— 3 —
The American girl finds no embarrassment in going out with a young man whose family or social standing she does not know at all. All that matters to her is that she trust him and that the two be at a comparable level of education and thinking. When the young man pleases her and his invitations to go out with him multiply, she avoids going out with anyone else, and then considers herself as good as engaged to him.
It is noticeable in the United States that marriage is frequent among young people of the same age; 85 percent of American men are equal in age to their wives.
The American girl sees no necessity whatever for consulting her family on her decision to marry; rather she considers it natural that she herself should be the authority in the matter. Once my companion at the university came to announce to me, joyfully, the news of her engagement. I asked her whether her family knew the fiancé, and she shook her head no and said: "When I go home for the Christmas holidays, I shall surprise my parents with the news of my engagement. That glad tiding will be my holiday present to them!"
The American mother may well be anxious about her daughter's future, yet she rarely shows it to her. I know an American girl who was hesitating over marrying one of her companions, and when she sounded her mother on it, the
mother answered: "You are past twenty, and you know your own good better than I do; so I will not give you my opinion of this young man, lest it influence your decision to marry him!"
The United States can boast that the proportion of married people among young folk of twenty to twenty-five is higher than in any European country. One of the chief reasons for this is that the material responsibilities of marriage are small. The young man is not obliged to pay half his fortune,
say, as a dower for the bride, or to borrow money to buy the trousseau and jewels. The utmost the American girl requires is the engagement ring; and apart from young men who own millions, the price of the ring does not usually exceed two hundred dollars. The American young man ordinarily disdains to offer a ring bought at his father's expense, and I have often seen a girl proud of an engagement ring hardly worth a hundred dollars, when her fiancé's father, or her own, could buy her a ring worth thousands of dollars!
As for the trousseau, it is not given the importance it has in our country. In the big stores there is a special employee whose purpose is to guide the girl in
buying the clothes she needs
Tempo Pots
Rely on Tempo pots
TEMPO
For your comfort in your home, Madam...
They save 85% of your cooking time, and of fuel as well
Tempo
* Keeps food looking as nature made it
* Preserves the vitamins
Found in all the well-known shops