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Show j Dorothy Dix Talks By DOROTHY DIX. r lie World's Highest I'aid Woman Writer i WHY MEN PONT MARRY t C'npyrlsrM, lo; by the Wheeler Syndicate. Syn-dicate. Ire i According to lh recently printed ! census report, there are 18,000,000 , bachelors In the United SUitet- Uncle Un-cle Sam views this state of affairs with alarm, and asks why so many i men should pa-ss up the Joys of domes-J domes-J ilnty, and evado their duty as good dtisens by establishing homes and J families There are many reasons why men I are not so much given to matrimony as they used to be. Doubtless the ..hlef explanation of the bumper crop of bachelors is financial. Men don't mar-i mar-i ry because they lack the price, for wedding rings have ?rne up sky high I In common with other luxuries In former times, n-? only were food I (and rent, and clothes, the actual no-j cesslties of life, much cheaper, than j they are now. but nil life was lived on : ia simpler plane People didn't dress .so well They didn't travel so much. They didn't go to so many places of amusement They didn't have, such good furniture. Children didn't have so much done for them There were! no automobiles, no movies around the' Corner No cabarets In the next block. ' A young coupl who got married ex-pected ex-pected to spend their evenings fitting i around the parlor lamp Instead of putting put-ting on their Btepplng-OUt clothes, and polng to a dance or a show. It is folly to say that wo should go back to the simple llro of cither days, and live as our parents and grandparents grandpar-ents did. It cun t be done. Those who are used to electric lights cun t read li by candln light. Those who are accustomed accus-tomed to high-powered automobiles, ' cant Journey In an ox-cart The luxuries lux-uries of the past hovo bocomo tho iih-cessllles iih-cessllles of ibo prosont. Therefore, Instead of saying to Juliet, Ju-liet, that love i enejugh, and we'll hie away to the parson, Komoo does little figuring on the back or hU pay chec k and reaches the Inevitable conclusion con-clusion that what Isn't endugfa for ono by no miracle can be enough for two, or three, or more. Ho he decides that i single blessedness In comfort la better than double wretchedness In poverty and rags, Because It takes so much money in support a family nowadays makes a ! man put ofl marriage unill h gets out of the notion of doing It at all. The early twenties, when one Is full of enthusiasm en-thusiasm and optimism, Is the time u man's thoughts turn to matrimony, It Is then that he believes th.i he hits found the one Incomparable :-ui-, without whom ilfo will bo cinder, ashes, and .u .. and nlnetynlne out of a hundred youths who Inherit money, mon-ey, tako unto themselves wives while. tney are at thai romantic nge. Let a man defer marriage ten years and he iooks upon it with a cold eye. lie has seen too many On! Women ! His heart has healed, without leaving I a sar. from too many of Cupid's I wounds. He can never recapturo t lit i Illusion of his youth, and ho begins lo .balance the advantages of bachelorhood bachelor-hood against the troubles of domesticity, domesti-city, and he Is very apt to decide to let I well enough alone. I Another reason why men don't mar-Jry mar-Jry is undoubtedly to be found In the I decline of domesticity among women. Far more men marry for a home than for any other cause. Evry man's so erot dream Is of coming home at night to a smiling, cheerful wife, who has been happy and contented pottering about in h. r kitchen, and who sits him down to a dinner f hot, home-cooked I viands. and bread and cake like mother used to make. Bui men have found out that marriage mar-riage n,,w doesn't often mean that kind of home, or that kind or food. Girls grow up with tho idea of bolng good stenographers, or good saleswomen, saleswo-men, not good cooks. Women are more lnterestedin clubs and causes than they are in their homes, and When they may have to do their own housework only too many of them rush home at the lost minute, and heat up something out of a can lhat they, set before their hungry husbands, and call it a dinner. There is nothing in living out of paper bags that lures a man to putting his neck into the matrimonial mat-rimonial noose. Still another reason why men don't marry' 1 because men and women see too much of each other. Neither sex has any illusions left reardlncr the other. No woman worships a man as a demi-god, and Instead of each praying pray-ing to be worthy of the other, if they should marry, they wonder how they can stand each other. Jn olden times, thero won little or no Poclal Intercourse between the sex-08, sex-08, nnd a man who was attracted to a stlrl had to marry her in order to enjoy en-joy the pleasure of her company, but i now. when men and women work side . i by side in business, and play together he enn get all he wants of a woman's society iron gratis for nothing, without assuming her bills. Perhaps, after all, the chief reason that men don't many 1h because women, wo-men, themselves, are not so keen about marriage us they usi-d to be, for as Mr. Bernard Shaw has conclusively pointed out. It Is Invariably the woman who puts the idea of marriage into a man's head. Certainly in tho days When every woman was obliged to I have a husband, very (,-w men ' Heaped, Heap-ed, and it 1m only now when women are coming to. regard marriage as a superfluous luxury' Instead of a neecs- islty, that there Is a closed season, so to speak for bachelors and the species I Increase. The whole public altitude toward the unmarried has changed, anyway. Kormerly old bachelors and old maids were regarded with pity, as those who had been unfortunate, and passed over in life Now they aro looked upon with envy nnd awe us those who have been too foxy to be caught, and while We may deprecate tllelr selfishness, we also reflect that theV have escaped a lot of trouble. The truth Is that both nien and women wo-men are afraid to rnarrj-, and that Is why the tribe of old bachelors and old maids gets bigger every yeur. Dorothy Dlx's urllcles appear In this newspaper ever) Monday, WOdueSdaj and Friday. |