In the day when girls married nearly always “in their teens,” wise choice of a husband called for selection of a man considerably older than the girl herself.  This disparity is less common in these days, and is really less desirable than it once was.  The girl of the earlier time reached maturity of mind earlier than the girl of to-day with her prolonged education, and much earlier than the boy of her day did.  He was still being educated in school or as an apprentice, and was hardly ready to undertake the responsibility of a family at an age when the girl’s scanty education was long since completed and it was considered high time that her support was laid upon a husband’s shoulders.

It used to be said, “Men keep their youth better than women,” so that any disparity in age at the time of marriage was soon lost.  This is no longer true as it was once.  The early marriage, with early and excessive childbearing, overwork, and the numerous restrictions that custom laid upon her, were responsible for woman’s loss of youth.  These conditions no longer exist.  The woman of forty or fifty can now usually hold her own with the man of her own age in point of youth.

[Illustration:  LOUISE HOMER AND HER FAMILY Madame Homer’s great success in the difficult art of operatic singing has by no means interfered with her career as a homemaker.]

Another consideration in favor of more nearly equal age lies in the fact that formerly men did not look for wives who were their mental equals.  They did not really desire mental equals as wives.  To-day they do, or, if there still lingers in the minds of some of them the old notion that wives must be clinging vines, the lingering notion will soon be gone.  The marriage of equality possesses too many advantages for both parties to be thrown aside.  The wife who can think, who is mature enough to be capable of real partnership, is the wife surely of to-morrow, if not of to-day.

Among the forces that control marriage may be mentioned (1) physical attraction, (2) continued social relationships, (3) dissimilarity, (4) affection, (5) barter.

It is usually difficult to say of any marriage that any one of these forces alone caused the mating.  It may have been physical attraction together with everyday companionship; or physical attraction and dissimilarity or strangeness, resulting in what we know as love at first sight.  Or it may have been affection of slow growth, or affection with an element of appreciation of worldly advantage, or it may have been a little physical attraction with a great deal of desire for social position or wealth, or, ugliest of all, it may have been pure barter, without personal attraction of any sort.  For these worldy advantages you offer, I will sell you my body and my soul.

To secure the finest marriages for girls we must insure three conditions:  (1) high ideals of marriage among our adolescents, (2) better knowledge of men, and (3) wise companionships during the years from fourteen to twenty-five.