Show MATCHMAKING A FAILURE iJ i j J Advice to Mothers of IKTarriageable I Daughters and Spinsters I The wedding was over As the well dressed mob poured through the high arched doors the last strains of Lohen grins nuntial chorus echoing in their ears she turned to her companion ando and-o sered No it certainly does not pay Not pay he exclaimed why the groom has an incom of 530000 a year I from 3 per cent interest in real estate My dear girl what are you talking I about j 0 That isnt what I mean the woman I L continued looking thoughtfully down the street I was thinking of all the I mothers and daughters with soiv hearts I and pocketed pride in that is mlIy The man has been a notable parti for II to dozen years and the Iies of as many seasons have tried in ain for this P position little Miss Noboay iit so I dowdily before th altar this movn ig I I tell yea my ireni rn lch aaktng is i a failure I Nonsense returned her escort i every winter scores of them are fixed i up successfully in society I Occasionally yes when titles and fortunes are big enough to silence personal per-sonal inclinations but 1 am talking of every day folks like ourselves They may be made in heaven but there is no use of any earthly agency trying to arrange them And of all futile schemes we women are prone to lend ourselves to the very idlest is that of attempting to marry men and women to each other through outside Influences Influ-ences Humar beings absolutely refuse to mate according to either precept or example and when it comes to matrimony matri-mony both lightning and qulcksijver are more reliable factorsare more re f liable than men 1 mean Ninety percent j per-cent of my sex have little or nothing to do with choosing husbands If it I were possible to get way down to the j I ultimate truth underlying the unions of j most people you would find each wom Ian I-an confessing He asked me and I did j wed j wedStop Isvt that an exaggerated i statement of the case Why not say what you mean she replied It strikes you as both coarse and false to say its you are mistaken j J even the newest woman has failed to j change the v ld order that commanded women to wait and told men to woo Nor does all the manly chivalry protestations protes-tations and pleadings on one side with i the coquetry and pretty hesitations on j the other change the fundamental facts The truth is not always agreeable just at first but in the long run it pays to follow it For example suppose all the solicitous mothers with daughters to marry and lowspirited women verging verg-ing on spinsterhood could be made to I realize that trying had nothing to do with the case They would be saved such a vast deal of useless labor and anxiety What do you mean That is all a matter of luck and you women are absolutely I ab-solutely passive agents I Precisely Our line of action is unmistakably I un-mistakably defined To go on calmly and cheerfully hoping for the best I For bj the way all that silly stuff talked about our not wanting to marry is the veriest cant When a woman is I a line normal specimen of her kind she regards a successful marriage as the I highest estate to which it is possible for I nor to be called There is plenty of good I i work to do and many noble sentiments to cherish while waiting but as for putting forth any active energy in attempting I at-tempting to marry according to our particular inclinations it is sheer waste j of force It is permitted us to love and i look and long but unless my lord the I man holds out the scepter like Esther j I U o kneel patiently in the distance and I await his pleasure And a singular phase of conditions is that neither I beauty virtue ardor propinquity nor our own desires guarantee an approach Ito I-to the throne There was a case in point this morning morn-ing the speaker continued Potentially Poten-tially the bridegroom has had hundreds I of wives offered him has loved scores of times no doubt and just as we settled down to the conviction of his I confirmed bachelorhood he meets by accident an insignificant impecunious plainfaced country girl and promptly offers her his heart and hand How I much had she to do with it do you suppose She had no mother to scheme for her no means of setting forth her I attractions and was contentedly buried in that rural village when lo Mr I Nabob sees and instantly desires her i above all womankind The look of I pleased surprise has not faded from I i her face yet With such daily illustrations i illus-trations of masculine caprice under i 1 their eyes I fail to understand shy I mammas with marriageable daughters concern themselves so vainly Think I 1 for a minute over the women of jour acquaintance recall how many good looking clever pleasing girls you have j seen drift into spinsterhood women of I i charm who have enjoyed wide opportunities j oppor-tunities and moreover women who unquestionably would have wedded had i they received suitable offers Then on the other hand contemplate the umbers um-bers of plain uninteresting females who have been enthusiastically sought I In marriage I Thats true the man conceded with I evident reluctance i I I I Let me tell you of a tiresome ac j i tually a homely girl I once knew who i parted from a New York acquaintance I i a goodlooking fellow who had heen passingly civil to her but nothing i more For ten years she lived as resi I i dent governess in a fashionable Chicago I Chi-cago boarding school hearing only indirectly I in-directly from her eastern friend Imagine Im-agine the governess astonishment last winter to be ushered into the drawing I room to see a gentleman whose very name she failed to recall He was the New Yorker who had hunted her up and three days later he asked her to become his wife Since their marriage he has confessed that while he had fancied and admired numbers of women wom-en she alone was associated in his mind with the thought of a wife and the consummation of their union was merely realizing a purpose he had cherished unswervingly through ten long years All of which goes to prove that the maiden may be immured In a tower as high as St Pauls steeple with never an opening through which to show her face yet if the prince wants her he will escape unscathed through a garden of girls to find the one particular par-ticular object of his devotion You cant drive or wheedle or bribe the average man into marriage He is impelled im-pelled by an instinct he does not in the least understand himself an impulse im-pulse that urges him to pass over the good and lovely Marys Marthas and I Hannahs of his acquaintance or vice versa The matrimonial market is a whimsical whim-sical mart where few of the ordinary rules of trade seem to obtain Crying up ones wares dressing ones stall and setting forth the goods attractively seldom hastens business The shy or eager buyers who pass by have no notion themselves what they have come to seek until their eye lights on the object After that no reason prudence pru-dence or arguments prevail The wise merchant is one who sits placidly in the sun gets all the joy out of life while results are maturing un you may laugn as mucn as you like the woman concluded but there is a vast deal of comfort in this aspect as-pect of the question Dont you see that if there is a prince in the world for me or for my sister or my cousin or my aunt he will find us just as inevitably evitably as will death or taxes and I there is the consolation of knowing I that no amount of scheming on the part of the other women can keep him away Nor when he comes will he care a button whether I am a princess or a dairymaid whether my clothes are fashionable my cheeks wrinkled or my color fresh If he is in the world at ail he belongs to me alone irrespective of circumstances and if he is not there Avell then what goodwill good-will it do me to braid my hair and sit by the roadside calling One way I keep a light heart and high hopes the other is a torment and a vexation to the spirit MARY ANNE |