Marriageable Girls

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 73, 6 December 1890, Page 4

Marriageable Girls

.JTherais a feeling abroad th&t many .-, -women can? t. get i niamed ; uud [this feeling,: bolstered up by erronjeous ... statistics: andrmisundesstMo.d factsj has greatly induced Uromen , to * erect jinto ■ah ideaLfor ail « hat. is really >; last ' *es6Vt'for a siuall f&ctidu o^tjieir body .'-— g'elfj Support ''in u coin petition with inen. l ßiff- areth^re ndt 700',000 niore vp'6uien ! thl.'u H, m6n • in ' the*' Uijited iKiiigdbih ?•'■ ; - &hd ' ' iriust ; not these 700 000 be enabled to earn their ;own s living ?noThatr [is ther one^ solid if act ' which the!,; Vad va.uced" women -are alwaya- flinging at our . heid.S.J j and . that is pne, ? fallaciouß bit of statiteties "which -seemed at first sight to jgive ■ B.o'me:-;c.okiir/. of.reasonableuoss. to! the arguments in favor of the defemini- ' -aation of * frotiien. 'A " ' i As a iuntlfe'r bf fact the statistics are •not true-A' ''Jftere; are uot!7t)o,ooQ more : women r than 7 men, r but 700,000 more f emaieß^t t*han , ivaleS in "the United .Kingdom, ™ /The "people who ; say 41 seven' hundred thousand^ ! wou>en " picture to ..themselves ' that va'st pod v --of*' marriageable girls, massed in a ihollow Biiuare, aud looking about /them in vain across wide leagues of -country, :for ..non existent, husbands But figures aTe things that jai ways re -squire to be explained, and, above all TtQ.be regard eddin .their true proporTtions to one another. .These 700J000 include, .infants, in arms, /lunatics, sisters of charity, unfortunand ladies, of eighty. A large .^part of the excess is due to the longevity pf women '; and the ■ number comprises the great mass of widbws; wiYo 1 have' once r iu r their lives possessed: '-■ a -Jhusbaud •of their own," '-'and haVe 6uUiV6d him, partly because they are, as '■■ a* «rule; younger, iand partly by dint of^their strongericon--Btitutions~Mpreover, this total | disparity of fo6',QOO, bajbies, /lunatics, an d* 'widow's; is i, disparity on a gross pppuiati6n of sbmething more tlian 35,0'60,'db6'. ALo6king "figures straight in the face, we' find the actual proportion of the sexes to . ;be as 172 males to 17.9; iemhles.. Speaking very roughly, this makes about four males in every hundred, including babies, widows, and so . df orth, who haven't a complementary male found Tfor them. This" in itself is surely no'very terrible disproportion. It doesn't more, than cover the r relative number of women whd are : naturally debarred fromi marriage, or who under no circumstances would submit to be marrieai Out of -^very hundred 'women,* roughly "epeaking; /ninety- six have r husbands '■■ provided- ioi tbem -'fty^&a.tjrirej and -only four need- go into a nunneW or t take toy teaching the higher mathematics. And if the marriageable ineri and women only are reckoned in .^the aCcqiinti; bqT f ar^ I[ can gather frorn^ existing statistics, the dippro- : Tiortion to a quite insignificant . fraction. ' N'-vertheAw, itis a fact, that both ip ; JSiglaud aiiftl America the inarriage- ■ able men of the middle and tapper -classes aVe not t«) the fore, and that," .Aicordingiy'in'tbesH classes— the dis•«ussmg,:":tHibkirig, a.^itnting cU^es — '•an und,ue of .womeii remains unmarried. The causes or this -cljiss'idisparity are hot'far to seek. In - fiie ' young man has 'gone sVest. In - " "England he is in the ■ariftyj : in fhe havyi' in^the Indian Civil i tier vide, in the r Cape Mounted Hides. He is sheep fanning in. New - .Zealand, iu Colorado, gn>w"^ihg fea nfAKSJarii; plantihg coffee iu Ceylon Suhe is a. cowboy in Montana, or ,a v^hi^at . T farner in Maniioba 1 , or a .diamUird digger at Kifiiberley,: or a .-nidrennAit-'at-MeibourW ; ; in' short, he is anywhere, aud everywhere except xyhere he., should be, making lbve to pretty jjirls iii England. ■=— *'graut;Allen in Iho ' tJn iveri-alTße view.'