Nashville daily patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1855-1857, 1857-01-08
rrom the Albany evening Journal

FROM tne AlDhny EfehiIS SpNiio"
MARRIAGE AND CosTLY LIvING-INCREAsE OF FL
Merry AND DECREASE OF MATRIMoNY-WHY LEAP
YEAR WAS FAILURE.-T The statistcian' of Boston
rcport that Leap Year has been failure" IN the
Modern Athens-There has been twenty per cent
less of marriage there this year than the last. The
fact is by no means one to be ioked over.
Fuunily. however, the modern Athenian statisti-
clans ascrbe il TO the passions and expenses OF the
recent Presidential electionl They view wedlock
from af4r. If they come quite up to the Boston
Hymenial altar they would be 10 the way OF an ex"
PLANTATION OF the lamenable TACT they puollsh mat
shrine to Love and Marriage is crushingly draped
with silks at from three dollars to fifteen dollars
yard-t is festooned with laces at prices to cause
iockiaw to hear cf-expensive jemmed jewelry
flashes through the meshes OF the point d. Aiencons
at every part-siiver plate. paved thick upon leases
of ''genteel residences, supports the altar-sVer
and miiliuers' bills for every purchasable luxury
and necessary. more terrible than the bills of vul
lures litter the base of it as votive leaves to the
Forest Spirit circle the oak in autumn. What effect
has this proclamation of the shrine Of Marriage on
the young men of Boston, who would fam bring TO
it their personal offering?
Those statisticians can see il and hear it. The
current of masculine manageable humanity sets
right by without stopping. Great signs heaVed
from the bottom of prudent but hopeless hearts,
are all that is given to hymen. Young artists,
young artisans, young doctors, merchants clerks,
lawyers OF more youth than clientage, yet all out
of debt and earning comfortable and honorable
subsistence for QUE according to the scale Of 1856,
pass by quickly, alarmed by the evidence of the
inexotable conditions attached to reputable mar
rage in these evil days of competition and social
display.
Marriage is becoming luxury to men in the o.
States The cost of provision, the wages OF labor,
81 ~ 4 tho nj nprpsaarpa and Of
Injuries, added to the unrelentng pressure upon
people in respectable society to dress richly aud
furnish showily, N Ike the inevitable price OF
family out Of reach Of the salaries and incomes OF
most Of the young or the effect the morals and
character Of state in which wedlock is prohibited
il Ia unnecessary to enlarge By reading or by
travel we are all familiar with it in France and IN
Austria. Prudence and custom forbid marriage in
the former country, where there is not assured in
come TO maintain its wants aud social pretensions.
In the latter, the armed Law holds asunder from the
relations OF husband aud wife couples who do not
possess property guarantees that their children
shall not become burden to the State. In all ranks
Of It's society income is the marriage cement oioye.
Marriage may as effeclually be prohibited by the
| expenses Of millinery ware and house'iurnishing,
as by a police regulation. If those modern Athe-
MAN statisticaus will stand with their note books
beside their marriage altar for two years to come,
theY VIII nave 10 rccotu steauiiy uinihishihg
worship at the shrine. II old maidhood be, as ma
ny say, an evil, the penalty OF general repudia-
ton of cotton goods and scorn of gingham, will
be paid in every house where there are daughters.
| Does il not behOove oil mothers-al good moth
| ers-to initiate Individually il not concert, the
wise conduct of the Belgic women Of Brussels "Up-
/ per Tendomsn Their "Retreuchment Society has
| been organized to make economy fashionable. It's
weekly meetings receive reports Of superhuities
dispensed WITH and discuss the feasibility of fur
Eher curtalments in household and personal ex-
penses. It's members are mothers. and these their
labors are for the purpose OF saving marriage to
their grown up daughters, by making it practical
bic for those young men whose capital is dispro.
portOned 20 their industry and integrity.
Oh for the restoration Of Bingham and prinisi-
Is there no deliVerance from the silken web OF evil
which French looms weave for US?