JILTING FROM NEW ANGLE

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1779, 6 July 1926, Page 3

JILTING FROM NEW ANGLE

“In spite of all our talk of sex / equality and the emancipation of / -women, the, man who (in common parlance) “jilts” his fiancee is still regarded by the girl’s family and friends as something of a blackguard. This strikes me as quite unfair,” writes “ A Modern Girl” in the London Daily Mail” “It is argued that no man should make, a girl an offer of inarriage without being quite certain of his feelings, and that, having decided to marry her, it is almost criminal of him to change his mind. But such a convention, apart from being illogical, ■tends to punish the man who is most sincere. Take a case which came under my notice, where a seriousminded man discovered about six weeks before his wedding that he did not love bis fiancee any longer, and could not possibly be happy with her or make her happy. Seeing no other course open to him, he broke off the engagement, to the great grief of his .'fiancee and the furious indignation of her family and their circle. Popular feeling drove him from the small country town in which; he and the girl lived, and for years he suffered greatly from the feeling that he had behaved cruelly and, dishonourably. But if a man finds that he has made a mistake in his choice surely it is only honest and fair for him to break the engagement before it is too late. An engagement is, after all, only a period of trial for both people, and it is only during this period that a man and a girl really get to know ea.w .other. Proposals are usually made in moments of emotional excitement and in romantic surroundings. If later the man finds that the girl does npt come up to his ideal it is surely far better to free her and give her a chance ton find some other man ito whom she will probably be better suited. It may be tragic for a girl to be jilted by the man she cares for, although ,in most cases she soon finds consolation; but in any case it is far more tragic to be unhappily married.”