The Washington herald., 1918-05-01

ones. She knows the privations her
father endures so she may go into
good society and have her chance.
Nobody puts it into words, but She
knows as well as she knows anything,
that she Is expected to marry rich,
and that only by doing SO can she re-
pay her family for all the hardships
that they have undergone for her
sake. She knows that her father and
mother have depended on her mar
riage as their one hope for salvation.
She looks at her mothers tired face,
worn with care; she sees her fathers
bent shoulders. and the younger sis
ters whose own future will be secured
by her making a brilliant match.
sympathy. affection. gratitude. her
duty to others. are all urged upon
her. She knows that II she goes her
own way and marries the poor man
OF her heart she will be adding an
other sorrow TO burdens that are al
ready crushing, and so, unless she has
the moral courage of a hero, and a
backbone like a telephone post, she
gives in and marries the man her
mother wants her to instead of the
one she wants TO marry herself.
Nor can one always blame the
mother over much. She Is trying to
save her daughter from the life Of toll
and hardship and anxiety that she
has had herself. and that 80 often
makes the middle-aged wife of a poor
man utterly disillusioned. and con-
WINGED that money ia the only factor
in matrimony that is worth consid-
ering.
But one could better understand a
mothers desire for her daughter to
marry rich IL the rich were invariably
happy. or her wish for her daughter
ITO make a brilliant marriage IL bril-
liant marriages always stayed Brit
liant. But they don't.
Riches have a way of taking wings
to themselves. and we have all seen
girls whose nuptials were celebrated
with splendor befitting royalty, re-
turning home heart broken and mis-
cradle TO take in sewing to support
themselves. Indeed, looking at it as
a simple business proposition, and
with reference to a girls future. It is
strange that ii doesn't oftener occur
to parents that the man who has
held the same position in a store or
Office for years in succession, and
who has saved I'D a thousand dol
lars or two. is a better chance than
the gilded youth who never did a
days work in his life, or earned a
dollar. and whose one star PERFORM
ance consisted in being born a rich
mans son.
Parent ar" justified In trying to
save thor daughters from grinding
poverty. bat beyond that they have
no right /" object to the suitor who
can otrr girl an honest heart, a
clean bill "f health. and a willingness
to work for her. He may have little
else to give her. They may have to
begin housekeeping in a three-room
cottage or a bandbox flat. They
may have many years of toll and
struggle aud scrimping before
them, but they will have love to
sweeten it and happiness to giId IL.
The most beautiful romance in
America, and the one that Offset,
the hideousness of our divorce
courts, is the life story of the mid
die aged. prosperous couple who
have begun poor and worked up to-
gether. They have saved together
the money for the husband to go
into business for himself; they have
economized to buy their first home: /:
they have had every plan and hope,
and ambition. and triumph together.
and they have grown into a one
ness that those who have always
been rich and prosperous never
know.
1t is the very flower of our hard
working commercial life, and the
girl who marries a rich old man in
order to have the pleasure Of spend
ing his money, instead of a poor
young man in order to have the fun
of helping him make his money,
makes the mistake of her life.
Besides, fortunes change so rap
idly in this country that the differ
ence between marrying a man who
has inherited a fortune, and mar
rying a poor hard-working man
who Is making his fortune, is al
most choice between whether
you'd rather be rich when you are
young. or prosperous when you are
middle aged. o..
And before mother sends the poor
suitor for her daughters hand
about his business, she should try
to solve this question.
tCopgrisht. 1913. by the Wheeler Syndicate, Incl