The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1911-12-25
By DOROTHY DIX.


What OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES soulful eyes
and a peaches-and-cream complexion
should a girl have for matrimony?
Should a girl be permitted to marry just
because some man is foolish 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 a happy home?
When a young man who wants 10
marry girl has his memorable interview
with papa on the subject, If papa has a
grain of sense in his head he asks the
sutton: Can you support my daughter
in the style in which she has been &C
custOmed to live?" And before the young
man gets the girl he has to prove that
he can take care of her and provide for
a family.
Romance and Physical Comfort.
That is nothing more than sane and
right, for every man knows that no
matter 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
fire to keep them warm. 1t may not be
poetic, but it's true, that all romance is
based op physical comfort.
But When a young man goes to get
married, why should not his mother go
to the girl to whom he is engaged and
put few questions to her concerning
her fitness to marry? Why shouldn't
the mans mother turn a stern and in
quiring eye on the girl and say: Young
woman, can you take care of my son in
the way in which I have always been
accustomed to doing? Am I safe in
trusting his digestion to your cooking?
Am I justified in leaving his pocketbook
=
mother says, Bless you, my children,
why shouldn't she require the girl to
show that she knows how to manage a
house well and economically?
This would only be reasonable, for the
welfare of a family depends just as much
on the wife being an expert in her
business as it does upon the husband be-
ing capable in his line. It's a blighting
thing to romance to admit, but the con-
tinuance of domestic bliss depends upon
the state of ones stomach. Dyspepsia
turns loves young dream into night
mare before you can say scat.
Norway's New Law.
Norway has taken up this important
subject and there is now a bill pending
before the legislature that provides that
a girl must show that she can cook a
dinner with her own hands, sew and
mend, superintend the laundry. and take
care of a child in sickness and health
before she will be granted a license to
get married. 1t 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 1t
should be necessary.
That's a wise law, and II would be a
glad day If one like 1t was passed IN
this country, for 1t would do more to set
tie the divorce question and promote
connubial happiness than anything else
In the world.
why Marriage Is q Failure.
Not many of us have the courage to
face the truth, but it is true, neverthe-
less, that the principal one of the thirty
seven different reasons why marriage is
so often a failure is because the wife
does not know how to cook and keep
house when she marries. OF course, when
4 man IS counting girl he thinks that
It 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 charmer he'll live in a sublimated |
state, where he'll be entirely above such |
sordid things as beefsteaks and pies.
To his surprise, however, he finds out |
hat after marriage his appetite returns |
with a rush, and that the physical COM |
forts of clean and peaceful place in |
which to live are as necessary to him as
hey ever were.
Indeed. men marry just to get home |
more often than women do, and there |
IAN be no other thing so utterly disillu- |
;ioning to the man who has dreamed of |
nome, sweet home, all of his life, to re-
Urn Of ~ aVaninp m q nlpra Uhara a
'ed-eyed and weeping bride is struggling |
yainly and incompetently with problem
she has not been trained to solve. One
week of dinners Of soggy bread, and
vatery vegetables, and burnt meat will