Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-08-21
MARRYING
AGES g To Is,
SAYSEXPERT
persons Who Wed After They
Are Thirty Are Most SuScept-
ibIe to Affinities.

LONDON, Aug. 21-What is the best
age at which to marry. and why?
These questions were answered by Or.
Frederick l.. Hoffman, LID, F. s. S.
one of the delegates to the international
Eugenics congress.
incidentally Dr. Hoffman. who occuniad
the position of statistician to the Pruden-
uaI insurance Company of Newark n 7
exploded what he described as one Of
'ne most popular fallacies that has ever
prevailed regarding successful marriages
NY experience and observation" said
Or norman, have convinced me that
elle pest ages for marrying are between
% and 70 for men and women alike
nave no faith in the theory that there
shouId be a wide disparity between the
age OF the man and the woman.
MY reason for fixing on between %
ana 20 as the ideal marrying age for both
sexes are, roughly these:
Physically Best Then.
The man and the woman ara then 81
Iar as marriage is concerned at their best
physical, mental and moral DEVELOPMENT
Ihelr hereditary traits now are dormant
ON the one hand the twig has been hant
or the temperament has been moulded in
the form it will probably retain, with a
little modification, for life
ON the other hand they are both suf-
hclenuy plastic and malleable to readiust
themselves and become mutually com
pllmentary to one another In other
words. the man is willing to sacrifice
himself 10 the happiness of the woman.
and the woman to the happiness of the
man. This Is oDs OF the essential condt-
tons of reay marriage. Perfect coordina-
ton is another.
A boy or a girl Of. say, 49, quite apart
from other considerations, can not be ex-
pected to know his or her mind This
point, | think requires no elaboration. At
the same time l should like to state with
all possible emphasis that every man of
20 or thereabouts who is earning his liv-
ing and wishes to marry should be per-
united to do so, provided only that he and
his prospective partner are healthy.
His Salary No Object
The woman of mans choice has no
right whatever to demand that he shall
be earning a certain number of dollars
a week before he enters into wedlock with
her. | strongly deprecate these so-called
marriages of convenience Moreover,
no restriction should be placed-within
reason, of course-on the number of chill
dren, No marriage is perfect or satisfy
ING II there are no children as its out
come
Men particularly who are over the age
of 30 and wish to marry do so at their
peril. At this age or over d man is gen.
orally so strongly individualized, so set
in his judgments, that to often in court
ing a wife he is only counting disaster
Again marriage celebrated after 30
tends to become an affair of friendship
than anything else. and this in ny opin-
ion, at least, is by no means ALL or any
thing approaching all, that marriage
should signify Although I confess have
no facts to bear out my contention on
this point, observation leads me to think
that the sudden appearance on the scene
of 'affinities' Of both sexes frequently
follows these Oversee marriages
And now let me just touch on the
question Of successful marriages There
was never greater fallacy than the
popular belief that REALLY successful
marriage is necessarily a happy one In
deed, / consider that that marriage is
still incomplete which does not know sor-
row loss disappointment aye, and even
DEATH"