The evening world. Newspaper, March 7, 1919, Page 20

FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 1919 Marriage Age Is Rising; ‘Sweet Sixteen’ Has Given “And Girl of To-Morrow Will Probably Wait Un- til She Is Thirty,’’ Says Cupid’s Assistant in the License Bureau, Who Keeps Tabs on the Tides in the Sea of Matrimony. By Marguerite Mooers Marshall Coprright, 1919, by the Press Publishing Co. W (The New York Evening World.) HAT is the average age of marriage? When is a young man most likely to be caught in the matrimonial draft? When is he @ mar- riage slacke When does the average girl elect to join the ranks of wives? (For every thinking person realizes that meh are the conscripts of matrimony and women the more or less eager volunteers) When does the girl of to-day dodge the service of Hymen? At what age may she be accepted as a perinanently conscientious objector toxthe ., conjugal yoke? The clergymen, the femi > matchmakers and the sociologists all have their indl- vidual theories about these little problems in matri- “22" monial mathematics, But there is one place in New Tork where you can get the actual facts and figures, At the Marriage License Bureau, in the Municipal Building, I learned yesterday that the average marrying age of the New York girl of today is between twenty- three and twenty-five, while the average age of her bridegroom—in uni- form or out—is twenty-five precisely. Which represents some little Change from the deys of grandina, who probably wed at sweet sixteen, while grandpa was not more than a year or two older, And they had ‘gteen children and lived happy ever efter—until grandma died. Then grandpa married, again, another Young person of sixteen or seven- teen. A study of xrandparenta) epi- taphs in the old churchyards shows | that grandpa was likely to marry) not only early but often, Which Proves that if a man begins the mat- rimonial race too early it may be a felay race for his wives. The marriage of a child of fifteen or sixteen scems to me as pitiful a thing as any other form of child labor, Yet it is in the romantic tra- dition of the unthinking, and some one said to me hopefully, “See if the ‘war bas not lowered the average age of marriage for New York girls, See if brides during the last year have not been running younger than here- ‘tofore.” But while war has increased the mumber of marriages in New York, it has not lowered the marrying age among women. For a brief period, Just before the calling of the first @raft, there was, in the opinion of Patrick J, Scully, Cupld-in-Ohief of the License Bureau, a shameful in- Grease in license applications from young men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one, "Cupid" | @oully believes in holy matrimony, but not in slacker matrimony. Among | the draft evaders, who married lest) & worse thing—in their cowardly es- timation—befali them, war seems to have jowered the marrying age and! even to have made benedicts of men ‘who would not have married at any, age With the girls, things are dif ferent. The early bride is about as Scarce in New York as the early |that his wife sald on her marriage we. jlicense that she was thirty-three, In fact, the state looks with colt) when actually she was fifty-three, and unsympathetic eye upon juvenile | At the Marriage License Bureau they cus. “It is the law,” Mr, Scully | consider that husband has a caso,’ Eine. “that no girl uoder eighteen) "Since war has not brought back and no boy under twenty-one may be) the early marriage, ts anything else married in New York without the likely to do so?" I asked finally. written consent of their parents, And| “On the contrary, the tendency ts go we aro very careful about issuing! for girls and young men to marry leenses and performing marriages) later and Inter.” 