Evening star., 1941-08-08

Secn OI marriage IN tNelr own MONIES
and the mess their friends have
made Of their marriages, all BOYS
and girls who approach the altar
on winged feet believe that their
marriage Is going to be different.
Dlsilluslons and quarrels and divorce
can never happen to them. Their
romance is going to have the story
book ending they married and
lived happily ever afterward." And
then when they find that marriage
means bills for rent and food and
clothing instead of billing and
cooling. when kissing becomes
chore instead of thrill; when they
see each other in the negligee OF
everyday manners and conduct in
stead of the dress-up batteries of
courtship: when the clash of male
and female personalities meets; in a
word, when marriage becomes work
and worry and corned beef and cab
baee and wearing last years clothes.
they just simply can't take it.
This isn't what they married for
They expected marriage to be a sort
OF perpetual petting party in which
a wife would remain always young
and beautiful and yes-yes her hus-
band while running the household
machinery so smoothly nothing ever
Jared, and conjuring delicious meals
out OF the air without money and
without effort, and in which a hus-
band spent his time telling his wife
how wonderful she was and proyid-
ing her with mink coats and such
like.
Neither envisaged a day In which
they would lead a cat-and dog ex-
lstence, fighting over tri1es and
calling each other names and saving
every insulting thing to each other
to which they could lay their
tongues. And so it Is no wonder
that when the sad time of disillu-
sion comes that they feel that thev
have geen gypped and dissolve the
partnership into which they entered
with such high hopes of success.
Another reason why 80 many mar
rlageS 90 on the rocks during what
is sardonically called the honeymoon
is because marriage is popularity re-
garded as q sporting proposition
whose outcome depends entirely on
luck, and so it is unnecessary to
use any intelligence or prudence
either before or after going into it.
Boys and girls pick out their
mates with far less thought than
they do their automobiles, and they
take less care Of them after they
get them, which goes a long way
toward explaining why by the end
of the first year they are ready to
swap in the old model for q new
streamlined one.
Another reason why the short or
der marriage is so common in our
midst is because so many boys and
girls rush into marriage before they
have the price of a wedding ring
They are not willing to wait until
they have a definite way of sup
porting family.
They marry in the fatuous belief
that love is enough, and when they
find that it isn't and that they are
just as hungry after marriage as
they were before: that good clothes
look just as good to them as they
used to, and that they crave the
pleasures they were accustomed to
just as much as they ever did, an
other marriage goes into the dis
card
And not the least of the reasons
why so many marriages last so short
a time is because parents never seem
to think it worth while to train
their children for marriage. They
spend time and money having their
children taught professions and
trades so that they may be able
to make living, but they do not
use a cent in having them taught
how to live with their wives and
husbands, vet that is the most i'm
portant thing they can possibly
know.