Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1867-07-12

On the banks Of the Senegal, and among
many African tribes, the matrimonial prize
most sought after is abundance Of flesh 10
| obtain corpulence is regarded as the only
real loneliness. A female who can move
with the aid Of two men is but a moderate
beauty. while the lady who cannot stir and
is only to be moved on a camel, is esteemed
a perfect paragon.
| Nor is this queer fancy for obesity in wo-
man confined to the savages of the torrld
zone, since we read in Wraxalls Travels in
Russia that Sin order to possess any pre-
eminent degree of loneliness, woman must
weigh at least two hundred weight" The
Empress Elizabeth, and Catherine H., both
accounted very fine women, were OF this
massive kind
In Italy, matches are made with proven
bal levity, and marriage vows, if report
speaks truly, are easily broken. Young Vir-
gins are Systematically bartered and sold by
their parents, and young people are married
every day who never saw one another before
Concubinage is a constant remedy for these
ill-advised and deceitful marriages, and the
peculiarly Italian term cecisJeo indicates the
| IVA VIZ
fair sex fettered to husbands unloved.
In France, as has often been remarked,
women monopolize all the society and large
share of the business Of life. The coffee
houses, the theatres, the shops, the cabarets,
or drinking shops, are filed with women
Women lord it at all assemblies, and are bet
ter informed and more capable managers
than men Marriage is looked upon not SO
much as matter of affection as of interest,
and the sacredness Of the tie is proportion
ately slender.
i Marriage in Sweden is commonly govern
ed wholly by the will of the parents, and is
founded upon interest. A stolen match is al
most unheard of, and persons of either sex
seldom marry before the age Of twenty five
or thirty. Divorces are very rare.
Russia appears to be the most preposter-
Gus country in Europe in its treatment OF
women. The nuptial ceremonies, all and
singular, are based upon the idea Of the deg
radiation of the female. When the parents
have agreed upon the match, the bride is ex-
amil4ed by number Of women to see If she
has any bodily defect. On her wedding day
she is crowned with garland Of wormwood
to denote the bitterness of the marriage state
She is exhorted to be obedient to her hus
band, and it is a custom in some districts fol
, the newly married wife to present the bride
4 groom with whip, in token of submission
and with this he seldom fails to show his au-
> thority In this cold and cruel country hus
: bands are sometimes known to torture theil
wives to death without any punishment fol-
the murder If a woman proves barren, the
husband generally prevails on her to retire
> into convent and leave him at liberty /
he fails in persuasion, he is permitted to whil
her into condescension.
: Such is the slavery in which the Musco
: vites are kept by their parents and guardian
) that they are not allowed to dispute any
union agreed upon by their elders, however
odious or incompatible it may be. This ex
:, tends so far that officers in the army are no
u permitted to marry without the consent 0
> the sovereign, and wives whom they do no
. want are even sometimes forced upon them
: Whether it be the result of this system o
! oppression, or of their savage climate, or 0
u the unnatural hot air of the stove-heated de
: partments, it is certain that more unlovel,
= race Of women than the Russian would b.
y difficult to find ''They want, says an Eng
: fish traveller, ''the genuine favor which on
y ly nature can give. That charming firmnes
and elasticity of flesh, 50 indispensably re
: quisite to constitute beauty, and so deliciou
y to the touch, exists not among the Russlal
females, or in very few of them"
II We are told of the Aleutian Islanders
/ who form a part of our new Russian-Ame
e rican acquisition, that they marry one, two
y or three wives, as they have the means {
! supporting them. The bridegroom takes tn
- bride upon trial, and may return her to he
. parents, should he not be satisfied but can
y not demanl his presents back again. N
} man is allowed to sell his wife without he
consent; but he may (and often does) assig
= her over to another. This custom, it is sale
; is availed Of by the Russian hunters, VIII
Is take Aleutian women or girls to wife for
~ time for a tritllng compensation.