HOW TO FIND A HUSBAND

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 10, 7 October 1919, Page 2

HOW TO FIND A HUSBAND

WORK, THE NEW KEY TO MAR. . RIAGE, Tho recent discussion in the "Daily Bxpress," in the course of which a lady of 35 stated that, being an only daughter, she had never had a chance to get married, never hiving had live minutes conversation with any man, gives one furiously to think, writes Mr. S. Desmond. To a man like'myself, who has been out •of England for some years, this comes as 'something of a shock, for tho reason . .that of all the after-the-war,. phenomena, that, of the progress of tho Englishwoman is. the most-striking. Sucli a statement .'as the above before the war' would not have been so extraordinary. Today it is unthinkable. It would not have been made in any other country. Freedom •of ass'oeiation botween the .sexes, has been a blessed result of tho war. '.Nothing has led so much to tho breaking down of sex barriers as the European conflagration, because it lias thrown thousands of men and women into ' daily comradeship, and has unleashed all thdSe "splendid potentialities' of 'the middle-class Englishwoman -which tradition has enchained. It has taught■her f other professions than, that of- marriage. , iVIiRS. taught her'the dignity of work, j In tlie course of the discussion, the accusation of "gilded butterflies" was fre- i {(liently. brought against the after-the-war ■Englishwoman. , It was asserted that the •frofhy "made-up" girl- was the girl whom men found attractive for a wife, whereas the solid, reliable girl had to see her best years eaten away while slip looked on until final sheif-relegation-r-that inelegant pre-war expression. I' bolievo * this accusation .to be . without foundation. ■Tho English girl of to-day is no gilded butterfly. Instead, she has learned responsibility, independence (the independence which sometimes.causes her, politely, to refuse a Seat in a tramear from V male), and, above all,'that something which she lacked—naturalness. ' The' girl who punches your tram ticket is usually-a model of responsibility, who does not flirt'.with, her passengers, and who holds her own with quiet dignity. The'girl who drives the male m the high-powered motor-car has most unfemimno nerves in crowded traffic. Ihe girl in the shop is of a new breed-she lias'an nit Of decent responsibility, which makes tho heart of nny clean mail go out to her." It is tho "silly; typo of girl that is disappearing. She is an. ever-in-creasing disadvantage against tho background of that ordered work of tho afterthe'war girl.' I caanbt woman of <15 or others how to find a husband. But I would venture to say that the w<jmen todav who get married are tho women, who work, for.tfork' brings them int(f contact, with the other sex. In other countries, wlicro the middle-class woman-lias .always had some outside work, as in Denmark, ,it is curiou6 to see .how proud. it makes them; how much later in life they marry, and how much rnoro they are valued by their husbands in that they can work. *; An so I would say to the yonng lng- : lishwoman of "Go on as you have . befun—bo natural—and •• • • work-' Should you not find a husband, you will always have your work upon which to fall back.