El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-07-05

mother has a right to put a finger
In that pie. Its hands off for every
body except the individual concerned
in matters of the heart
Insistence of Mothers to Marry Off
Daughters Is Hard to Explain
Why mothers, who presumably love
their daughters and have their inter
ests at heart, should be so crazy for
their girls to marry is one of the mys-
teries past finding out Certainly few
women have been so blessed in their
own marriages as to lead them to
think matrimony an elysium. On the
contrary, most Of them have found it
hard road to travel, full of dis
illusions, and diSappointments, and pri-
TatiOns, and sorrow and tears yet, in
spite of their own experience, and the
observation that they have Jared no
worse than the great majority of
wives and mothers they see about
them, they are eager to set their
daughters feet on this thOrny path.
We see them so afraid their
daughters won't marry that they
plunge their little, young, unfit girls
into matrimony, and when a girl
does have enough sense not to take
the first man who proposes to her, but
waits to pick and choose around among
men until she can find what she wants
in husband, we observe her mother
getting as fidgety as an old hen who
IS trying to cluck and shoe her chickB
into the coop at night, fearful lest she
might get left out of the fold.
OF course, where a girl is dependent
on her family it is easy to see where
her mother might want to shunt the
burden Of her support on some man,
but where young woman earns her
own bread and butter and cake, and
even contributes to her parents larder
there is no possible excuse for her
mother to marry her off
The only explanation that can be
offered of the mothers attitude is that
Or. Ill -. al
en-, who believe that for a woman not
to marry indicates that she is lack
ing in personal attractiveness, and
that she holds to the ancient and fall
lacious theory that marriage is a nice,
easy, genteel sort Of job.
The modern woman has disproved
both of these theories Nowadays,
there is an aristocracy of celibacy
among women, and for a girl to re-
main single does not prove that she
was shy on charms, but that she was
long on discretion and wisdom. So far
from plying the old maid, she is far
more likely to be looked on with envy.
Taking them by-and-large, the IN
married women are better off than the
married women There are more wom-
en- with good Jobs than good husbands
The unmarried women are better
dressed, younger looking, more cheer
full and contented than their married
sisters. 1t is the wives, and not the
old maids, who weep on your neck,
and come to you with the sad, sad
story of their lives. So no woman who
is anxious for her daughters happi-
ness need badger her into matrimony.
AS for marriage offering a soft snap
to a woman, it is only the very few
women who marry rich men who get
even physical ease. No woman in an
office, or a store, or factory, works
one tenth so hard as the wife of a
poor man. No woman, no matter how
i'll paid gets so little for her labor as
the wife and mother, and why the
woman who has been through this
treadmill wants to push her daughter
into it Is something past comprehen-
sion
Cruel to Force Girl to Altar Steps
Uunless She Really Loves
There is just one thing. and one
thing only, that makes marriage worth
while, and that is love-a love so
great and overwhelming that it robs
sacrifice of its sting. labor of its wear
mess, and makes a woman glad to
give all and do all for the sake of
the man she worships. Unless q girl
feels this way toward a man, she is
wrong and foolish to marry him, and
when she does feel this way she won't
need her mother to urge and push her
into matrimony.
And when she doesn't feel this way
it is hard and cruel thing of her
mother to try to force on her brow a
wreath of orange blossoms that is
full Of thorns.