WHY I SHALL NOT MARRY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 270, 7 November 1908, Page 3

WHY I SHALL NOT MARRY

BY A BUSINESS GIRL. Nowadays,, there is s o much discussion as to why young men and women arc not inclined to rush heedlessly into matrimony. The men who belong ti this class arc stigmatised as selfish, but the girls are not only called selfish, but idiotic. My friend are very fond of calling me the latter, as I have not snatched at one of the two or three chances I have had to get married.

"What will you do when you are old?" they B ay" " * ou will" be sorry then that you have been so foolish." My answer to that is: "How many ordinarily comfortably married women have any idea as to how they will live when .the days of working are over, unless a" miracle occurs to provide them with a fortune?"

At present 1 am a shorthand and typist clerk, earning 35s per week. Out of this regular wage 1 manage to save a little, live quite comfortably, and dress with some taste. My employer is very satisfied with me, and promises me a small interest in the business as time goes on, if I stay with him. I have a friend who married a man clerk earning the same wages as I do, and. in spite of the old saying, "Two can live as cheaply as one," she tc'ls me it is by no means true, From being a smart, happy-looking girl, since her marriage s he lias developed into a careworn, worried woman, although she has a good husband and she is as happy as her limited income will allow. Her life is one round of household drudgery; she work,; as hard as any charwoman, her' head as in a whirl of counting up the pence, she is airaid to j buy an extra cake for fear the money : will be needed for something else. -' Whatever should T do if -lack were ilfor lost his place—how can we save our money for a rainy clay';" These are the companion thoughts of the long day's loneliness, wfliilst Jack is away earning the meagre 355. This is the case of thousands of young "iris who have married for love. It must take a great heap of love to make the life hearable. Then, when the children come, such a little wife loses her youth right away at once and for ever. In. my office work I have to deal witii things of much interest. 1 s ce all kinds of people. Loneliness is supposed to be the lot of the unmarried woman, but it seems to me that the happily employed old maid is much less lonely than the married sister shut up nil day with her hum-drum work and dismal thoughts. At present I get' two-weeks' holiday in the year, during which I am paid my salary. I get a good, glorious holiday, which I should never have again ii I had married one of the men who ihad invited me.

No doubt, some of my readers will say, "What a hard, selfish creature," hut nowadays business life has taught me that the person who is not selfish goes to the wall before he or she is aware of it. And if girls arc selfish and want freedom and pretty clothes and an interest in life at the present age, the. men are more so.

The working man is '"ucli too luxuriously brought up to sacrifice a great deal'for his wife, as in the days of our forbears. He lias his clubs, his pipes, his football, his cricket, and he can't live without any of them—lie really can't! He cannot even interest a wo] man, as his attempted wit is a terribly crude echo of the music-halls. •I am associated in my work wi'h a clever intellectual man all day, and ray admirers of my own class jar upon me after being in his company. Don't think -1 dream of marrying llly i-inploycr; I know quite well 1 am too ordinarv and commonplace to attract a man' of his social position; yel, until I can find a lover a little in advance of my own intelligence, I shall

never have any desire to many. | On mv own, I have many friends and pleasures that fall in these times to the independent woman. We are not looked on as freaks, as we were a few years ago; we hold a recognised portion, and are allowed freedom to enjoy the same liberty hitherto only accorded to the matron.