The Washington herald., 1918-09-27

The most inexplicable thing on
earth is the casual way in which
American parents permit their dsUgh-
ters to marry.
Comes a day upon which Maud
bobs up with a good looking chap,
whom she has met in New York.
Chicago or San Francisco at a dance
or a dinner party. where he was in
troduced to her by some acquaint-
ance she has met two minutes be-
fore. Maud announces that she is in
love with this young person and is
going to marry him, and father and
mother bestow their blessing and
trousseau upon her, and bid her go
TO it. or words TO that effect.
They don't know anything under
the sun about the young man to whom
they are entrustinE their daughters
life and they don't take the trouble
to find out. That is the strange part
Of it. They let Maud make this leap
in the dark, without even attempting
to find out where she is going to land.
And nobody knows the answer 10
this prize conUndrum OF why parents
act this way. 1t is simply a fact
that people let their daughters marry
men whom they hardly know by
sight and that they make no effort
to find out anything about these mems
pasts. or possible futures, though by
doing so they could save many a girl
. from lifelong misery.
Nou cannot pick up a newspa per
{ hN1-f
girl who has married q perfectly
lovely young man with curly hair
and black muStache, and found out
that he was a bigamist with a varied
. assortment of wives scattered all over
the country, or Of a romantic maiden
who has been led to the altar by
Russian count, with a name that
sounds like a cold in the head. but
Twho proved to be a waiter in a sec
ond-Class hashery.
And there is not one OF US who does
not know some pitifUl story Of girls
who found out, when II was too late,
| that they had married men who were
afflicted with the drink or dope habit,
or men who had black pasts that
reached across the years and bliChted
! the lives OF their wives and children,
or girls who were dragged down to
| poverty by marrying men who were
too lazy and no-account to work and
! support their families
In practically every such cas- the
| tragedy could have been avoided If
| the parents had done their duty by
| finding out all about the men their
| daughters wanted to marry before
| they were married, instead OF waiting
until after they were married TO learn
| that they were highly undesirable as
| husbands.
Surely. a father owes Il to his
/ daughter to save her from wrecking
her life IL he can, and when her whole
! future IS at stake, he might take the
! time and the trouble TO do a little
| sleuthing around to see what sort OF
life the man she proposes TO marry
! has led, and the kind OF future per-
formances his record would reason
ably lead one TO expect
When a young man asks a father
! for his daughters hand 1t isn't enough
| for the father to write a few per-
| functory letters inouiring about the
J young man and get few perfunctory
replies. G-,--
II is the fathers ~fia - 10 go to
the place where thu g1gng nan lives.
TO get acquainted WITH his people.
to talk to his eIlpioytrs and get
chummy with the boys re runs
with. Let him fnf S3t hat sort
of blood flows in tts Eopag mans
veins, whether IL s cfsa or tainted
with hereditary dissctss Let him
i find out whether he u one of the
sort of chaps whs = atPendinE on
marriage 10 refors ,hp 81 has al
ways led a decent = Let him and