POINTS FOR WOMEN.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 52, 2 March 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

POINTS FOR WOMEN.

It is perfectly true that society lias ordained amongst us that a respectable woman shall wait until she is sought by an honourable man, before she responds in the direction of matrimony. Would alter this if they could? Would she deem it an improvement if sodety recognised it, as a fit and proper thing- for a woman to seek out and to make advances to the man who excited her affection and respect? Would not such a course play tremendously into tlie hancjs of a designing man? The present method may not always commend itself to the New Woman, but it has at least a strong element of safety in its favour. There are other directions in which woman may move to render marriage more frequent, without losing her dignity, or that coyness which is one of her chief charms. "Many women are wholly un« suited for the altered conditions of wedded life—physically, mentally; socially. A medical man once exclaimed to the writer: "There art some women who ought never tos marry; and there are others, and iM is a thousand pities that they are notmarried." An alarming number of young wedded women are complete wrecks physically within four or five years of their marriage; and young? men, learning of the medical bills that have to be paid, and the grave anxieties their benedict friends are subjected to, learn to look with increasing shyness upon the bonds, of; matrimony. For this reason alone, it is no uncommon thing for father* to strongly advise their sons not ta marry, or at least to wait until they* have secured a good position in life. "More than 50 per cent, of young women are physically unfitted for the duties which ' devolve upon them in matrimony. It is no uncommon thing, also, to hear a young woman exclaiming, as if it were something to be proud of, "1 hate children; I hate housekeeping." No merchant would think of admitting as a partner to his business a man who avowedly hated the business itself. Marriage is a very serious business, and no ona should contract it wdio avowedly! hates some of its most important ad« juncts. No woman who has not pre' viously qualified herself can magically jump into the art of making and keeping a home sweet, clean, attractive, and order all its appointments aright. No man wishes to find his wife inferior to his mother in these directions.

Many women by their expensive tastes prohibit marriage to the average man. A young man who has only himself to keep may even frequently take his sweetheart to a place of amusement, or make her a handsome present, but who would have to deny himself such pleasure if his expenses were increased. "I cannot afford to marry" is the common excuse amongst young men for their bachelor life. The cure is in the woman's own hands. If marriage is in view r she ought to check lavish expenditure; she ought to signify her willingness to begin lower down than where her mother leaves off in the social scale; she ought to begin to see what things she can do without; and how much longer she can make other things perform their mission. Thrift is better learned before marriage than after, and the practice is not so irksime.