Evening star., 1937-10-25

TT IS announced that the new child
marriage law that has been re-
Gently passed in Tennessee, pro-
hibiting marriages of persons un-
der is years of age, has cut in half
the number of marriage licenses is
sued. Good. A few years hence 1t
will be shown that it has also stopped
about three -fourths of the divorces.
In the 40 years in which I have been
writing this column I must have re-
ceived a million letters from men and
women who were going through an
unhappy marriage. At least 95 per
cent of these miserable husbands and
wives have begun their tale of woe by
saying: II married when I was only
a boy or girl. too young and imnla-
ture to know what I was going to be
myself, or what I would want and
need in a wife or husband"
Then had followed for them the
inevitable tragedy that human devel-
opment SO often brings, of changing
tastes and ideals, and aims and aspir-
ations; of one outgrowing the other;
having to endure the loneliness and
boredom of an enforced companion
ship with one with whom they did not
have even a thought in common. And,
worst of all, meeting in their maturity
the women and men who should have
been their mates, and realizing that
with childish hands they had them
selves shut the gates that barred them
out from happiness.
TN MOST of the boy and girl mar
riages that turn out so disastrously
nobody is to blame unless it Is old
Mother Nature. She put something
into the head of one that she didn't
give the other, and SO one goes on
and the other stays put. And though
they live side by side, they are as far
auart as if an ocean rolled between
them.
The uncongenial couples who are
forever quarreling and fighting: the
heart-hungry wives who are bitter and
discontented and ,disgruntled; the
middle-aged women who are f1irtatious
and have affairs with gigolos; the
philandering husbands; the brilliant
men who are tied to stodgy little
frumps are almost invariably the VIC
tins of too early marriages. These
are the grist for the divorce mill.
When mature men and women wed
they seldom make failures of their
marriages.
1t is folly to talk about the beauty
of young love and advocate the mar
riage of adolescents ON the theory that
they will grow up together, with the
same tastes and habits and purposes.
It is a miracle when this happens and
when two callow kids have the same
mentality and develop along the same
lines. Hence the wisdom of boy and
girl waiting to pick out their mates
until they can see that they are getting
what they want, instead of taking a
chance on an immature youngster de-
veloping into their hearts desires.
X X X x
THERE are a million other reasons
- why young marriages are almost
sure to 20 on the rocks. One is that
boys and girls are not ready to settle
down. They have not had their fling.
They are still children who want to
play and dance and sing and have
good times. When they find them
selves tied down to domesticity and
cut off from all the pleasures of their
time of life, their calf love vanishes
into thin air. They want to step out
of an evening instead of sitting by the
l1earthstone. They ~ant to dance in
stead of walking the collie. 1t is only
after we have seen the show and are
tired of it that we know how blessed
place home can be and get thrill
out of the companionship of our
families.
Still anotheareason why young mar
r1arAs ara 4 fatal uoisfAkA IL that the