WOMEN WHO MUST PROPOSE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 185, 23 June 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

WOMEN WHO MUST PROPOSE.

AX AITKIi-THK-WAi: MARRIAGE PROBLEM. By MISSG. IVY SANDERS. Many a maimed and crippled hero who comes hack from the war will he too diffident to aisk a woman to marry linn. Should she take the initiative* nto her own hands' "Thousands of coward* "ill return ironi the war !" "Coward-1" 1 said in astonishment. My uncle nettled himself comfortably in his armchair, ns though entrenching hunsell against a fusillade ot contradictions. "Yes, cowards, my dear little girl."' he said, "and among them will he V.C.s. D.S.O.s, I).C.M.s " "How can they he cowards''*' 1 ar-k----ed. •'Becau.se, though outwardly they may ho heroes, to their own hearts they will he traitors. They may have faced death nobly in the trenches, hut their wounds and disfigurements will rob them of the moral courage to ask the girl they love to share their lives. Shot and shell they will face unflinchingly, but they will not dare to offer their shattered hopes ami crippled bodies to the girl they would make their wife—and so, it is you women who will have to 'propose' in future.'' "No, never," I protested. "Oh, yes, you will," was the quiet reply, "and you will b.> proud to. After patient, weary months of waiting, of gallant battling here at home, while your sweethearts have been lighting, do you mean to say yon will let these rdip out of your lives for lack of a little courage!'" "Not for lack of courage," 1 corrected. "It's just the idea of the thing." "Idea! What nonsense! That absurd fallacy of mistaken modesty has been exploded by the stern realities of warfare and struggle. The shrinking, timid, weeping woman of the Early Victorian days might have hesitated, but not the woman of to-day, for she knows what life and loneliness can mean, and she will not let the happiness of both slip by." "Perhaps there's something in that," I agreed.

"There is no perhaps about it,'' lie asserted. "It will lie the woman who will 'propose' in future, for she will understand the hesitation of her lover, and, very Ir.ghtly and sensibly, take if 10 initiative into her own hands. She wil be proud of his honoured wounds, !iis new weakness will appeal to her even more than his erstwhile strength isn't that s o? " "To a great extent," I agreed, "for evcrv woman is at heart a mother first**"'

"Exactly! And most men have two mothers. Indeed, it is difficult for us nun to realise which we need most in our wive.—the mother love or the sweetheart's—and," he continued, "in many eases it will be the tender care of the former that hi'; suffering and infirmities will need. And surely you women, in your glorious, newfound independence, will experience no diffidence —or show no reluctance in offering it to him?'' "No, not reluctance," I explained; ''but—how can a woman propose?" "And why not? Sure'y the old, stupid conventions will have been swept away: proudly put aside. To-day a woman can meet a man on an ocpial footing." FETTERS OF CONVENTION. "Certainly," I said, "the knowledge of the security of our position in the world of woii; will effectually break down the barriers that have hitherto existed "

"They are already trampled underfoot," he assured mo, "and you should welcome the new conditions gladly, foi it means that to-day you can marry for love, not for a home, as so many a woman has been forced to do under the old regime." "That js true," I acknowledged: "but it- will need a great amount of pluck for a woman to ask a man to marry nor. all the same."

"You've'proved the existence of the pluck all right, and believe me, dear," he said, "we men are all cowards when it comes to proposing. Hundreds of lives must have been ruined for want of a little courage to press what might have proved a successful suit. " Yea, a new happiness will assuredly emanate from the right that Fate is granting you women to choose your own nunc. Take advantage of the opportunity. The fetters of convention that nave chained down the happiness of countless lives have been broken at last. An op?n field of wider possibilities lies before you—and welcome freedom of thought and action. Mind von don't let the chance slip bv! " And somehow. T am inclined to think he mav be right. 0. IVY SANDERS.