The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-01-29
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

When I was bachelor lived by my
 self,
 And all the bread and cheese I had, Il put upon the shelf"
 This couplet from Mother Goose, one
 of my best beloved poets, gives me
 chance to give my readers the benefit of
 some reading I have recently done
 about the compensations and draw
 backs of bachelordom.
 The origin of the word bachelor has
 been a puzzle to the etymologists, and vain have been their guesses concern \ ing it, and while it is an interesting study it does not give any clue as to
 the real meaning, rather like the idea of it's once being used in connection with knight errantry, signifying knight not powerful enough to display
 banner of his own in the field. but
 one who had to follow the banner of an-
 other.
 | It's easy to make a jump from ter
 minology to society and rashly con i CluQC LI&%s QGfne%PSt AAC A|0SNh ny
 bachelors are so often seen in the train of other mems wives, is because they have not had the courage to take one | for themselves. Remember, am mak- ing use of the word in its ecomfnon meaning of a man of any age who has not been married. for be 1t known. the term was at one time applied to a maid, as you can read for yourself in one of B. Johnson's plays. Gle was not anticipat-
 ing the bachelor maids of the twentieth
 century,.
 The thing I am concerned about at present is to get a line on bachelor
 hood, the state or condition of the bach l elor, whether the animal is happy in
 his bachelorhood or on the other hand
 is he to be pitied? Thackeray, the great English satirist, whose married life was
 a tragedy, in the 'fNewcomesT says; T
 can fancy nothing more cruel after a long, easy life of bachelorhood than to have to sit day after day with dull, handsome woman opposite" Now, this is one of the bogeys which Y
 keep many men content in their bache-
 lorship. It has been said that being a bachelor is easy, but staying a bache- Tor, ah, there is the hitchl with so many charming debutantes, well grocmed ] young women. and crafty mothers abroad in society. To hear the average
 bachelor talk you would gather the idea
 that he was being stalked by day and night and only kept from falling into I the pit digged for him by eternal vigil lance. I am sure that most of them are suffering delusion, but there are a l few who have really learned to be wary
 in self-defense.
 l There is another class of bachelors, and they are the beaux par excellence, who when questioned about their state son they have not wed comes from the ! fact that they are so in love with the feminine sex that they find it extreme 1 ly difficult to make the choice of one | They fit into certain social position from which it is hard to dislodge them. | l AnCW ouc Ol tAlS type ACT9 III ny
 early society days. I got on to him by
 a petulant remark of one of his vic-
 tims. who said he could pay woman
 more attention with less intentions than Any man she had ever met. 1 Then there is class of bachelors who
 boldly say they had rather be dead than
 to wed. Their state is best described in
 the following verse;
 Tn heat of youth, poor Jack engaged a l wife
 Whose tongue he found. might prove | scourge for life;
 Perplexed, he still put off the evil day,
 Grew sick at length. and just expiring | lay.
 To which sad crisis, having brought the matter
 To wed or die, he wisely chose the lat l ter"
 ] can hear some of the fair sex say ing. The coward! He did not deserve
 to live"
 l Then comes along another bunch of | bachelors and in effect they say: "Yes, we would like very much to get mar | ried, but with the high cost of living
 and the fact that the average young | woman is no longer content with cot l tage, flat or even home, but wants
 an establishment, it is simply out of the question" This is the prudent or selfish 1 brigade. They have no wish to put their head in yoke to become burden bear
 CTS, and so they spend their earnings
 on themselves. It's mighty hard to con- vince any of this crowd that there is
 always some good woman who is ready to make sacrifices where she gives her heart and hand
 ] Then we find the worldly climbing l bachelor who attaches more importance
 to his career than he does to his taking upon himself family ties. It's cold
 blooded proposition with him and in his self-indulgence he accepts the philos- | ophy of La Bruyere, who put it this way: "A man unattached and without wife, if he have any genius at all. may raise himself above his original posi- 1 tion, may mingle with the world of fash | ion, and hold himself on a level with l the highest This is less easy for him 1 who is engaged. It seems as if mar | riage put the whole world in their | proper rank" This is beyond the hope of redemption, for they are cold. cal culating lot, and it's waste of time for any woman to try and convert them. | There are some men who, it seems. prefer to stand on the side lines and ! watch others play the married game It may do very well for a man to be Hooker on in Venice" say, up to the time