Wilmington daily commercial., 1874-08-19
Courtshfp and matrfmony in Ger-



Berlin Correspondence of London News.l
In default of public announcement of be-
trothal, people in the habit of watching the
actors from evening to evening may tell by one
infallible sign when the happy climax is reached.
AS soon as the swain begins to pay the young
lady's reckoning in addition to his own, depend
on 1t they are engaged. Up to that time the
maidens Gansebraten has been reckoned at
the close of every evening with the account
OF the family and paid for by the
fond parent but now the burden has been light
ened. The future son-n-law meets his sweet
hearts expenses but them alone. Even if there
be nobody else with them but the mother, she
always pays her own bill. Night after night one
may see at the same restaurant young man pay
for himself and his sweetheart, while the worthy
matron Just regularly is left to the resources
OF her own purse. II the three visit the theatre
he purchases stalls for two, while the mother
takes her place in the queue, and looks out for
herself, and the rule is scarcely ever broken
II it be said, on the one hand, that'the mother,
having shuffled off the responsibility of her
daughters entertainment, ought to be satisfied
with that it may be urged, on the other hand,
that in view of the fidelity and regularity expected
of German lover the support of the young
lady is IN itself enough, and he ought not 10 be
asked to have the mother superadded-at least
until after the marriage. Young people engaged
are expected to pass three hundred and sixty
u
they belong to the middle or lower classes this
phenomenon is generally witnessed at cheap
beer houses and gardens, varied in summer by
an occasional rural excursion. II they have
more exalted position i'll the social scale, there
will generally be facilities for entertaining the
ucnm at the home of the intended, and for beer
gardens they will now aud then substitute a con-
cert or play. But the full quota of evenings is
always vigorously exacted.
Berlin is fast outgrowing slow matrimonial
machinery. The diplomacy of the mother and
the harmless arts of the daughter are giving
way to the more simple and more expeditions
system of matrimonial agencies. An English
reader would have some trouble in conceiying
the progress made within year or two by that
extraordinary business, and not even German
can forecast its future possibilities. 1t is not
enough that there are women who, in seductive
advertisements, make known their benevolent
purposes, and who, In modest apartments and in
private way, bring the anxious together, Not
even the slender veil of that degree of prudish-
ness is now thrown over the traffic There are
now great offices, with their managers, their
matroHs, their ledgers and hierarchy of clerks,
aud which offer applicants of either sex their
choice from two or three hundred candidates.
They issue their catalogues, like the old book
shops, and omit no important details. Thus the
candidates will be classified something like this
Two hundred and tfty maidens from the bour-
geoisie, It's widows from the same class, 80
maidens and widows from the aristocracy, with
fortunes, &C.; and on the other side, 1900 gem
tlemen, merchants and that class, 100 Govern
ment officials 30 country land owners, &C." And
recently the business has risen to the dignity of
its own. The Matrimonial journal, issued
weekly, contains the advertisements OF these
agencies, as we'll as Of candidates themselves.
notices OF books, and miscellaneous matters well
calculated to set forth the beauties of married
life and encourage the wavering.