1 was told. fer _young couples janywhere, a man must spend much “When taking out @ license th?) more time on his education than a girl and the man must give their! few generations ago, and he must be ages and swear they are correct. If| willing to begin with a salary too they give the wrong age it is perjury. | small for family responsibilities, ‘The But we do not take their mere asser- | girls, too, are working at good Jobs, tion when there seems to be any doubt | which they are not going to give up in the matter. Several times re-| unless an equally comfortable tite @ently 1 bave tad cases of girls who awaits them. A few years from now sald they were eighteen or nineteen,|!the average marrying age le more Dat who looked decidedly younger. | likely to be thirty than twenty-five," In each instance the irl has been re-| For what chance has either Cupid Quired to furnish her birth certificate, | of the Puture-of-the-Race agninat OF, If she could not obtain It, to bring the stern god of Economie Law that to the bureau hor parents, if living: | 1s behind the machine of civilization? or, in caso she not produce ts! het them, wome near rebative, to swear) NOT MENTIONING NAMES, BUT— she was as old as she imed to be. If either the girl or the man adm the professional - written consent to the marriage must be shown, “And we have had no larger nunvber of such cases during tho past year than in any other re- cent year,” the obliging and ef- ficient custodian of the License Bureau records assured me, “The average marrying age for men in this city la twenty-five; for women, from twenty-three to twenty-five. The year 1918 has been a record year for the number of marriages, since there were not only the men who married to escape the draft, but the patriotic war brides and war bridegrooms who snatched a little happiness before the latter were called to camp or overseas. Mars seems to have stimulated Cupid to special activity, but most of his arrows bit those between twenty and thirty.” . “When," T asked, “do they begin to fmarry? And when do they stop?” “We have ‘em from sixteen to sixty- nine,” he smiled, “There still are a few sixteen-year-olds who fulfil ail legal stipulations and become hus- band and wife at the age when many boys and girls are still in high achoo! And you might almost say that the is no age when a4 man or woman | ccrtain-sure exempt from matri mony." “Ie it necessary,” 1 inquired, “fo & prospective elderly bride to give her exact age? Or may one eay, as one does say when registering, ‘over thirty,’ or over ‘twenty-one’? such subtleties, If the number of birthdays indicated on your marriage license does not agree with the fain- ily Bible—you have committed per- jury, and you may suffer for it. At Present, there f@ a case for the an- nulment of a marriage pending in tho New York courts, and the grounds adduced by the indignant husband ar. “To get could ‘ME low, cowardly cur put in the te office post here a copy of being un. legal age, the parents’} thy, y ol ; a ai_age, the parents filthy, dirty sheet printed tn —= Memphis by a boot-ticker who is (BOIHOG HK TOOK BOOOTIOON OO wholly {responsible finanetaily, ad ANOTHER SIX WEEKS? Seties, vaya sg es et OF LAUGHS article Im an wbwsoluie fabrication of sehoods from start eet that con! to finish, and od same bas no ® circulation, but only culates bY copies sent to addr persons obtained fror ¢ low and unclean safe to ay the cur that put the copy nm the office addressed to the Vre Press did not pay the boot lickhor who prints same, or some other interest the dirty sheet is werving. We think |it highly complimentary to any man this sheet tries to besmear D For Evening World Readers bona hats merall MORE DERE MABLE LETTER? @By Lieut. EDWARD STREETERS vituperations. 8 this slanderous article is no better @ |than the sheet that it originated in. @ |The dirty cur that mailed the copy to \the Press would, if he could, % | sssaeslnate aoy\man that he did not like if he ‘e npt afraid of the con- sequences.—Hardman cir sources that We will vouch They Begin in The EVENING WORLD } NEXT WEDNESDAY ‘ ieetnuinenmmmentaell But the marriage law permits no! nits | Any paper that copies | (Tenn) Free blouses always had the sveltness of &ad the seats about the biggest of the AX \\\ \ \\\\, A\ ¥ Place to ‘Twenty- Three’ “‘Meanderers,’”’ Artists and Writers of the 27th, Proved Also Members of the ‘‘ Make Good’’ Club i | i} | They Got Together at Camp Wadsworth, Evening World Men Among Them, Got Out a “‘Paper,’’ Then Went to France—There Every Member ‘‘Made Good,’’ | Soldiers First, Artists and Writers Afterward—They Came Home Yesterday on the Leviathan—Bill Breck, Who Illustrated ‘‘Dere Mable,’’ Tells Their Story. (Pictures Accompanying This Story Were Made on Board the Leviathan by “Meanderers.”) By Corpl. Bill Breck, 107th Infantry. (Written on Board the Leviathan for The Evening World.) Copyright, 1019, by the Pree Publishing Co, (The New York Srening World.) SATURDAY AFTERNOON: ‘ ‘TT ™ certainly 