MARRIAGE-SHY

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 48, 26 February 1927, Page 20

MARRIAGE-SHY

PBOBLEMS FOB YOUNG MEN

OF TO-DAY.

Sixty years ago the philosopher Edward yon Eartmann wrote: "At no previous period have young men fought more shy of love." In every stage of our social-liistory persons of the older generation have deplored the '' decline or the,..^ decay.,?,' of marriage, .states January Mortimer in the "■ Daily Mail." Is this alleged indifference to love and wedded life a sign of selfishness or timidity among our young men? I have attempted lately to extract from my younger and unmarried friends an open confession of their views upon girls and matrimony.

I find these young men are mostly marriage-shy. They do not criticise the existing system of matrimony from a legal standpoint, and. by 'far .the larger number of them avow frankly that''they■would likg to marry. Their, chief difficulty is the, money question. " They say of/the girls', of the middle 'class: "They want so many things that our mothers never dreamed of wanting." One bright, warm-hearted lad confessed that he had been in love with a girl of .his own age for some;-months and that" he had curbed an impulse to propose marriage. "The fact is," he said, "she repeatedly refused to "go •with me to dances or shows because she had 'no shoes fit to wear. 1' "Well, one day she showed me six pairs of quite nice shoes, better than my sister wears; and I said to myself:,'l s shall .never be ablo to gratify M 's love of clothes and finery unless I become a irich man. 5' And as lam in'a Government office, fairly secure for life but not likely to become wealthy, my regard for my girl friend must remain platonie." • - Another young man complains that he very rarely meets a girl who shows any interest. in household affairs. "Most of them," ho says/ "talk of domestic work as 'a nuisance, slavery, or drudgery.' And these same girls are very fond of pointing out the ' selfishness' of men.''

It is undeniable that there are types of cautious, purely self-regarding bachelors whose motives for abstaining from marriage are mainly mercenary. But there are a very large number of young men who are-deterred fr,om marrying by the, reflection that the standards of comfort and! luxury among middle . and upper-class young women are beyond their means of gratification. I fear the old belief that married love is worth some sacrifice of external and material things is now somewhat rare.'