The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1857-02-24
THE MATRIMONIAL MARKET.


country to the statistics of matrimony.-
Nothing more surely marks the real pros
perity of people than the ratio OF mar
riages to the population. In Austria this
ratio is small because marriage is forbid
den hy law to those who cannot show
reasonable prospect of maintaining family
and they are many who cannot meet this
condition. The ratio is small in Paris, for
such is the demand for luxurious living
among all classes, that marriage becomes
an impossibility to those of slender income.
In our country the matrimonial market has
heretofore been very generally of the BEST
both as to supply and demand in quantity
and quality of it's wares but we see it stat
ed that it is rather heavy at this time in
some of our larger cities. 1t is said that
in Boston there was last year falling OFT
of twenty per cent. on the marriages OF pre-
yious years. The men are as handsome
and the women as willing as they ever were'
but marriage has become luxury that few
can afford. The rise in bonnets and tai
mas, laces and furs, silks and grenadines,
has depressed the marriage market.
We saw the other day an inventory of
lady's s'turn OUT in San Francisco. The
iewelry cost $2,915-:he entire outfit $3.464
the dress alone beng put at 1925. 10
be sure these were California prices, but
let us reduce her $3.50 worth of dress by
| 100 per cent. to meet our prices, and you
still have a woman too fine for poor mans
| wife. Who can afford to have three hun
dred dollars of his income parading the
! streets every time his wife turns QUITO
say nothing of the watch, bracelets, and
other appendages? If it were suit OF
| steel armor, or some everlasting material
it might be tolerated, but it will never DO
! in these days when fashions change so rap
! idly that December forgets what last Jan
uary wore. And yet ''genteel society," is
inexorable. Poor people in this country
often manage somehow to belong to that
very respectable caste, but they must pay
for it. It does not always matter about
their grammar or rhetoric, their manners
or morals, but their dress and furniture and
| Ma
the character is easily forgotten, while the
bonnet of last winter is IT membered. and
the former may be tolerated-the latter not
a second season. Genteel society has a
certain style, and its subjects must be vers-
ed in its rules and abide by them, or be ban
ished. So, at least, foolish people suppose,
and they practice acc or6ingly. Hence the
extravaganza that every where abounds.
and hence tho decline in the matrimonial
| market.
There is multitude of young mechanics
whose wages are moderate, clerks whose
salaries are small, lawyers whose briefs are
too brief, and physicians who do not feel
pulse enough to fill purse, any of whom
! by strict economy could support a wife,
but who will, if there is not a speedy change
be wholly unable to enter the market
They are doomed to celibacy, or to worse.
| Start not, fair reader, if a friend asks you
how many of those gay young men whom
you see at an evening party, so genteel so
polite, have learned that concubine is less
expensive than a wife. You will be shock
ed when you know how many there are.
and who they are, And it is the fault of
their mothers, sister and sweethearts. They
have carried folly and extravaganza in dress
and living to so high pitch that poor
young man of any pride of character is
afraid to marry. No man wishes to see his
wife living in humber style than his affianc-
ed, or seem to want from the husband what
the father supplied. Rather, he desires
that his chosen at least appear better off
married than single; but how can he when
young ladies dress as they now do? OF
this he is hopeless, and if his moral charac-
ter be not we'll established, the syren can
in such cases too often successfully tempt
him to his undoing, and cause him to en-
tangle himself in some immoral alliance
that ruins him forever.
But peradventure he runs the risk and
marries. This extravagant tastes that have
been assiduously cultivated by the father
and mother of the young wife, are brought
to maturity under the fostering care of the
indulgent husband. But it saps his moral
strength to do it. The ordinary sources of
money fail to supply his needs-patient toll
does not suffice, and grand speculations
must be adventured. The show of pros
perity is necessary to the bold Spectator
and money is spent by husband and wife
without stint. Fortune does not smile up
on the adventurer, and often, in these cases
desperate game is played, in which moral
character is staked against the chance of
gain and is lost. How many forgeries and
defalcations can be traced precisely to this
source. How many husbands curse the
day they ever began to indulge the extrav-
agant tastes of their wives. How many
wives, when failure, poverty and degrade
ton come, would gladly have forgone their
folly, could they have predicted the end.
Let us hope that the evil has reached its
height and that society will soon be re-
stored to its senses by the misfortunes and