Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-08-30
YouBs Women and Their Marriages in
France, England and America.


YouBs Women and Their Marriages in
France, England and America.
The last London Atheneum, in review OF
a recent French book, entitled Marriage in
the United States takes occasion to make the
following remarks;
That which seems the best way of loving
and marrying to one set of people, horribly
offends the instincts and mOralites of an
other. In the civilized, Christian world
there can not be greater discrepancy in this
last particular than between the French and
Americans. From the first look of love to
the last word Of marriage, there is not a
stage of the affair that is conducted in the
same way, not rcund of the great ladder
which Is hewn out of the same block. The
French girl never leaves her mothers side,
unless, indeed, she be brought up in a con-
vent. The American young lady neither
claims nor would submit to the most extra
ordinary protection of friend or parent.
The French girl is married off by her mother,
without even the semblance of consulta-
tion; suitability of fortune and condition be-
ing q much more important matter than
any such moonshine as suitability of temper,
or the elective nfinities An American does
her own misunderstanding single-handed,
and if she does not take quite the initiative
in the moment Of proposing, does not hesi-
as words would have made it,
The same national opposition holds good
after marriage. The French wife is free,
emancipated, almost irresponsible-a leader
of society, q parsonage, power; the Ameri-
can loses herself when she gains husband.
She is henceforth scarcely side ornament
where she was lately crown and scepter both.
Young and handsome, she is no sooner mar
ried than she is drafted off to the elderly
Wit, rxbn ic
question of Irritation; and the world, which
forgave her even grave indiscretions while
she was single, will now severely punish the
ightest infraction of appearances. 1t is q
curious and an instructive inversion-the
French granting to the wife the liberty
which the American grants to the maiden;
and both SO terribly shocked if by chance,
their women change places and cross hands
over the code.
hold our usual middle place. Not so strict
with our girls as are the French, nor SO lax
as the Americans; not so liberal of social
freedom to our wives as the one, nor so mig
gardly as the other; we think, as patriotic
matter of course, that we have hit on the
exact golden mean, and shot our arrow into
the very bulrs-eye of the question.
We say, we give our. young ladies sufi--
cieDt liberty to form their characters, and
tlHlo anu opportunity W hnOW Inelr OWu
minds. We do not marry them off to the
first eligible bidder, like so many tender
little doves sold, hoodwinked in the temple
neither do we suffer them to roam I'M
guided through the husbandless desert, like
wild creatures seeking their prey. We
make our bands and bonds elastic, and fling
the shadow of the broad maternal wing very
far SO that by these wise measures we secure
a race Of maidens as perfect in their fearless
innocence as our wives are hawless in their
crystal purity. Our friends across the cham
mel, on the contrary, prefer pretty dolls, in
the one case, and matrimonial freebooters in
the other; and our cousin at the West hold
the best preparation for the fetters of mar
riage and maternity to consist in lawless
license, and think protection bondage, and
prudent counsel mental slavery. of course
each Of tie other two countries is as justified
to itself as we are; for where was ever the
nation to be found which was not, in its own
esteem, the ultimate sum Of morality2 Tho
line to the right hand or 10 the left spoils all
the symmetry; the dash of blue or red de-
stroys the whole scale of color. La recherche
de Fabsofu is always successful in the aggre-
gate; and there lives not a man who does
not think his national home the most per-
fectly organized, and his countrywomen the
most charming, the most virtuous, the besi
brought up of their sex. l