El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-04-04

a vital interest, financial independence,
freedom to do as she pleases- The boyle
matrimony, the fear Of being called an
old maid, has no terrors for her, for
she knows that spinisterhOOd is no
longer the badge Of disgrace. 1t is gen
orally a certificate Of intelligence.
Less Attractive.
Undoubtedly matrimony attracts both
sexes less tnan II formerly Qla Just
why nobody knows Ny. own theory,
so far as the city goes, is that the
blame lies at the door Of the fiat In
the country II takes a man and a wO-
man both TO make a home. But In
box Of fiat either a man or a woman
can keep house perfectly well alone,
and a husband or a wife Is more or less
a superfluity.
Moreover, so far as the woman is
concerned, marriage does not present
any particularly alluring prospect. She
looks about her and sees that her
friends husbands dropped their gal
lantry and love making at the altar,
and that they are more cOnsiderate,
polite and agreeable TO any other WO-
man under the sun that they are TO
their wives. She observes that the
uptodate ending Of a romance IS not
happily ever afterWard," but they
were married and lived scrappily ever
afterWard."
The Rich Husband.
She also takes cognizance Of the fact
that the woman who marries any but a
ricn man doesn't find matrimony the
sesame to life Of idleness and luXu-
~ and ease. Instead, she qualities for
the hardest and poorest paid job on
earth. She lets herself in for a lifetime
of domestic slavery, and there's moth
ing in that to fire the fancy Of the aT-
erage maiden.
All Of this makes girls much less
anxious TO marry than my correspon-
dent imagines. The modern girl, par
ticularly IL she is a working girl with
her own living, does not have 20 mar
~ for a home. She can make as good
a home for herself as the ordinary man
can offer her and not be bothered with
any husband cluttering up the house
and bossing her. She knows she would
have to work harder in some mans
kitchen than she does in another mans
office. and she prefers the typewriter
to the gas range and washtub, thank
So when a girl marries nowadays. Il
isn't for the sake Of eXchang ing a hard
job for a soft one. It's because she Is
prince Charming Of her dreams, and
because for his sake she is willing to
undergo all Of the hardships, and pri-
vations, and sacrifices Of matrimony.
Very Different Now.
And let US thank God that this is
true, ana LndL II IS gong 10 be truer
as women come more and more into
their own, and the doors Of opportunity
are opened wider to them. Men may
not have thought Of this. but the girl
of today IS the first gin that a man
could marry without suspicioning that
she was marrying him for a support.
Our grandmOthers, and even our moth
ers, had no other way of making a liv-
ing except by marrying for it, and our
papas and grandpapas must have often
asked themselves whether they repre-
sented their wives ideal, or merely q
good thing to TIM
This generation OF women is the first
In the world who were not compelled
to sell themselves in matrimOny The
girls of today can consult their hearts
instead Of their necessity about marry
ing, and Oubtedly that is going TO
enormously increase the pro rata OF
happy maria ges-
As for my correspondents assertion
that girls are more anxious TO marry
than men because when a girl uarries
she gets a meal ticket and a man halves
his, that is nonsense. No more girls
marry to get a meal ticket than men
marry TO get g cook to whom thew
don't have to pay wages. And the pro-
portion Of both is infinitesimaI