The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-23

rarely happens that husband and wife die at
the same moment. Some of these widows
and widowers will remarry-more Of the lat
ter than the former, and because of this fact
the actual number Of women who marry will
exceed the actual number of men. The rule
seems to be that about one in three widowers,
and one in four widows, remarry.
OF one hundred marriages, about thirteen
of the men will be widowers, and only eleven
of the women will be widows, the bachelors
numbering eighty-seven, and the spinsters
eighty, nine. On general principles, there
may be no serious objection to old Wellers
advice, Beware of vidders;" but we, not
basing our conclusion upon domestic expert
ence, but upon series of mathematical cal
culations, can absolutely affirm that widows
do not by any means, monopolize the matri-
monial market and that there is more to be
feared from one spinster than from dozen
widows-let bachelors make q note of this
faet-for the truth is, that spinsters have
better success against widows in the hunt for
husbands than bachelors have against
widowers in the winning of wives. And, as
all the hunting and winning is above the will,
and superior to it, we cannot say 'tbeware"
to any, but simply admonish all to accept the
conditions, and to yield as gracefully as pos
sible to their predestinate fate, whatever it
may be-whether single blessedness or
welded woe, conjugal felicity or unwedded
discomfort.
Suppose there be hundred weddings in
New York within given time, in all respects
of the average kind, how many of these per-
sons will be minors? From Paracelsus and
Cagllostro down to Home and Fox, not one
OF all the soothsayers and clairvoyants can
tell you that, No palm-reading gypsy, no
spirit from the vast deep, let him be called
by no matter what boasting Glendower, can
tell half SO much of these occult events as
this interrogating mathematician will learn
from his curious figures and bewildering signs.
Ask him, and he will reply, without any
mummery or gibberish, twenty-four will
have been married and about nineteen will be
under age. OF this latter number all but one
will be women-spinsters not yet out of their
teens At all events, this is the result of his
present calculations, and if time and in
creased numbers should alter the averages he
will learn the fact sooner than any one else.
The remainder will be bachelors and spinsters
of the average age of 29'5 for the former,
and 25 46 for the latter.
What the law is that makes bachelors SO
much more prudent than spinsters we will
not undertake to say; but certain it is that
maidens make much more haste than young
men in getting into the matrimonial net.
Still it must be remembered that girls,
whether prudently or not, are regarded as
manageable at fifteen, and are certainly so
at seventeen; so that, in view of the fact that
only eighteen in every hundred of the delicate
creatures who marry are under twenty years
of age, while forty three of the same hundred
are between twenty and twenty-five, and
twenty-five more between twenty-five and
thirty, we must candidly confess that they
manifest degree of prudence in the matter
that would seriously disturb Mr.. Malthus
were he only aware of it. We will not say
that marriage previous to the adult age is in
variably indiscreet; but we will defy any one
to form just conclusion in regard to the age
of discretion from the study of marriage sta
tistics. To find this result the marriage and
mortuary tables must be studied together.
The question is of some importance, but it
must be unwillingly deferred.
But II women come upon the manageable
list earlier than men, they suffer the incon-
venience of being stricken earlier from it.
After forty-hve, women are no longer re-
garded as eligible, matrimonially, and the
demand for wives of this age is SO slight as
to be hardly worth considering, although we
find an occasional widow-still more rarely
a spinster-willing to marry even after
having passed the sprightly age of threescore
years and ten. Under twenty-five years of
age the number of women who marry is q
little more than twice as great as the number
of men; but, after forty-tive, the number of
Benedicts is more than thrice that of the
brides. In one thousand marriages of the
average kind as to ages, fourteen women and
forty-nine men will have passed their ninth
lustrum. Widows remarry at an average age
of thirty-nine years, while the average age of
widowers who again take to themselves con-
jugal partners is forty-one or thereabout.
We will not undertake to tell each of our
fair readers how old she will be when led to
the altar blushing bride, if that should
prove to be her destiny; but we can tell her
what the chances are in the present state of
our knowledge. of statistical facts. If we
take the weddings that actually occur, we
shall find that in every thousand there will be
one hundred and seventy-nine wives under
twenty years.. while there will be only nine
husbands of that tender age. But perhaps
these facts will be better stated in statistical
terms, thus:-In every thousand marriages
there will be