Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1857-03-11
MISCELLA A n Y
From the Southern Caristian -4duocate
The Matrimonial Market.

Enough attention is not given in this country
to the statistics of matrmoDy. Nothing more
surely marks the real prosperity of people,
than the ratio of marriages to the population
In Austria this is small because marriage is for
hidden by law to those who cannot show rea-
sonable prospect of maintaining family, and
there are many who cannot meet this condition
The ratio is small in Paris, for such is the de-
mand for luxurious living among all classes, that
marriage becomes impossible to those of slen-
der income. In our own country the matrimo-
nial market has heretofore been very generally
of the best, both as to supply and demand, in
quantity and quality of its wares; but we see 1t
stated 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 off of twenty per
cent. on the marriages OF the previous years.
The men are Us handsome and the women as
willing as they ever were, but marriage has be-
come a luxury that few can afford. The rise IN
bonnets and talmas, laces and turs, silks and
grenadines has depressed the marriage market.
We saw the other day an inventory OF la
dv's .sturn out" in San Francisco The jewelry
cost S2,S15-the entire outfit So, ,464-the dress
alone being put at 1925. To be sure these were
California prices, but let US reduce her Sooo
worth of dress by 100 per cent. to meet our pri-
ces, and you still have woman too fife for a
poor mans wife, Who can afford to have three
hundred dollars of his income parading the
streets every time his wife turns QUITO say
nothing of the watch, bracelets and other ap-
pendages2 If it were q suit Of steel armor, or
some everlasting material it might be tolerated.
but it will never do in these days when fashions
change so rapidly that December forgets what
last January wore And yet "genteel society"
is inexorable. Poor people in this country often
manage somehow to belong to that very respec-
table caste, but they must pay for it. 1t does not
ALWAYS matter about their grammar or rhetoric;
their manners or morals but their dress and
furniture, and equippage are all important. a
stain of the character is easily forgotten while
the bonnet of last winter is easily remembered,
and the former may be tolerated-the latter not
a second season. Genteel society has certain
style, and its subjects must be versed in its rules
and abide by them or be banished. So at least
foolish people suppose, and they practice accor-
dinghy Hence, the extravaganza that every
where abounds, and hence the 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 pulses enough
TO fiji q purse, any of whom by strict economy
could support wife, but who will, if there is
not 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 q concubine is less
expensive than wife. You will be shocked
when you know how many there are, and who
they are And it is the fault of their mothers,
sisters and sweethearts. They have carried fol-
! " and extravaganza in dress and living to so
| high a pitch that q 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 afhanced, 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 character be not
well established, the syren can in such cases too
often successfully tempt him to his undoing, and
cause him to entange himself in some immoral
alliance that ruins him forever
But peradventure he runs his risk and mar
ries The extravagant tastes that have been
assidously cultivated by father and mother of
the Young wife, are brought to maturity under
the fostering care of the indulgeut husband
But it saps his moral strength to do it. The or
dnary sources fail to supply his needs-patient
toll does not now suffice, and grand specula-
tions must be adventured. The show of pros
perity is necessary to the bold speculator, and
money is spent by husband and wife without
stint Fortune does not smile upon the adven-
tnrer. and often, in these cases desperate game
is played, in which moral character is staked a
oainst the chance OF gain and is lost. How ma
n,, Eoroaries and delalcatiOns can be traced pre-