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Show I Why Old Maids Are Largely a Matter of flHBMf wt j Geography and There's Little Excuse for B "Mf J Being 0 states with the greatest relative - "''' V) t ' i ' number of bachelors; striped area V - -p i ' the states next in respect; area marked y o A J Up by dashes the states third in rank in relative tJ t "'-W I number of bachelors, and dotted area the states w. '.-t? V 1 if j that have relatively the fewest bachelors V' i. ' ?f FIGURES newly put together by the Census Office at Washington show that in the United States marriage is largely a matter of geography. geogra-phy. If a young woman fails to capture a husband it is because she lives in the wrong place, - There are plenty of men to go round In the total population of the United States there are 106 males for every 100 females. This is partly due to immigration, immigra-tion, which fetches across the ocean more men than women. But among the native-born there are more than 103 males for 100 females. There arc in this country 12,967,505 unmarried men and only 1 ''.'"J i.r-married i.r-married women fifteen years of age and upward, that is to say. .Many persons per-sons of both sexes are married at fifteen. fif-teen. This leaves an overplus of bachelors bache-lors of 360,663 In other words, for every five spinsters 1 , V there are more than six bachelors. Sure ly, then, there ought not to be so many old maids Unfortunately, the great accumulations of bachelors, so to speak, aro In the Tar 1 West. Thus, Idaho has nearly three bachelors to every spinster; Arizona has three and a fraction; Wyoming has nearly near-ly five and Nevada more than six. In Nevada fewer than half of the men arc married in exact figures, 46 per cent. In Wyoming seven in ten of all female persons fifteen years of age and older are married. In Massachusetts only five' in ten have acquired mab Thus it is manifest that a woman who is anxious to get a husband should go to one of those states where women are relatively so scarce and correspondingly so much in demand that it is hardly possible pos-sible to remain an old maid for any considerable con-siderable length of time. With the aid of census reports newly published one may even pick out a city where available husbands are most plcn-t- ttfuL Thus San Francisco has 45,408 more bachelors than maidens Los An- Vc geles has an overplus of 19,999 unmar ried men and Portlands Ore., has 11,737 to spare. Seattle haft nearly twice as flsAchelorn ajssstcrs 52,453 of the forirf &T?a 1 75 of tkiawef"." " There is no bijj city in this country that has not an overplus of bachelors. But relatively to population, it is in the East very much less than in cities of the Far West. Thus Philadelphia has 30,135 mor bachelors than spinsters. The overplus of unattached males in Baltimore is 11,-266. 11,-266. In Pittsburgh it 13 12,285. In New York it is 92,250. In New Orleans it l: 10,021. In Chicago it is 87,244. Ever Boston has 5,339 more bachelors thar maidens. There is no state in New England ir which there are not more unmarried mci than unmarried women, though in tha section of ihe country the numerical dif ference is very small. Massachusetts i the banner state for spinsters, the bache lors outnumbering them only by a frac tion of 1 per cent. Next in this respec comes Rhode Island. In the Far Western states there ar jfe about 129 males in the total populatio: for every 100 females. There are no enough women to go round. Great nunj mfk hers of young bachelors go out West an BnifflraB Warn 1 1 stay there. Most of them want to JHflP"' i : many sooner or later, and t!vy ioj afford a field of con- j jugal opportunity v. fm which ought not to jt ' iK be neglected. ' ' rK Young women now- J I : I rural 1 . -1. r i r s 1 .' lHl do. -I:-, a l !.!.. led ' VLB ' 1 i - . i . j ... i ' . i . . '.-.. 1 1 -' - -. :.i3 1 1 ties of the cities. But " ' --.T'" .