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Show MARRIAGE AS A HELP OR A HINDRANCE. .: By DOROTHY D1X. The World's Highest Paid Woman Writer fWiW" " " - is It selfish for a woman who loves I ifoor young man to marry him? i This is a very interesting problem Hat 13 discussed in a brilliant new , fhj In this play the young woman is In love with a young scientist who lis Just begun to climb the ladder of rccces. and who Is on the threshhold ! ci achieving fame and fortune for him- : and of doing great good to hu-5 hu-5 , waity. He needs every cent of his i i tsaJl salary for books, Instruments, . stsdy and travel. These he cannot have if what he I inns has to go to support a family, il the girl feels that she loves him . too well to permit him to sacrifice his art?: by marrying her. The play settles set-tles the question, as It is not settled b real life, by a philanthropist com-k; com-k; along and giving the young couple plenty of money to marry on, so that they can have their cake and eat it, too. i The dramatist has touched upon one ; c! the most vital and perplexing ques-j ques-j tiona of our day. and one that Is 1' tnnbling thousands of intelligent, edu-; edu-; cated, thinking young people. They are 11 h ldre. They want to marry, but they ) ue poor and ambitious, and even when tie man Is willing to offer up his as-tlratlons as-tlratlons on tho altar of domesticity, lie vroman hesitates to let him make . V lis sacrifice. 'J Both have seen so much genius J Jiothered under butcher's, baker's ) d grocery bills. Both have seen the wor of opportunity shut so often in : U face of a shabby coat and broken t-33. Both have seen the man who ; cold have climbed held down to the (irth by the weight of the wife and ; feck of children on his back. There was A with his wonderful fits as a surgeon who might have ptt to tho top of his profession if l had stayed single. But he married, ft ue had to go and live in a shabby ij Wghhorhood and take any kind of a ! practice in order that his fam- v night be supported. He had nelth-i nelth-i time nor money to tako special w3, or to go among the people ; o could push his fortune. His mar-j mar-j a?e doomed him to obscurltv and j JOTerty j j thcre's B who was alreadv gain - 1 vf,:epulaUon as a novelist of unusual 1 s, and cnarm. The cities were I frying great th,ngB for h.m But Mot named, and with a wife to sup-I sup-I EL ?ould not rlk the uncertain 2. 0t n110 AVh0 had 10 ait on in- bls p" So ho was forced to harness ' ai a SU? 10 family dinner cart, t ui v tever uack work would X? The necessity of feed-1 feed-1 to diTh children of hla body starved 1 h Si t chlldren of his brain, and : UtowoaWi- have ccn sreat, sunk mar- !; 4ViCrk ? 5t001- Yet when C was 1 tlrt ?naiclever and energetic, and ; Q thought to have unusual promise in him. But C married while he was getting a small salary. The babies camo quick nnd fast, and expenses ex-penses piled up on him so swiftly that he has never been a lap ahead of the bill collector. He has never dared to ask for a raise in salary, look for a better situation, or make any move that would jeopardize his job because there was always the nest full of hungry hun-gry mouths to feed at home. He has 'run way behind the field in the financial finan-cial race simply because the matrimonial matri-monial handicap was too heavy for him to carry. Every young couple knows dozens of Qases like these. They know that nothing breaks a man's spirit, nothing takes the snap and ginger out of him, nothing slays ambition as does the daily fight with the wolf at tho door. Nothing takes the heart out of a man uo uuco mo mcessani nagging ot poverty. pov-erty. It tortures him with the perpetual perpet-ual fear of bills that must be paid, and leaves him no clear moment in which to give his whole thoughts to his work. After all success is a snob who smiles her sweetest on thoso who seem to need her least, and many a man Is kept from the just rewards of his talents and ability by the lack of good clothes, and the price of an admission ad-mission card into the circle where the prizes are being given out. To look a failure is to be branded a failure in a world that judges mostly by outside appearances. When a woman lakes this view of the situation, and it is. a very real and practical view that she cannot afford to overlook, it is no wonder that sho feels that a poor woman who marries a poor and ambitious man Is the most selfish being on earth, and that her love should be .great enough to sacrifico itself it-self to his good. Undoubtedly, so far as a man's material ma-terial advancement is concerned "he travels tho fastest -vho travels alone," but man is not wholly material. There is the spiritual side also, and tho loss of companionship, of sympathy, of the Inspiration of having a wife and children child-ren to work for aro also to be taken into account Marriage either makes or mars a man, and probably just as many mediocre med-iocre men have been pushed into success suc-cess by ambitious wives, as talented men have been dragged down into failure fail-ure by helpless wives. The knowledge that a wife and children would starve but for his efforts ef-forts has kept many a vacillating man nailed to his job until ho made good through sheer necessity. The grasping grasp-ing desire of some daughter of the horse leach, who wa3 always crying, more! more! more! to her husband has raised many a small business man into the millionaire class. There aro women who push thoir husbands Into the limelight as well as those who pull them out into darkness; dark-ness; there are women who boost their husbands up to success as well as those who are mill -stones about their necks; there are women whose petticoats petti-coats are always fluttering flags of victory, vic-tory, leading their husbands on to super-human effort, just as there are wives whoso skirts aro extinguishers of their husband's every aspiration. And so whether it is selfish for a poor girl to marry a poor man or not comes back, at last, to tho kind of a girl she is. If she is a poor, weak, flabby, dish-rag sort of a woman, who Is going to hang on him and suck his life blood; If sho is going to be jealous, and narrow, and selfish, and put her own claims on him above those of his career, then, indeed, she Is a monster of selfishness to marry him.' But If she is willing to sacrifice herself her-self to his career; to help, not hinder; to keep him braced up to do the best that is in him; if she has the courage to deny herself a new dress so that ho may have a now suit, and to stay at home without whining, so he may have time to study, then she may marry him with a cleav conscience. Such a wife is a blessing and not a curse to her husband. hus-band. Tho woman who has been trained to some gainful occupation never has to make this tragic choice between sacrificing sac-rificing heilove for a man by marrying marry-ing him, or sacrificing him to marriage, because she can continue her own work until such time as he is able to support a family. In a few more years every young woman will be self sup--porting. Then men and women will be free to love and marry in their youth. oo |