1s something wrong with the composition”"—— The words floated out through the open window—then more words—all strongly tainted with art. They floated airily into the very military ears of two very military officers. “Meanderers,” said the Second Lieutenant. | “Artists and writers first—soldiers afterward, I imagine,” said the First Lieutenant. #The words sounded nearly sacrilegious to their very military ears. They moved away, | More words trickled through the opening, technique, color, tone, tex: | ture—vibrating through every phrase. Within the room you felt Bohemia rampant. Several gentlemen in varying stages of inspiration were manoeuvring with pencil and brush— while one cooed art talk apparently for his own benefit only. Eventually he ceased and afer due thought added a dab of ultra- marine to his picture—also ono of carnation red. He surveyed the resuit—a sign of relief—a cigarette and then more words. “Boys, she's done—the lady is com- plete The others turned taeir jheads languldly and gazed at the result. The lady was chic—almust TOO chic, one might say. ORAWN BY PRVvaTe WiC HOLL loz NFANCTRY, ‘Bl Breck Lat GOp per-; weren't the kind of breakfasts Uncle Sam laid out and the uniformity of ideas among the men made fur con- geniality. The invitations came to be prized. Camouflage (many of the men were DRAWN By CORPORAL. porate, TSR SRS® Stour (ov felt. Before the war he dre fumed debutantes, Cutler and Kunkle were unearthed with more difficulty, Kunk, big and julet and lovable, slipped in and out} { the shack as unobtrusively as he noved Two of the Meanderers had made /tne automatic bulletin board outside good! We decided to organize “the Kem- me] Club"—the membership to in- clude all of the old men who had fought In Flanders. Then came the terrible 29th of! noon is graphic and interesting. September—the grueling days around St, Souplet, Gas and shell and bullet had deen experienced by all of the old Gazette men before the armistice brought relief, But the old crowd hac had an opportunity to make good before hostilities ceased Goss, a Lieutenant since the early days in France, had gloriously won fame by carrying a battalion, bereft of officers except himself, to its ob- jective, Kunkle, Craven and Kin in the first three hours of the attack on the Hindenburg es had fallen with thelr eyes straight to the front and fighting like the brave gentlemen they were. Hull—the = fastidious—had_— been |recommended for a field commission and won a D. 8. C. Peace robbed him of his commission, as jt did Cutler, Tingle, McLellan and myself; his pen across his paper.| interested in this branch of work)s| 11 O0' Sym | | Cut, argumentative and cuiet by) books, pictures, men, women—all re- |) °F We had been recommended for | turns, drew his posters and soothed | ceived their share of notice, Don't/B0 | attended oMcers' training | us with his violin, Mitchell, with|think for @ moment the atmosphere} () 10°) o0 sige rob “Cut” | mustaches apoint and his Ideas) was pedantic—tar from {tour vo-|°) ot ot oS evine had won his snapping, brought in Les Bowland! cabulary often should have been Hasik saa si eneeh armistice was | with his humor of the Pommery Sec , @ridged. O'Brien sc ees . - ell, Sawtell and variety and ready pen, And one| There were friendships formed that |) 7°) | wore | Sergy «at's atripes, <s i of the best was Bill Leonard who| became firm and lasting. There were varay raha Nie Aantal RECT OF THERE turned out real stories with real | rows. hs r e other BR 8; .S9Rrssan smal laughs in them, Then there was Van| And 4s far as one can ascertain we havea biped liam. The languid gentlemen eritiiseg| BUEN, with a metropolitan reputas] Me lite sion ne the raw | CT gecords were begun by the va. freely. tion, and Howard McLellan of The bie Anyi be ed with plc- | /OUS units while they waited impa- Five o'clock. World, with a wicked little sloam in| Moreen eae tae hand-daade ‘ta, | tiently for the signal that would star Somewhere the thin notes of o/s eyes, and Jack Tingle, one of the| tures, the ungsialy hans sie ie ny | them home. Five or six of us in- bugle sounded, Retreat. company historicns, Also quiet Jud-| bles drifted high with papers 8941 sunctively herded together under the Three minutes later the room was|son Card, who drew lovely women, |4'awings, the lounging O. D. figures, eras, Revera and Craven were later addi-| the absence of