-J f iuH g.;in .hi fry v : ,.s'' . ''fk.l-;y raH van t ace they s-acri- r ' '"tew ll le to et' lit v - : 'i - 'h, .H their chances of mar- 5Pe3- jjgm riage. For in rural emmtf 'wl communities all the "J '' ' x men marry, and they J marry young. In 'if w5 ' cities they marry f M t -J later, and many do . , , , . jH no, m.rry at all A " , Mis. Mar.cn Jfawtarftf, one of the meat beautitd sludH girl's best chance of ' m . the University of W.sccr,:. -! and a merrier of tr.c senior JH , , l!u L, ;i ,,., which recency voice! amhilion ihe mcsl ccs.rallc quality. in a village or farm- . a hus'jid, vitn intellect next and o ... taird W ing district; her next best chance is in a ': small town. Eleven girls in fcaJi'-'' every 100 are married before they TBta celebrate their nineteenth birthday. birth-day. The most important matrimonial matrimo-nial period is from nineteen to twenty-four Between those ages (inclusive) (in-clusive) thirty-nine women in every 100 acquire husbands. Of the remainder twenty-five are mated between twenty-five twenty-five and tweny-nine years of age which is another way of saying that one woman wom-an in every four secure a life partner between those ages. Nine in every 100 marry between thirty and thirty-five years of age. Five marry between thirty-five and forty-four years Two marry between forty-five and fifty-four years. One marries later. There are many more old maids to-day than in an previous generation. That goes very well as a general statement, but what is an old maid? At what ago does a female person cease to be merely 'jfiamstl and become an old maid? A century a'gvJMiJ.n who naj r. a.-jKrho ' mature age of eighteen was regarded as 1 in danger of being "left on the shelf." Nowadays it is different. One reason for the alarming increase 5 in the number of old maids doubtless it i3 the main reason lies in the growing grow-ing disinclination of men to marry. t Men nowadays are afraid to get mar- ried for economic reasons. Girls expect i too much. Commonly they are in the i habit of spending a lot of money on themselves for clothes, cosmetics, and l goodness knows what else! The man i who would like to settle down and raise t a family is appalled by the expenses in prospect. He figures them out and dc-s dc-s cides to stay single at least for a while. On the other hand, suppose the girl is earning $8D or $100 a month as a typist t or in some other commercial employment. employ-ment. Perhaps she lives at home and e can spend all that money on dress and n pleasure. Not without reluctance will t she give that up to marry a man of mod-i- est income who can give her only a little d pocket money and become (as she is apt i ill Mrs. Robert Graves, a recent charming charm-ing divorcee. Statistics show that the increasing number of divorced women lessens the spinsters' spin-sters' chances for matrimony to put the matter to herself) a household house-hold drudge. These aro some of the reason.- . iy T many girls nowadays, we marrying middle-aged merj, T7l.e latter are middle-aged middle-aged beTujse thcy have delayed mar-' mar-' riaco Tlie o-irla nrefer them because . o i they have more to offer in the way of substantial comfort, economic security and other advantages. Notwithstanding what has been said above, it i.i a curious and interesting fact to which the Census Office calls attention at-tention that during the last few years (owing largely to the war, which precipitated pre-cipitated SO many matings) marriages of young people have been much more numerous than in the preceding decade. As compared with 1910, Uie number of married men eighteen years old increased in-creased from 1.4 per cent of the total male population to 2.7 per cent in 1920. The number nineteen years old increased during the same period from 3.S per cent to 6,5 pci cent; the number twenty years old from 8.6 per cent to 12.5 per cc nt and the number twenty-one years old from 16. 