WHAT MAN GAINS BY MARRIAGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9303, 1 August 1908, Page 3

WHAT MAN GAINS BY MARRIAGE.

<By A HAPPY BENEDICT.) It will, perhaps, be admitted that the ordinary married man is a superior creature to the ordinary bachelor. Ho is a more healthy man, a much more moral man, his methods of living are more regular and more lofty, added to which he has, in his wife, a great incentive towards working hard, and in his family, if he has one, a grand object in working with exemplary steadiness.

There are those who assert that your married man is but a money-making machine. They say he wo-rkff^ automatically with one object in view — namely, to provide for another man's daughter and her progeny. The persons who say so are tiresome and irritating.

Tiresome in that they do not know what they are talking about, and irritating in that they slander the one position in life which enables a man to make the most of his existence.

There is this point to keep in mind — your married man is constantly in dread of losing his appointment. He realises the fact that to lose it may mean starvation to the woman be loves, and, it may be, for one or two tiny tots. . The result is that he strives to become an indispensable employee by doing his very best, and, of course, an employer observes his industry, and in all probability an advance comes along.

A bachelor, on the other hand, does not mind so very much, even if he does get his walking orders. He can always earn a livelihood of some sort. But that will not do for the married man, who must look at matters from a more serious standpoint. With the bachelor it is a mere question of self, but the married man has first of all to consider those who are dependent on him — accordingly, he must look far ahead.

A bachelor, after all, is a rather useless creature. Irregular in his habits, addicted to a few risky vices, without a single tie in the world, he drifts along, heedless of where his path may lead him, and pretty well unheeded by those around him.

Then, a bachelor in lodgings ; no man is more pron© to go astray. The opportunities around him for working his downfall are numberless. The company he must mix with are men of his own stamp, creatures who have no real homes to go to, for few bachelors reside beneath the parental rooftree.

When a man marries a great change comes over him. His habits, from being irregular, tend to become steady. He goes straight home from business. He does not dream of drifting into the "Blue Pig" with any chance youth who happens along. He retires to bed at a reasonable hour instead of spending half the night in the company of sundry youths who sit and idly joke amidst sundry beer glasses and a cloud of tobacco smok©. Moreover, he h*s got something to think about; he has more to consider than himself.

Prior to marriage, a bachelor on a stated salary flings money away without giving a thought to to-morrow, the result being that ero next pay-day conies round he is in a state of imp9cuniosity. The married man, however, nrust take his wife into consideration, to say nothing of his home. Grocers', bakers', butchers', and other tradesmen's bills have to be settled regularly, and, accordingly, he gets into the excellent habit of .so planning and arranging that his credit side always shows a balance.

In the very first place, then, we find that a bachelor, through marriage, is made a healthier man. Late hours, frivolous, beer-drinking company, and certain vices have to be cast aside.

After marriage, a man keeps to his own fireside of evenings, and even if he does sally forth, the chances are that his wife goes with him, and so acts as a kind of guard, and in that way prevents him from entering places which are best avoided.

And there is another reason why ft married man stays indoors of an evening instead of going out — his own home i 9 a very different place from lodgings. In his home Tie can get comfort, and he may do as he likes, but in lodgings — well, I leave it to those who have had experience to say if full comfort oan be got there. As for doiDg as you like in apartments, why, that you cannot do.

Therefore, it is not very difficult to realise that the mnrried man has a considerable advantage over the bachelor, for matrimony tends to make a man a bertar man, a more useful man, and a harder worker, to say nothing of the fact that he has a number of great objects in life.