Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-03-14
TO AnvERrIsERs
THE STATISTICS OF MATRIMoNY.


We have received the exceedingly interest
ing and valuable Registration Report for 1857.
The tables are full accurate and carefully ar
ranged, and the observations" of DIR. Curtis,
which have formed marked feature of the Ia
ter reports of this kind, exhibit profound re-
search, and develop fund of information that
will be very useful to all intelligent men,
The marriage returns are much more com
plete than those of births. 1t seems to be
difficult to persuade people of the Importance
of perfect record of the increase of popu-
lation. The little folks who are to be recorded,
though not exactly guilty of the fault of which
Horace complains-egregii morales dttique siten-
tii-of extraordinary and unnecessary silence,
are very seldom in a condition to report them
selves Immediately to the Town Clerk. And
in several towns the Clerks themselves have
not deemed the subject of interest enough to
make any returns at all. The result is that
the report is, in this respect, little inaccurate
and deficient. Not so with the marriages.
Only one town in the State failed to send in its
list, and here the statistician charitably sug
gests that they may not have had any. Two
Unsatisfactory and No Chelsea-report "no
marriages this year" They ought to have
their charters taken away. Several towns re-
port but one. While other towns, especially
those where Catholic priest happens to be To-
Gated, send in more than enough to offset them
The whole number of marriages solemnized
in the State during the year was IL ,739, or
about one per cent of the population. In 629
of these cases, both parties had been married
before. With reference to seasons, November
continued to be the favorite month, as it has
been for the last five years. May does very
well, having gained little on her average.
The fewest marriages were perpetrated in
March and December. There is an incidental
apology, however, for December in the fact
that the effects of the panic were just begin
ming to be felt. 1t is not improbable that
many scores of persons with matrimonial ten
denotes were compelled to procure an extern
sion on account of the infeGcities of that dis
astrous Autumn. And if the facts were all
known, we think it would appear that more
matches than banks or banking houses were
broken.
The marriages between persons of pure for
eign blood was over one-third of all the mar
riages registered in the State In Worcester
County, where 1886 persons were married,
LIPS were foreigners. These were by no
means equally distributed, but were concen-
trated in the large places and factory villages.
For instance, in Worcester, there were 100
foreign, and but Isl native marriages; in Mil
ford, liz foreign to A native; in Uxbridge, 46
foreign to IA native; in Webster, AZ foreign to
20 native; while, in nearly half our towns,
there were no foreign weddings at all. The
large proportion of foreign marriages is no
ticeable, but not remarkable fact. The class
Of foreigners settled in Massachusetts are social
warm-blooded, impulsive, and easily satisfied.
They are not particularly astidious about
faces-they are not over-anxious about the
future; therefore, it requires much less pro
vocation to entangle them in matrimony than
it does the rising generation of native birth
The young American waits for something to
support his wife-the young Irishman marries
and makes it.
Massachusetts boys and girls unite at later
age than those of any other state or country
with whose registration we are familiar. Only
l62 per cent of the parties married were in
1857 under twenty years Of age. 1t is also es-
tablished by the data of this report that the
proportion Of marriages to population decrease
as mortality decreases, and that marriage takes
place later as life becomes longer. Among
the few cases Of great disparity in the ages of
parties, there was one of groom of sixteen
who tooka bride of thirty-nine years and, per
contra, groom of thirty-seven who selected
bride of fourteen years. Eleven brides were
but fourteen years of age thirty-one but fif-
teen hundred and sixty three but sixteen
and three hundred and J6uty-eigM but seventeen
To Offset these there were three youthful
bridegrooms of sixteen years eight of seven
teen; forty-two Of eighteen; and one hundred
and seven Of nineteen years. The number of
persons who sign their marriage certificates
with an x, has heretofore been so small as to
require no separate tables We regret to notice
the suggestion that such an addition to our
statistics may hereafter be necessary.
NO SLAVES IN MASSACHUSETTS,
80 7