Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1922-10-25

/ because the man has his career, his out
| SIDE interests, he can get away from his
wife, but the woman is bound TO her
home, and it's interests, and she must
find her content with life there, or else
miss it entirely.
knowing, then, how much greater
risks her daughter runs in marriage than
her son.. why does a woman drive her
girls TO marry, and her boys to stay
single?
The old answer used to be that matri-
mony was matter of money so far as
girls were concerned Parents wished to
shift their expense on husbands, and
inveigle some men into supporting them.
| This argument has no force now. In
practically every family in these days,
where a daughters meal ticket and
clothes cut any figure, the girl is self
supporting by the time she is old enough
to marry. She not only is not financial
drain on the family purse, but she con-
tributes TO it far more literally than
| does her brother
Another reason given for mothers
desiring their daughters to marry, but
not their sons, is voiced in <he old saw
that says My sons my son till he gets
him wife, but my daughters my
daughter all her of life"
Undoubtedly this is true to large
extent. Women seldom 60 their
husbands families Men nearly always
60 to their wives families. 1t is the
| daughters who care for the old parents,
and more men are supporting their in
laws than are taking care OF their own
fathers and mothers
But / think that the reasons mothers
feel so differently about their sons and
daughters marriage Is because nc
woman ever quite loves her daughter as
she does her son. Between mother and
daughter is the repulsion of the same
sex. Between mother and son is the at
traction of difference in sex. Mothers
and daughters clash because their in.
terests and occupations are the same
Mothers and sons live in harmony be.
cause their lives flow in separate chan.
nels Besides, mother understand:
that the love her daughter gives hus
band is not the love she gives her mother
but no woman can comprehend that he,
Y son gives his wife q different affection
from that he 'bestows upon his mother
Thus it is that mothers are consumed
with frantic and futile jealousy whel
they sec the man child they have borne
| and worshipped putting another woman
J before them in their hearts.
The chief reason, however, why womel
are eager TO marry off their daughters
II because they are still bound by the ol,
. superstitution that girl is somehow
safe and sheltered from the storms O
life when she gets married. Much evi
/ dence to the contrary does not seem +
shake this childlike faith in matrimony
, though probably not two weddings in
) hundred end like the fairy tale "anC
) they lived happily ever after"
4 Possibly mothers own marriage i
nothing but a bitter warning agains
the perils of the holy estate, neverthe
less she Is eager to have her girls try
on the off-chance they may happen {.
draw a prize in the lottery and not a
blank. Very often a woman offers VI
her daughter as a living sacrifice TO be
pride. She feels that there is certain
stigma to her daughter being an oil
msid-that it shows that the girl lacke
charms and attractions that other girl
possess. and so hse nags the poor cres