NEWSPAPER EXTRACTS - 1893
January 20, 1893
Clinton Public
Clinton, Illinois
THE BACHELORS ARE BECOMING ALARMED.
Some weeks ago THE PUBLIC advocated the levying of a tax on bachelors on the principle that no man has a right to live a selfish life. We have a short list of the bachelors in and around Clinton who were derelict in their duty to society by continuing in their lives of singleness. What incentive is there for a father and mother to raise a family of daughters when so many of them are left on their hands? Boys have some chance to make their way in this world if they are so inclined, but with the limited field of labor opened to girls how are they to get along if too many of them are left single on the market?
This is becoming a serious question in Illinois. There was a time in this great Prairie State when marriageable girls were so scarce that every one could have a half a dozen strings to her bow, and she could take her choice from the best of the young men of the day. But the conditions have changed. It is true that the change has not come because there are not men enough to go around, but on account of the intense selfishness of the marriageable men. Cast your mind’s eye over the list of men who are abundantly able to have a wife and home of their own, who are the spoiled pets of mothers and sisters who encourage in their sons and brothers this selfish spirit.
Within the past few months young men with spirit from other towns and States have come to Clinton and wooed and won some of our brightest young girls, while these withering chumps of bachelors stand amazed and wonder deep down in their hearts what is going to become of them. Occasionally some of our Clinton bachelors pluck up courage enough to ask a girl to marry him, and if he is of the right kind there is not much danger of his being refused.
John FULLER, DeWitt County’s tall and good-looking State attorney, was moved by The Public article to get out of the proposed taxable column. On last Monday night John plighted his hand and fortune to Miss Hattie FIELD, and together they will make the journey of life. John complains that it was hardly fair to include him in the bachelor list, for he had to prepare for life by educating himself for his chosen profession before it would be prudent to assume the more serious duty of paying rent and grocery and—milliner’s bills. Well, that was a sensible view to take of it.
Fred BALL joyfully says that the fellow who may be appointed to collect the bachelor tax will never catch him, as in the near future he expects to be led as a blushing groom to the matrimonial altar by one of Illinois’ fair daughters.
But what excuse has Jake ZORGER, Will. CARLE, George HUGHES, John LEWIS, Mayor MAGILL, Captain GORMAN, or a score more we might mention, why a heavy tax should not be levied upon them to endow a home for old maids—and cats. We are going to include our county superintendent of public schools in the above list, but we have been privately posted by one of our lady teachers that he is progressing finely, and that before the next anniversary of the nation’s birth his name will be stricken from the roll of bachelors and that she will have no more use for cats except as mousers.
The first half of the first month of the new year has whirled into the past, and if our bachelors expect to be up and doing there is no time to waste. After a fellow gets to be thirty he becomes a sort of a crank if he is single, and an angel would hardly suit his tastes. But, heavens, when a bachelor arrives at forty—and many of our Clinton fellows are fast nearing the twoscore mark—life takes on an extra whirl and every actual year counts two from that time on. In all seriousness we would ask our bachelors the question, Where would you have been had your daddy followed your foolish and selfish course? Give the girls a chance, and before the “robins nest again” get out of your bachelor ways and step to the front.
Submitted by Judy Simpson