Republican vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1857, 1857-03-07
IRON, the sSouthern Christian Adcoc,
The Matrimonial Market.

Enough attention is not given ia this
country to the statistics Of matrimony. No
thing more surely uarks tie real prosperity
of people, than the ratio Of marriages to
the population In Austria this ratio is
small, because marriage is forbidden by law
to those who cannot show reasonable pros
pect of maintaining family, and there are
many who cannot meet this condition The
ratio is small in Paris, for such is the de-
nand for luxurious living among all classes,
that marriage becomes an impossibility to
those of slender income In our own coun-
try the matrimonial 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 it sta
ted 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 pre-
vious years. tEhe men are handsome and
the women as willing as they ever were, hut
marriage has become luxury that few can
afford The rise in bonnets and taimas,
laces and furs, silks and grenadines has de-
pressed the marriage market.
We saw the other day an inventory Of a
lady's "turn out" in San Francisco. The
inwelry cost $2,Sl5--the entire outfit 49,
464-the dress alone being put at $40. =
70 be sure these were California prices bet
LET US reduee her $3.50 worth of dress by
100 per cent to meet our prices, and you
still have Il woman too fine for poor nan 5
wife. Who can afford to have three hun
ired 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 a suit Of steel ar
NOR. or some everlasting material, it might
ne tolerated, but it will never do in these
lays when fashion changes so rapidly that
D december forgets what last January wore
And yet 'gcnteel Societya is ine1orable. -
/ Poor people in this country often manage
somehow 60 bg.ong 10 that very respectable
caste, but they must pay fer it. 1t does moi
always matter about their grammar or rhet-
nric their manner or morals but theirdress
and furniture, 4 equipage arc all important
There is multitude Of young mechanics
| Shosc wages are moderate, clerks whose sal
| ries are small, lawyers whose briefs are toe
ricf, and physicians who do not feel pulse'
'nough to ill purse, any Of whom by strict
economy could support wife, but who will,
there is not a change, he wholly unable
| enter the market. They are doomed t.
libacy, or to worse. And it is the fault
| / their mothers, sisters and sweethearts =
! They have carried folly and extravaganza
II dress and living to 50 high pitch that {
'oor young man Of any pride of character is
tfraid to marry. Ne man wishes to see hi
wife living ip humber style than his atlian
] ed, or SEEM to want from the husband whe
he father supplied. Rather, he desires tina
is chosen at least appear better off married
than single, but how can he when young Ia
] les dress as they now do? OF this he i.
| hopeless, and if his moral character be not
wei! established, the syrcn can in such eases
too often successfully tempt him to his un-
doing, and cause him to cntanglc himself in
some immoral alliance that ruins him forever.
But peradycnture he runs his risk and
marries. The eXtrayaeant 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 mora
strength to do it. The ordinary sources %
money fail to supply his needS-patient tot
does not suffice, and grand specuations mus
be adventured. The show of prosperity i,
necessary to the bold SPECTATOR, and money
is spent BY husband and wife without stint
Fortune does not smile upon the adventurer
and often, i'll these cases, IA desperate gamt
/ is played, in which moral character is staket
against the chance Of gain and is lost. How
many forgeries and defalcations can be ira
ced precisely to this source? How many
husbands curse the day they ever began t,
indulge the extravagant tastes oftheir wives
How many wives, when failure. povert,
and degradation come, would gladly hav,
foregone their folly could they have predict
ed the end. Let us hope that the evil ha
reached its height, and that society will 500,
be restored to its senses by the misfortune
and crimes that attend its madness.
This is no triAine subject to the mothers
! CT this generation 1t is with them to shap,
the tastes aud habits of tLeis daughters =
The husband often succeeds in acquiring
competency, which the father fails to retain
The wife may add to a prosperity which tn
daughters exhaust before the oldest gets gu
of her teens, or strikes some other vein 70
gold than the paternal pocket. Look to it
ye mothers, that you teach other and wise
arts than those of show and dress. Look t.
it there may be such decline in the de
mand for walking millinery blocks, that
few years hence you will see only IA beyy o
fading spinsters, where you had hoped {,
see your grand children at play; you won
dering meanwhile, if the natrimonial mar
ket will rise SO high that they may yet be
come Understandable articles.