Evening star., 1942-05-18

; ana Jney are Trying 10 GraD IL Wnue
1t Is still In their reach. But gather
from those letters that the chief
reason that the girls are so anxious
to marry Is because somehow, in
some way, they feel that it is kind
of disgrace not to have husband.
The boys, on the contrary. are not
in such a hurry to marry. They don't
want to add the complications OF
/ family man to those of a soldier.
They don't know where they are
going, what dangers may befall
them, nor what changes new expert
ences will make in them. The only
thing they know is that when they
come back from the war they will
be new men. in a new world, who
will have to start building their lives
and fortunes up anew. And so most
of them wear themselves out in a
vain attempt to make Sally and Sue
and Gwendolyn use little common
sense and see why it is best to wait
until after the war to marry.
Now if all of these girls who are so
anxious to marry were so madly in
love with their Toms, Dicks and
Harrys that nothing mattered to
them but trying to bind their lads
to them. you could see why they are
practically ready to kionap a hus-
band If they can't get one In any
other way. But while love mo-
tivates many war marriages, It Is
the fear of being old maids that
drives thousands OF girls into mar
riages with men whom they meet
at soldiers dances and wouldn't
recognize except for their uniforms
or the old beau whom they have
tolerated only because he would take
them to parties when they had
no other date, or strangers whom
they have known only few hours
and OF whose past lives and back
grounds they are completely ig-
norant.
Yet every day we see these un-
suitable marriages taking place, and
1t makes us sick at heart to think
OF all OF the mess Of scandal and
divorce and misery there will be
when Johnny comes marching home
and Sally finds that he doesn't look
as romantic in a cheap serge suit
as he did in a nifty uniform. and
Tommy discovers that he has lost
his taste for the little fluffy-ruff1es
nitwit he married on a two days
leave when anything in skirts looked
good to him. and Mary has fallen out
Of love with an absent husband and
in love with man who was on the
spot And the whole sorry business
is complicated by little children
whose Well-being has to be sacri-
feed to their parents folly.
So II there ever was time when
marriage Of impulse should 90 into
the discard, it is now. II ever there
was time when girl should stop.
look and listen before she signed on
the dotted line of a marriage license.
1t is now. If ever there was time
when a girl should watch her step
when she marches to the altar, 1t
is now. Marriage Is always
gamble, but a war marriage has all
of the risks and dangers of the
ordinary marriage plus peculiar
hazards of its own. And for her
own sake. and her prospective hus-
bands sake. and her familys sake
a girl should consider we'll what she
is doing before she sits down to
dice with fate
Above all, she should not marry
just to be a-marrying She should
not let the apprehension OF there
being a man shortage after the war
make her so jittery that she will
marry anything in trousers rather
than run the risk of not getting
a husband at all. She should re-
member that marriage is for the
duration and that it will seem a
long, long time II she is tied to
man whom she married in hurry,
without finding out that they had
nothing in common except being
bored with each other.