]
At the extremes, there is no difficulty in seeing such mating. Certain
men and women are so defective, physically, mentally, or morally, as to
be unable to find mates. They may be idiots, or diseased, or lacking
normal sexuality, or wrongly educated.
But to get any adequate statistical proof of preferential mating on a
broad scale, has been found difficult. Two small but suggestive studies
made by Miss Carrie F. Gilmore of the University of Pittsburgh are
interesting, though far from conclusive. She examined the records of
the class of 1902, Southwestern State Normal School of Pennsylvania, to
find which of the girls had married. By means of photographs, and the
opinions of disinterested judges, the facial appearance of all the girls
in the class was graded on a scale of 100, and the curve in Fig. 32
plotted, which shows at a glance just what matrimonial advantage a
woman's beauty gives her. In general, it may be said that the prettier
the girl, the better her chance of marriage.
[Illustration: YEARS BETWEEN GRADUATION AND MARRIAGE
FIG. 34.--Curve showing period that elapsed between the
graduation of women at Washington Seminary (at the average age of 19
years) and their marriage. It includes all the graduates of the classes
of 1841 to 1900, status of 1913.
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