The Washington herald., 1912-01-02
Rr nnRoaHY DIX.

When a young man who wants to mar
~ q girl has his memorable interview
with papa on the subject, II papa has
a grain of sense in his head he asks the
suitor: Can you support my daughter in
the style in which she has been accus-
toned to rve2" And before the young
man gets the girl he has 10 prove that he
can take care Of her and provide for a
family.
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 hap
py unless they have enough to eat and a
roof to cover them, and plenty of fire to
keep them warm It may not be poetic,
but II is true. that all romance is based
on 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
r few questions to her concerning her
fitness to marry? Why shouldn't the
mans mother turn a stern and inquiring
eye on the girl and say: Young woman,
can you take care OF my son in the
way In which 1 have always been accus-
TONED to doing? Am I safe in trusting
bis digestion to your cooking? Am I
justified in leaving his pocxetbook in your
hands?'' And before the mans mother
says, Bless you. my children" why
SHOULDN'T she require the girl to show
that she knows how 20 manage a house
Sen and economically?
Wife should BE an Expert.
This would only be reasonable, for the
welfare of a family depends just as much
on the wife being an expert in her busI-
ness as it does upon the husband being
capable in his line It's a blighting thing
10 romance TO admit, but the continuance
Of domestic bliss depends upon the state
Of ones stomach. Dyspepsia turns loves
young dreams into a nightmare before
YOU can say scat
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 in health
before she Will be granted a license to
get married. It makes no difference
whether the girl has enough money TO
employ q dozen servants or not She
must be able TO do her own work IL II
should be necessary.
That's a wise law. and II should be a
glad day II one like it was passed in this
country, for it would do more to settle
tine divorce question and promote con-
nubiaI happiness than anything else in
the world.
Not many Of us have the-courage TO
face the truth. but II is true, neverthe-
less, that the principal one Of the thirty
seven different reasons why marriage
IS so often failure is because the wife
does not know how to cook and keep
house when she marries. OF course. ,,
when a man is counting a girl he thinks ,
that it doesn't make any difference
whether she can tell a kitchen range i
from a phonograph or not. because he's |
under the impression that when he's |
married to his charmer he'll live in !
Eublimated state, where he'll be entirely !
above such sordId things as beefsteak |
AND pies.
Physical Comforts Necessary.
To his surprise, however, he finds out |
that after marriage his appetite returns !
with 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
Indeed. men marry just to get a home I,
more often than woman do, and there
can be no other thing so utterly disillu-
sioning to the man who has dreamed of /
home, sweet home, all of his life TO re-
turn OF an evening to a place where
and weeping bride is struggling
vainly and incompetently with a problem
she has not been trained to solve One L
week OF dinners of soggy bread. and |
watery vegetables and burnt meat will
dim 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 of her first husband with her
cooking she has learned her trade
Neither can any mans love long sur
vive his wife's wastefulness This is
not because he is stingy. but because II
is so heart-breakingly discouraging for
him to know that the results Of his hard