Show THE BACHBLQK TAX The French government having put i tax on bachelors a census is being aken The returns from Paris are ann an-n and it learned that there are fn the city 4O COO marnagable but unmarried men Napd 330000 married men and UpOOO unmarried women As a matter of course a percentage of the bachelors n 1 maidens will yet marry but theiac that in one city there are 110COO more unmarried tban married men and nearly half a million women without husbands proves that something is radically wrou p in society Sociologists hold that a marriageable but unmarried man Is a menace to the family and a threat to good morals if this be correct Paris must not only be the deplorably immoral place it is said to b but is 9e rapidly approaching a condition where the family relation will scarcely exist and such a thing as social morality will 1r 1 be practically unknown It is certainly 1r proper for the State to take the matter in hand and legislate against bachelors when the latter become so numerous as to threaten the purity of society if not the very existence the race It might be wisdom not only to impose a heavj tax on bachelors but to bestow a monetary mone-tary reward on those who marry But all the blame in this matter does not lie with the men a fair share of it attaching to women The sex has grown so extravagant has given itself up so much to fashion and display that men are not deserving de-serving of all censure for hesitating to marry and delaying the matter until I late in life It requires double the courage on a mans part to marry today to-day that it did fifty years ago because it requires double the exertion to support sup-port a wife in the style of today that it Jjd < to maintain her half a century since Besides the girl of fifty years ago was more or less of a helpmate in a material sense doing her share towards saving and making the most of what the husband earned but such a wife is seldom found in the cities where fashion holds sway The average city wife thinks more of maintaining a degree of style a little beyond the reach of her husbands means than of helping him by economy and selfsacrifice It is not much the womens fault that they are not more helpful to their husbands Fashion and society censure and do all hey can to degrade a wife who will ignore them for the assistance of her husband When society shall be cured of its extravagance and become less exacting and woman can be fashionable and yet not above helping and saving there will be fewer bachelors fewer unmarried un-married women and more happy homes while the State will be stronger and society so-ciety safer |