Husband Wanted Apply Within

By: Vlady Peters
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:25:29
Print this article | Tell a friend | For publisher |

Rating:

 

Charles Dickens, on his visit to America, was appalled by the Democratic way with which young people got married. It seemed to him that while democracy was all right in its own way, when choosing a wife a man should think long and hard before choosing a spouse. He should at least be able to go down her family tree to her grandfather or grandmother. But, of course, the further he could go the better. You couldn’t flirt with the happiness of your future by marrying a pretty face, or pleasant disposition. There was posterity to think of.

Being a man, he, of course, didn’t consider the plight of a woman. How was she to get a husband in days where you could only choose from the neighborhood in which you lived?

In days past, when bearing of children was upper most in everybody’s mind, every girl wanted to get married as early as she could. And, as in the present age, with the men it was always, ‘manana’.

No woman could afford to sit and wait till her prince started thinking about going out into the world and look for that special woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He might think he was ready at the age of sixty-five, which was quite useless for her. So if she wanted to get married while she could still walk, it was up to the woman to let him know that she was ready and willing and able.

We imagine that advertising started with the twentieth century. As far as the marriage stakes are concerned, it’s been around for ever. If you see red every time you see those bill boards running the length of roads and country, then have a think about this. In some countries, parents with an eligible daughter at home, would actually use their house as the advertising medium.

Depending in which region you lived, you might paint your whole house a certain color to encourage the young bucks to drop in and have a look inside. In areas where money didn’t grow on trees, instead of painting the whole house, they might throw over it splashes of certain color. Or, in other cases, instead of the whole house, they might just paint the fence. It was just a question of a smaller ad. Everyone knew what the color stood for.

But, of course, where you had an obstinate father who’d just shrug his shoulders and splutter, ‘I’d be blowed if I’m going to waste good paint on those young idiots. If they can’t find her, that’s their bad luck.’

Male logic, thought the women of the house and looked for other ways to attract those males. There was the one where they poured sand in the front yard, and instead of a living garden, created a garden of sand arranged like so many plants. It was always effective, and much talked about, especially in a country town where nobody knew what sand was.

And there was always the standby, a wreath nailed to the front door when it wasn’t even Christmas.

Article source: Expert Articles