slap-stick humor—the By T o'clock they began to trickle|tions—ulso Wells and Kin, Dilling-| memory will carry for years with in again. The room became @ busy/ham Wright Goss, a Wadsworth ©,| ‘bose who were there, ae workshop, for the day after to-mor-|T. 8, man, was one of the few non- he “bunch,” the “Gazette crowd, bogan to be known about the camp and in their exhibit of drawings given in the spring, their breakfasts, their work in the camouflage school, per- haps there was an occasional smile—~ not entirely complimentary—at their method of “between drill” recreation, Perhaps “Meanderers” was applied row the “bunch” were to give an art exhibit. The place? The Wadaworth Field Om Tth Regiment Gazette, ‘The men? THE MEANDERERS, Soldiers in the United states Army. tterary or artistic men we tolerated But his personality was of the kind that made you glad you were alive to know him. Every ght men found the We of the n the majority of these r to the old ed a collection way place aceumuls ; om at pictures for the board walls, odd ae one the th Divis on moved io Miahad: RaGs Ratatand cue atta ieee |e shan tee oe Nate tne Gansta a ener th rty.| military In contour, were collected.| 4. in. way over Waddell, Sawtell Pada Saiy nay ea We wrote and drew and ied and) oo cout brought out the Iittte two yeara old. The field staff of en-| vary night drank quarts of Siwtie's| 2nd Sto ee [listed men moved with the division—|°VOTy Oe een ds of cake ana| Paver Comin’ Thru—Hot Stu It | Bugene O'Brien, late of the New York |27008 AIS te ones aaa the pie-| as Practically the last effort of cus jhome office for money to build a field ahi Aa Tht Lar ag <i me | vision, Battalions became units and jomine tor the paper there came} etches and incidentals of publica-| Were billcted tar apart, Backbreak- to be built under the new maghine | “Ket ing hikes and soul-breaking trenches sun company mess shack @ room Practically all of the men were Kemmel and Dickebusch were be- 20x20 feet square, with two Nurrow,| A ey ine well known di-|bind the men before the bunch were Binal janed windows on either aide, | COntEND: P the Gas Attack, ona/Sathered together again at @ dinner ls me rial, ly ambitious.) ae paper's editorial staff becamo|'" Terramesnil Ww these pos- old paper Now and again some of the men ent and welcome visitors at the freaiapk 908 had seen one another—a passing Lities, turned {t inside out and raked the] axette Foie egreeen Pina|slimpse on the road, billets in the Frat we found Lauren Stout, an otd| Well eeasoned with witticlama as were |(Fonchor | / Judge contributor, Stoutie, the ex-| his editorials, and Chick Devine, with) oo aire : otic, who mixed with hia paints a| Mis inestinable git of boing charm-/UU oT ne te the mom: Uttle of tho something that lies at|!ns Wore even Invited to Sunday) © Nt) Tit to Ot oe ated bravely the bottom of the fleahpots of the|™orning breakfasts, which had be- os Mhare’ unten the areas nee v world; and Bob Waddell, the rest-|Come an institution with us, sah i desiiadl mel, ‘The first of the “Meanderers” had made good, A toast was drunk to the absent Don Emery who had won a field commiesion and a D, 8. C. at Dicke- joutaways, lent @ certain tone, we all big tables were crowded They. busch, Grapefruit, eggs—five and six aplece—thin bacon, rolls, butter, cof- fee and"cream. The little drum stove nearly burst with so much cooking less, who wrote well, but loved best jto draw vivid pictures, which were |too Hogarthesque to reproduce or exhibit. Harry Hull, whose 0, D. | lished hand-hewed timbers of the state din- ing room of the Hotel Pot d'Tain in Tuffe, Sarthe, Here the crowd gath- ered for cake and cocoa, Well, cham- pagne was cheap and the mushrooms and fillets and custards of Madame Bellanger were wonderful and the war was “toot finee.” Eddie Breusch, Nick Krayer, Kemp Peabody and Larry Hoyt joined the crowd here. We drew pictures, gos- siped and wrote history and fought the old Battles over and over, In Montfort Rowland and Van Bu- ren had brought out the Christmas number of the Gas Attack, and a corking good one too, They also pre- pared the goodby Issue to be pub- lished in the States, On board the Leviathan we pub- ear Over, with Wadvell again as an editor. Here the wo: shop was under the feet of the prin- ters in the print shop ‘way up on A deck of the giant Liner, Sometimes it was only the corner of a deck, Where the Kemme! Club will next meet {s in the hands of the gods. But it will be somewhere, for the .com- munity of spirit is strong. All of the Meanderers had made good. Out of the twenty men there were three commissions and four D. 8. C's five had been recommended and had gone through O. T, 8. and four were buried on the battlefields and all had the odor of gas and powder about them. Soldiers first—artists and writers afterward. IGHTING is serious business and soldiers must be entertained. F ‘The 27th Division has in its per- sonal ® company of entertalner@ sec |pins upon the ruled charts,” FRIDAY, MA RCH 7, 1919 Watching the ‘ U Boats. 