Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1871-01-06
Five Hundred Weddings a Day.
The London News says

Ino 11onuOn news says .i-l AHss 4 o..
Marrying and giving in marriage are
such characteristic occupstionso of society
that they probably went on within the walls
of starving Metz, and we know that they ere
going on within the walls of beleagured
Paris. There is, however, a certain def
mite relation between the number of mar
riages and the prosperity of the people
Englishmen and women, as q rule, only
marry when they have something to marry
on, and in hard times they. put off their
marriages until they are better off. During
the long depression Of commerce the mar
riages declined, aud it is one proof of re-
viving trade that during the spring of
this year the number of marriages rose as
nearly as possible to the usual average
During tha quarter ending 30,h June
there were nearly 10000 more persons
married than In the first month of the
year. The number of weddings in April,
May and June was 43, ,491--an average OF q
little more than 500 day.. Five hundred
marriages day, though they are scattered
over the whole surface of England, gives
us tolerabIy large aggregate of social
happ1nes and comfort. Five hundred new
households set up every day gives US a
vivid sense of the increase of the nation.
OF course we should have to set over
against these several hundred households
dissolved every day by misfortune, death,
emigration, and all the influences which
dlsintegrate society.
But there would still remain large
margin, quite large enough to answer the
question put every day in every growing
city and town in the kingdom-"W do
the people come from to fill all the new
houses 2" It is these 500 marriages day,
forming 500 new households, which are at
once the means and the sign of our national
progress.
a New York letter writer says Never in
the history of New York has anything been
known like the extravaganza in dress,
equippage and entertain nments. The popu-
lar daughter OF an eX-collector, married
last week, was the fortunate recipient of
gifts valued, at the lowest estimation, as
$50, ,O0O 4 country seat at the Hudson,
thoroughly furnished; carriages and horses;
O CHECK for $10,O0O; a riviere Of solitaire
diamonds, and coffee pot of sold gold, for
which the donor paid So, 900, were among
the most expensive presents; while jewe,s
laces and articles of vertu are said to have
poured in until there was 20 room for 10 re.
A point lace veil and foInces, rangiuR
from $500 to 81, 800, have come to be re-
garded as quite an Indispensable accOmpa
niment TO the marriage ceremony and w4d
dig ring. sg
General /. W. GUSTS Lee, second eon
to General Robert E. Lee, has formally
accepted the presidency of Washington
College, at Lexington. General Lee h4
been for some time a professor In the Viz
ginia Military Institute, where be was
much distinguished for ability. The per
sonai resemblance to his father is very
striking. s.a
The Montgomery Mail says. Colonel
Susan e. Anthony is of the opinion that
woman should never marry. 1t would
seem that all mel concur in this opinion
of the Colonel, SO far at least as she him
self is concerned"
The Hon. W. III. Tweed, the great New
York city Democratic leader. has sent q
note, with a check for fifty thousand dol
lars, to Mr.. J. Shandley, to be distributed
''through few earnest and practical citi
zens" among the poor of the seventh ward
of New York. Sheriff O'Brinc has jus
given four thousand tons of coal to be dis
tributed among the poor people Of the
twenty-first ward of New York. He has
done similar actions for years.
Now an Ohio paper denies that thaG 1OS
year old man shelled 900 bushels OK COIN
in one day-it was only 897, and they
wouldn't lie for three bushels of corn
The Missouri Democras very truly re
uaThS UDeb I1lo uaJ Vi party organs Is over,
and that people want independent news
papers. - ..-
The railway from st. Petersburg to
Reyol, iu the Baltic, 2CO miles long, has
been orened. and gives Russian m erchant4
a fair opportunity of competing with Eng.
land in the Baltic trade
Egypt could ia few days place under
arms 100 900 men, many of whom are
armed with the beat breech- loading rifles
Rabbits are a nuisance ia Indiana from
their great number. AMI ten cents head
ia paid for killing them by the farmers
I Japan notifies Chinese residents that
they must not smoke opium under pain of.
punishment. sI-.-.
There are more convicts IN the Joliet
an penitentjary than ever before the
number having reached 400. - s
Slow--It took the Pilgrim Society two
hundred and fifty years to find out that