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Show Dorothy Dix Talks j WHY SOME WOMEN DONT MARRY j By DOROTHY DIX, the World 's Highest Paid Woman Writer. j A man is greatly disturbed because hn ihinks he observes thai women are developing a tendency towards celibacy. He says thai nowadays girls don't look forward to marriage as the crowning glory. 01 their lhes. and he considers this attitude toward the holy estate most unfeminiuo and decadent. de-cadent. Also he desires to know why this is thus Undoubtedly girls are less anxious to marry in these present times ihan their mothers were in former days. although there still appears 10 be no f difficulty in persuading any maiden to make the journey to the altar when i he right man comes along and under- takes to do It But, generally speaking, my corres pondent is right when he says that the weddinc ring has lost most of it? glit- ter in the eyes of the average young woman, and that if she could have t her choice between a wife and mother I or a movie star, or a popular actress, or the head buyer for the cloak and suit department, with a trip to Paris every year, she would pass up the domestic role in favor of the part wilh the spotlight on u. There are many reasons why marriage mar-riage la not now the goal of every woman's ambition, and the acquiring of a husband the chief object of her life, as it used to be. The principal' one is the obvious one, that in grandmother's grand-mother's lime there was not anything lor a girl to do except to get married, mar-ried, and there was no place in tro-sun tro-sun for a female except for married women. .Matrimony was the only gainful occupation oc-cupation open to a perfect lady, and her marriage certificate, her only card of admission to any interesting way of living. A spinster, no matter how j wealthy, could not have her own home. No matter how intelligent, she was I not permitted to follow her own in-clinations, in-clinations, nor have her own opinio opin-io tons. No matter how old Bhe could f not receive her own friends alone nor f go about unattended She was doom -f ed to be a debutante at sixty, and al- ways the fringe on somebody else's H family. As for making a living, every job I lo which she could aspire was so menial and ill paid that it is no won-i won-i der that poor, dear grandma concluded that the easiest work she could do r was working a man. Modern condition having relieved cirls of the necessity of marrying for a meal ticket, they no longer do it. The average woman can support her- self quite as well as the man she is likelv to marry b able to'do. Furthermore, Fur-thermore, 6he can do it by working in a nice, clean office or store, where interesting things are happening In stead of toiling over a cook stove and wash tubs in a dull two-by-four kitch n Also while she makes her own inone .he enjoys the pleasures of Financial independence, which is one of the most satisfying emotions that ever swell the human breast. When a capable business girl, who has worked her way up to a good job and who sees bigger prospects ahead of her, thinks of marriage it is not In terms of triumph, but in terms of sacrifice. She is willing to make it if she loves a man enough, but she hates to give up her liberty aud her indi vidual pocket book And, naturally, it makes her choosey, choos-ey, and she Isn't going to throw away a hundred and fifty dollar job for a forty dollar man, or take unything in trousers that conies along for the lake of being married, as grandma did Another reason why girls are loath to marry is that they sec too manv husbands who are awful examples of what she is likely to get if she does marry. She sees that very often the perfect lover turns after marriage into I the perfect brute. She remembers how I she used to be envious of Mamie be-! be-! cause Mamie was engaged to a voting !man who was a modern Romeo Such ! devotion! Such delicate consideration for her"! Such tender protection of iher' Such romantic little attentions! Well, when she goes to see Mamie nowadays, she is called on to mingle I her tears with those of a neglected wife, whose husband considers home la place to come to when other places shut up, and who grumbles and grouches around the house, and kicks ' the cat, and scolds the baby, and tells his wife to shut up, and doesn't know I what she is talking about. And she sees that there is no pos -jsible way of telling before hand whe-' whe-' ther B man is going to be a tightwad i husband or not. She used to envy Jenny, loo, before Jennv got married for all the lovely presents, and the I good times that Jenny's fiance show-j show-j ered upon her. But ten years after marriage Jenny is still paying back 'every cent that her sweetheart spent ion her in his courting days. And With interest. And she has seen Jenny have heart failure on the first of the i month when the bills come in, and lit didn't seem to her tnat anything on I . . i l I ) i rAlilrl T i - K.-" f am Kf-.tnrv t V. . . t iiu in v-uuiu t'nJ 1 i yji i- uid i much afraid of a man, or for being bullied by him. Of course she knows that there are good husbands as well as bad and that the women that get the good husbands are blessed among their sex, but it seems to her that getting a good husband hus-band is just about as much of a venture ven-ture as playing a hundred to one shot on a race. If she has sporting blood she makes the gamble and gets married. If she is a piker, she plays safe and Btays single. And thai is why some girls don't I marry. |