Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 April 1884 — Why People Get Married. [ARTICLE]

Why People Get Married.

Though it is very common to reproach old bachelors with their celibacy, and to pity old maids as if “single blessedness” were a misfortune, yet many married people have seen fit to offer apologies for having entered into what some profane wag has called the “holy bands of padlock.” One man says he married to get a housekeeper; another to get rid of bad company. Many women declare they get married for the sake of a home; few acknowledge that their motive was to get a husband. Goethe averred that he got married to be “respectable.” John Wilkes said he took a wife “to please his friend.” Whycherly, who espoused his housemaid, said he did it “to spite his relations.” A widow, who married a second husband, said she wanted somebody to condole with her for the loss of her first. Another,-to get rid of incessant importunity from a crowd of suitors. Old maids who get married invariably assure their friends that they thought they cotfld_be “more useful” as wives than as spinsters. Nevertheless, Quilp gives it as his opinion that ninetenths of all per sons who ■ marry, whether widows or widowers, virgins or bachelors, do so for the sake of—getting married.— . Exchange.