The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1866-11-20
MATRIMONIAL CUSTOMS.

weeks.
MATRIMONIAL CUSTOMS.
All marriages among the common
people i'll Russia are negotiated by go
bctwccnS, who arrange the prclimina-
rics, cNtOl the quality of their clients,
examine and decide on the hOuSScd" OF
the bride, and act as head negotlators
in the whole affair. When the father OF
ed eae aaG hjId c attfor4 it m9heV y temahF
or articles of the trOusscau, are given IN.
The articles accordingly given Ill are
SCrutiniZcd, ana accepted, rejected or
exchanged, according to the fiat of the
old go-bctwecn. There is no courtship
or personal affection prior to these mar
riages. The woman generally submits,
as matter of course, and becomes the
slave of any brute appointed by the
Baron or steward, or 10y the father
when no master interfercs.
know a family OF free Russians, in
which the father was of the rank of
"chinovnick.' He had four daughters,
all accomplished, the eldest decidedly
plain, the others good looking. A suitor
appeared for the hand of the youngest
and prcttiest. in the person of a young
government official. His Gn-hetwcen,
or swakha, required to know how much
money the father would give, and what
the ''predania." II give nothing" said
the old man. "Thc elder sisters must be
married first, and it is robhing them to
give first to the youngest. lfthc young
man will take the eldest, | will give four
thousand roubles; if the second, fifteen
hundred: if the third, Il 'predania,' with
out money; but, if he must have the
Youngest. nothing" As the young man
wanted to buy or bribc his way into Il
higher station of life. he offered to take
the eldest of these girls for six Thousand
roubles. This would have wrongcd the
other daughters, and the offer was re-
fused. The Youngest, who had set her
heart on the fellow, pined; the others
offered to give up their claims to make
her happy, but the father was incXora-
BILE. The poor thing was dead of con-
sumption eighteen months aftcrward,
and the bargaining swain is now mar
ricd to the eldest, richest, and least
handsome. This happened il the capi-
tai. among what we called the "Frcnch-
polished" Russians.
RUSSIAN CONTRAST.
But all the changes are sudden and
complete in Russia. Summer goes Ill
day, and winter comes. One may cross
a river in u boat at night, and walk back
on the ice in the morning. Door and
windows stand wide open in summer for
a breath of cool air; but i'll winter the
cool air is barred out with double win
dows, triple doors, and heated stoves.
So in regard to clothing: thin linen
summer habiliments are thrown aside
in a day, and the reign of furs begins:
Wheels are upon all the carriages OF
every sort one day; snow comes during
the night, and the wheels all vanish IN
the morning nothing is seen but
slcdCes. The transitions from class 10
class are of the same character. One
class is of gentlemen and of barons; the
next stop is to mouchicks, peasant
serfs. who live on black bread ana salt,
seasoned with sour cabbage and gariic,
and who are covered with a dirty
shcepskin, instead of being clothed IN
erminc. sables, and fine linen. Cron-
stadt is reached from Petersburg by
steamers in one week; in the next. the
traveller runs over the same water
with three horses before him. The
people will leave hot bath, and plunGe,
into hole made in the ice; they. VIII
leave room, heated to seventy or eighty
degrees, and follow funeral for SIX miles
with no covering on their heads, IN a
frost twenty-five degrees below zero !;
they will fast seven weeks on cabbage
and garlic, and then guzzle themselves
in few hours into the hospital, take
cholera, and die. Diseases are gener-
ally swift and fatal-to-day well, to-
morrow dead. Mere than two-thirds OF
the cholera cases die. Women are VI
teresting, plump. and manageable at
fourteen; they are shrivelled at thirty.
Despotic power works in extreme with
ont control, religion without morality
commerce without honesty. There Is
land illimitable. without cultivation:
There are splendid laws, and poverty OF
iustice. Some of these contrasts are
now being softened down by the wise,
progressive policy Of Alexander the
Second. ...----..