The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1874-11-26

LII QeldulI VI u puUllC ttHIlOuHSCmSho Va g
betrothal, people in the habit of watching tue
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 it they are engaged. Up to
that time the madens 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
lightened. The future 'son-in-law meets his
sweetheart's 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
a young man pay for himself and sweetheart,
while the worthy matron just as regularly Is
left to the resources of her own purse. II the
three visit the theatre he purchases tickets tor
two, while the mother looks out for herself,
and the rule is scarcely ever broken.
If it be said on the one hand that the moth
er, having shutHed 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 ex'
pected of German lover, the support OF the
Young lady is in itself enough, and he ought
not to be asked to have the mother super
added-at least until after the marriage.
Young people engaged are expected to- pass
three hundred and sixty-five evenings a year
in each others society If they belong to the
middle or poorer classes this phenomenon is
generally witnessed at cheap beer houses and
gardens, varied in summer by an occasional
rural excursion. If they have a more exalted
position in the social scale, there will general
iy be facilities for entertaining the victim at
the home of the intended, and for beer gardens
they will now and then substitute a concert or
play. But the full quota of evenings is al
ways vigorously exacted. i,
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 Engllsh
reader would have some trouble IN concelvlng
the progress made within year or two by
that extraordinary business, and not even
German can forecast its future possibilities
It 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 prudishness is now thrown
over the traffic. There are now great offices,
with their managers, their matrons, their led
gers and hierarchy of clerks, and which offer
applicants of either sex their choice from two
to three hundred candidates. They issue their
catalogues, like the old book shops, and omit
no important details. Thus the candidates ida
will be classified something like this: Two
hundred and fifty maidens from the middle
class, one hundred and seventy-tive widows of
the same class, ninety maidcns and widows
from the aristocracy, with fortunes, &C.; !" and
on the other side, ''threc hundred gentlemen,
merchants and that Glass; one hundred govern,
ment officials, fifty country landowners, &c"
And recently the business has risen to the dig
nifty of an organ of its own. The "Nlatrlmo-
NAL Journal" issued weekly, contains the ad,
vertisements of these agencies, as well as OF
candidates themselves, notices of books, and
miscellaneous matter we'll calculated to set
forth the beauties of married life and to en-
courage the wayeringrs#BssIs@ Correspondence
n .-