The Washington herald., 1915-01-13

short-lived romantic period-what might
be called sentimental atavism-nearly al
ways turn out disastrously. Youth is the
natural time for contracting marriages.
"Wiseacres, however, have always be-
walled youthful and romantic marriages
on the ground that young people are not
competent to judge. But IL people waited
until they were competent to judge they
would be very apt not to marry at all.
II is a silly objection, for 1t would lead
to the doing away with marriages alto
gether.
SordIdness of Modern Love.
Love in a cottage is ordinarily
sneered at. OF course. love in a palace
is better-if YOU can have the palace.
But 1 am thinking Of those cases in
which the cottage is in the problem,
anyway. And then II would seem almost
self-evident that hard times with love Is
to be preferred to hard times without.
'One of the chief causes underlying
the hesitancy of modern young people to
marry is the economic dependence Of
women, the medieval idea that marriage
is woman's only profession helpless
non-self-suppOrting wife is enough to
cause any man In his senses to stop and
consider. Young men of today do not
wish to marry until their career Is as
sured and their income large; the young
women who are dependent on that career
and that income instead of on their
own, inevitably foster and encourage this
wish. When women are individuals cap
able Of earning their own living and in
the habit of doing so-like men-young
men will not hesitate to marry so much
as they do today One big cause of our
present-day delayed marriages will be re-
moved. Marriage is a sacred institution
only as 1t enables people to work to-
gether productivity and happily Too
OFTEN today II is but device for giving
the sanction of responsibility to two peo-
pie who wish to live together
Upon one point, that married people
should not see too much of each other
am firmly convinced. Young couples
should not forget that all romance is
worn of by intimacy-it is a wonder to
me that so many marriages stand the
strain of the honeymoon when the two
persons who have been very busy ideal
izing each other all during courtship are
forced into each others company without
any possible means of getting away, and
discover that the beloved is a human
being with rather petty likes and dis
likes after all. 1t is the most depressing
feeling in the world to realize that you
know all the secret closets and cham
bers of character Of one whom you origi-
nally thought was inexhaustable There
should be an element of novelty and sur
prise left to everybody. One should al
ways feel that there are some more
ideas to unlock.
Privacy in the Modern Home.
Therefore. l say let there be plenty of
room In the young peoples new home
who have just married. II they are wise,
they will have separate apartments. l
do not wonder that Mr.. and Mrs Have
lock Ellis have been an ideally happy
couple for so many years. Each has his
own hOuse-they stand side by side in
London-and lives his own individual life.
Far from agreeing with Mr.. Cyril Maude
that actresses should not marry actors
or vice versa, as one prefers, because the
eXigencies of their profession will often
demand that they be separated-I think
that is one OF the few reasons why
actresses should marry actors. Any hus-
band who gave one an occasional vaca-
tion would have at least one commend
able virtue. Intimacy in the more sordid
details Of daily existence and an almost
complete lack of companionship in work
that is what the average marriage of
today is too apt speedily to become. l
believe in just the reverse.