23 But the brains directing a! festation of enemy Reginald Wrigh “Our Navy at Work,’ world war. Multitu silent room from Yankee fleet with e' coast and the ocean almost yard b on which was indicated the progress This chart out of the danger zone with approaching neutral friendly craft. The positions of all vessels in the American zone were indicated by constantly shifted pins of varying colors, “To watch the movement of those Mr. Kauffman says, “was like watching the progress of a football game on @ newspaper office,except that there were a hundred balls in play instead of one.’ Mr. Kauffman’s picture of a scene in the chart room on a busy after- "The general chart is, you will re- call, that upon the table. On the right hand wall therefrom hangs that especially devoted to mines and sub- marines. We were one afternoon standing before the latter when there were handed in @ pair of messages received within a few minutes of each other, Both told of an enemy sub- marine sighted; the two spots indl- cated were near together, The recording officer whistled as he shoved home the yellow pins, “We've got a storeship convoy com- ing in right there with one destroyer, he sald, “and she’s just about due.’ Quickly he verified his fears by a consultation of the general and con- voy charts. He had been right. Gen- erally there were more destroyers, as well as the suspected location of enemy sub: Toom’s job was to get its bulletins of the sea situation were sent out Corps to all Allied ships known to be approaching the American zone; dally also a series of warnings in English were sent broadcast for the benefit of ‘Brains’ Work Telling the ‘Mosquito Fleet” When and Where to “‘Sting”’ Chart Room at American Base Headquarters Showed Position of Every Ship in American Zone and Played “‘Sea Checkers’ by Radio to Foil By Nixola Greeley-Smith Copyright, 1919, by the Pres Publishing Co, HE romance of the American Navy is the story of life with its mo» quito fleet, its destroyers, mine sweepers and hydroaeroplancs. (The New York Evening World.) MH these equally effective arms of the service were located in the chart room at Base Head: quarters where tho sleepless radio registered every mani- submarines as well as every move ment of every vessel in the American naval service. t Kauffman, in his thrilling story of ” gives the first clear, detailed picture of the various operations by which American troopships were protected from the submarine menace during the des of charts covered the Walls of the which directions went out to the very tick of the clock. Charts of the y yard, moonlight, tidal, aerial and weather charts, and on a table in the centre of the room a general chart and position of every American ship marines. American convoys in and safety. Daily at a given hour by the Radio but on thls occasion some accident— some aecident that, in ordinary cif cumstances, would have been trivial had upset the regular scheme. He set the radio room to flashing out its warnings. There was an ugly ten minutes, * @ double convoy,” said the of- cer. little east of where that sub is, the British destroyers are to meet the fleet, cut out the shins bound for England and head them for home Then our fellow brings the rest in here.” He paused—a moment, Them he added: “Or tries to.” The code room messenger came in, We grabbed his slip of paper: “Warning acknowledged.” Again we waited. Presently: “Have made contact with British destroyers as per previous onera, They have cut out (here followe@ the number) ships and are proceeda ing.” We breathed a little easier. stim easier we breathed when we heard that our destroyer and its wards were safe within the harbors sub marine nets, It was then that there came a fourth message; it came from the