552 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



side of married infelicity. Of course, there are millions of happy mar- 

 riages, but such happiness, like good health, is inarticulate and does 

 not advertise itself in the market place. 



Every self-supporting girl must also be deeply impressed with the 

 difference between her own economic position and that of her mother. 

 For years, as a girl, she has seen her father and mother working to- 

 gether as life partners ; and she has seen all the net income recognized 

 as her father's personal property. Her mother's relation to the family 

 purse has generally been that of a medieval serf to his lord's estate. 

 Even the house furnishing and the mother's own clothes have often 

 been secured by stealth and indirection. Now the girl has her own 

 pay envelope, and in possessing it absolutely she holds the key to life 

 as she desires it. It is not to be wondered at that a young woman in 

 full possession of youth and health finds it difficult to give up a salary 

 which, even if small, is absolutely her own, to accept a feudal relation 

 to some man's salary, often not much larger than the one she has 

 earned, knowing it must suffice for two and probably for more. 



Of course, this feeling fails to recognize the danger of the passing 

 years. With the blindness of youth, it over-emphasizes the value of 

 present liberty. Later, she may see the day when she will realize that 

 she has sold her birthright for a pay envelope. But it is not so much 

 the amount of the income that really troubles the modern woman as it 

 is her personal relation to it. Surely some means might be devised by 

 which a woman could be related to the family income so as to preserve 

 her independence and self-respect as well as that of her husband. 



Another difficulty that confronts the young woman of to-day in her 

 search for the altar is her superior intelligence. This is generally less 

 important than it seems, but in a country which worships popular edu- 

 cation and where all parents hope to give their children at least a better 

 education than they have had, correct grammar and a speaking ac- 

 quaintance with Eobert Browning and Michael Angelo acquire a value 

 out of all proportion to their power to function in life. When a likely 

 young man comes courting who says, " You and me will go," and prefers 

 the movies to Ibsen, it makes the young woman who aspires to culture 

 question the long evenings of a lifetime. 



This is especially true of the young woman who has risen intellec- 

 tually and economically above her social class. Skilled preparation has 

 given her an income superior to that of the men in the group where 

 she was born ; and she has been too busy studying and working to make 

 social connections in the class where she thinks and works. The social 

 emancipation of woman lags far behind her intellectual and economic 

 freedom, so that these young women whom we are considering still 

 move socially in their family planes. The men in that group are too 

 ignorant and too poor to suit her; and the men with whom she works 



