But he had tied a halter around his
neck when he had engaged himself to
the little girl back home, and it drew
him back to his doom. In all honor he
felt that he was bound to marry the
woman who had waited for him and
who had thus cut herself off from mar
rying anybody else.
He would sooner have gone to his own
funeral than to his wedding, but he
heroically made the sacrifice that doomed
both himself and the girl to a life OF
wretchedness, for there is no other
misery in the world equal to that en-
dured by a couple who have nothing else
in common but the marriage tie.
A Season of Suspense.
In matrimony most people have at least
the peace that comes from possession and
having things settled. They also acquire
a certain philosophy that enables them to
make the best of each other. On the other
hand, an engagement, from it's very ma
ture. is a season Of long-drawn-out sus-
pense and anxiety that is full of tears,
suspicious, and Jealousies.
The man and the woman have no real
rights; no tangible hold on each other
Therefore, they are on the watch tower,
forever on the lookout for danger, real or
fancied. In every distracted mood they
see coldness and studied insult. In every
idle word they perceive deep. dark, and
sinister meaning. Every attractive woman
or man that crosses their path they be-
hold through green eyes.
Each one is forever suspecting the other
of growing weary and of wanting to call
the bargain off, and 1t generally ends in
all good truth in both parties growing
deadly tired and disenchanted. They
have seen too much of each other to
have been able to keep at the high ten
sion of lovers, and not enough to develop
the comradeship of husband and wife.
Each has tried to boss the other with
out the authority and privileges that mat
gives. and somehow between them
they have torn the rosy chiffons of court
ship into tatters.
Six Months a Good Limit.
AS a matter Of romance, as well as
common sense, six months is the limit Of
an engagement, and three months Is bet
ter. for the long engagement makes for
nothing but disappointment and heart
burnings and anxiety, and it rubs the gilt
off the gingerbread of matrimony as moth
ing else does
Far better Is 1t for a man to pick out
the woman he wants at the time he is
ready to marry her than enter into a
long contract to take an article that may
be shop-worn and damaged goods and
which his taste has changed
long before he gets it.
1t is true that Jacob served and waited
twice seven years for Rachel, but in those
days men weren't restricted to one choice
In a wife as they are now.