British portion of the convoy: they had been attacked thirty minutes after leaving the American zone and entering the English and had lost « ship and half of its crew. ond to none in the army. Naturally the division numbers in its member- ship many performers from the pro- fessional stage, These, augmented by amateurs, gave the “You Know Me, Al" show in New York last year before the departure of the division for the front, and most of the mem- bers of the original combination are still on the roster, During the time the 27(, was at) the front in Belgium and Flanders no/ time could be found for divertise- nfent. ‘The actors shared in the hos. tilities, Three of the members of the company were wounded. Many were gassed, Some wear decorations, for bravery in action, In every en-| gagement some part of the show did) stretcher service, The stories are) many concerning the smiles that jok- | ing comedians of the “ham” unit brough to the faces of wounded as the fighting actors carried their loaded litters back to the dressing stations, The show appeared before the King of England and nearly all the brass hats of the British Army in France, When time hung heavily on the hands of British aviators and the clouds were low over Flanders’ fields the show unit built up the spirits of the restless flyers. Only once was the show “crabbed.” When Sir Douglas Haig and a party of staff officers were onlookers in @ field near Oude- zeele the cry of “Gerry up” sent the actors and audience into hiding. Two bombs fell within two hundred yards of the stage, That did not stop per- formances, While the division has been away from Broadway and its ever chang- ing varteties of jazz, the show has kept abreast of the times, The jazz band is composed of Bill Wittman, Bert Hamilton, Art Hauser, Fred Shieger, Sid Marion, Gus Schmidt and Ollie Pfaff. They are the lads who turned night into day in France and taught at least 12,000 French maidens to one step, fox trot and shimmie, Russell Brown and Jimmie Fallon were machine gunners when they yeached France, Big time knows both well. They learned to rat-a-tat-tat on a machine gun, On the Brest- Flanders big time they doubled tn brass, as the circus man says. By day they shot steel stuff over at Fri and at night they handed out @ line of laughs over the—no there were ne footlights. They had to do the hardest thing in the actors tough life —carry on in the dark. Jimmy Morey issued mirth in monologue form. In eight minutes Harry Gribble and Ar Van Zandt, the book agent Setgeant put together an act that made colored British Tommies forget the perils of guarding an ammunition dump at night, Walter Roberts, an apple knocker—up-State lad—was a find, and with J. Eddie Crawford, Danny Burns and Eric Krebs they put over, a girlle-girlie show that would make Julian Eltinge wince with envy. They carried their wardrobe of feminine apparel in their 60 pound packs all over France, They even trimmed | their steel helmets with chiffon and ribbon with a French modiste’s fine esse. It was a fashion show for the war stricken natives of the devasta. ted districts on the 27th itinerary, Harry Sharpe became the A. H, F, Caruso, while Judson House, the f mous tenor, and J@pk Mahoney, drew all the night trade away from I’rench and Belgian estaminets, Connie O'Donnell was the boy Bert Williams and Eddie Tierney and Steve Scams maca fanned the khaki audi a with gephyrs of spicy Southern humos Stanley Hughes, brother of J. Hughes’ of Adelaide and Hughes clogged and soft shoed when he wae not machine gunning. Long before the armistice delegates crossed the line Stanley Wood, expert actor, foretold the close of the war with his “The Yanks Have Closed the Show.” Jack Roche, the sweet voiced, met and danced with his old partner, Elsie Janis, on the turf at Oudezeele and when the two met face to face there were tears and smiles and Roche was razzed to a fare-thee-well, The chorus had a front and rear rank. Heft, Hilton, McNally, Beerg, Sullivan, Nelson, Tileson, Unger, Jos hannes and Kluny were the ponies Bill Pauly was another stepper well known to Broadway, Ever since the show started Lieut, W. A. Halloran jr, has been im charge. On the trip back home @ show was given twice daily with co-operation of Licut, W. Fy Schluter, entertainment officer aboard the Leviathan, The combined of these two impresariog kept the “ty in good humor all the way qver,