2 per cent to 21 per cent. During the same ten years the number num-ber of married women sixteen years old increased from 3.7 per cent of the total female population to 4.2 per cent; the number seventeen years old from 8.7 I l I Mm Anne Morgan, perhaps the best J known American J spinster i per cent to 9.8 per cent; the number eighteen years old from 17 per cejt to 19.2 per cent and the numbef !,"al0'" years . old from 25.7 pe. cent id 28.6 per cent. i jn Of 100 average women . in this country fifty are married before they reach I twenty-five years Of age. y At fcwenty-nvo years of age only twenty-three men are married. At thirty years of age scventj-iivc women ar.d fifty-six men are married. The men, you see, marry later than the women. That has always been the case, but the tendency has markedly increased. Men nowadays commonly postpone marriage until they have reached middle age and an increasing number never marry at all. If this tendency continues to increase, as it bids fair to do, the prospect of a steady gain in the number of old maids S3 time goes on seems rther appalling. In the total population of tho United States thirty in 'every 100 females fifteen fif-teen years old or older are single. Thirty-nine in every 100 males fifteen years old or older are unmarried. The University of Wisconsin is a coeducational co-educational institution whose undergraduate undergrad-uate body includes more than 1,500 young women. Recently the girls of the graduating class recorded by vote the qualities ar.d attributes attri-butes which as individuals they regarded as most desirable de-sirable in a husband. - Ambition won first place. Intellect, Intel-lect, in the voting, came next; then character; and, fourth, a "nice disposition." dis-position." Good looks, in the girls' view, were of relatively rela-tively small imj)oT r tance. )' eluerly and gr ly-headel official of the Census Office who for more than ,-y thirty years has made a study of figures having to do with "con-P "con-P jugal relations" estimates that after twenty-five years of age the average woman's wom-an's chance of getting a hus- band is about one in two. Ten average women of twenty-five to twenty-nine will receive five offers of marriage for every eight bestowed upon girls of nineteen to twenty-four, Hence it is worth while to wait for the "right man" to come along. A girl in her twentieth year or a bit beyond can afford to wait a while. She (the average girl of that age) has had at least one offer, has experienced one attack at-tack of tho mating fever commonly called "love" and has recovered from that disorder of tho nervous system. Inferences drawn from tho Census figures fig-ures show that in New England one girP in eleven becomes engaged at nineteen or earlier. In the Southern states one girl in five has secured, before reaching twenty, the man she is destined to marry Where it is a question of sex allurement, allure-ment, widows are proverbially dangerous. danger-ous. Not without reason did the elder Mr. Wellcr adjure his son Sam to beware be-ware of them. Perhaps it is because of their experience in marriage that they y-four aro the cir .-ipiottH i i r mUCjH ofti n than spin of any nV In effect, v. ' s?cH.' is most unfair, ir.n. mue-i as dldH. ' "kJ draws from -. arketHi. who mighi ' t,e of tho maidens Willi husbnndlJBf ' to e-t. sureiv wj onrin is entiling , 3 or three. It is hardly necessary to say divorced woman is quite as dangerB a widow. Possibly more so. Thttjj now in this countr 2 73,304 'B women, and it is safe to ?:;V out of ten of thcni '-jntiBB "ersatz" husbands. Very many PJ j indeed, have obtained decrees Hj other object in view. JH When a damsel has matnrnoM . view, she will do I! to keep htflM.1 the Widowers Th- ; f.rc the ing men, ami n-virl;. ",vn: s f "ey .jj maidens. I-or . n. anelPjj they em i.. I.. i:y f v;i IoW,J of course now and then they jj.l, them. The clmm-e ,.f n wld0-l marrying is al.'.ay ereatcr thtH a bachelor's marrying. 9 To say a final word, a girrj1 1 of getting a husband is alwJM better in a illnge or small t0MrJ a ii. a i I ' JjJ of acquiring a home and a t""1'. better stay there Where sect'M.-a country are concerned, her pnw J least good in the Eastern Stat;3 ciallv in New Kn-iar. 1. The,J-2 westward she goes, tin- better For the Far Ve,t i- a rcgif-n ln dant unmarried men, -rhere nJ?VJ cially in Wyoming. Idaho and m women are relatively scarce. Young woman, go West. . suitable advice to persons oi m who are worried lest tho evi maidenhood befall them. TM of the Census, plain for points to that direction. |