National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-10-09
ORIENTAL NOTES.
India as q Marriage Market.

The Bombay Gazette, Of the 18th ultimo, thinks
that the Indian mother must often look back with
q fond regret to thoEe days when the matrimonial
market was overstocked, and when suitors were
more plentiful than spinsters. Her memory, per-
haps, carries her back to her own days Of girl
hood, when, from the moment she sailed at
Gravesend 10 the distant hour when she was hap
PLY disposed of in the far MofussiI all male crea-
ton was at her feet with whatever wealth men
had to offer in exchange but for her smiles. Those
were the Gays when soldiers, civilians and mer-
chants hun ered and thirsted for marriage. There
was no shIlly. shaIly abou. popping the question
in thofe good old times; the great difficulty was
to prevent superRbundance Of popping from too
many lovelorn SWANS together. But things are
altered materially Tor the worse now, and there
is O tigbtness in the Indian matrimonial market
in this present year OF gracs, which, We vertably
believe, will drive some mothers to despair:i If
events do not speedily arse TO restore
THE REPUTATION OF INDIA
as good market for the girls. Considering the
very thin disguise that parents nowadays think
Il necessary 10 shrOud their connubial designs in
from society at large, 1t would be absurd 70 pre-
tend a delicacy which nobody sees on the great
domestic question Of marrying and giving In mar
rage. The alternative for a young lady without
goyerness or companion. Sensible girls see the
matrimonial question from a business-like point
Of view, and are content to marry and De happy
ever afterwards, as we sincerely wish they may
be- However, II sensible girls cannot meet the
sensible men to make things smooth between
them, difficulty arises that is not readily to be
surmounted and it is In the vain efforts TO climb
this hurdle IN the course matrimonial that some
parents tumble to the ground with grieVous
der such acrobatic feats painful necessity. The
fact is that young men cannot marry In India any
longer with those prospects Of comfort which; IN
something awfully jolly. What, with the rise In
prices, the debased rupee, the frightful extrava-
gance Of feminine fashions, and the parsinony
OF the Government Of India, which has abolished
hundreds of appointments, cut down the salaries
Of as many more, no young man with his senses
about him will risk the maintenance Of two per-
sons-possIbly an eventual doZen-on an Income
insufficient for the purposes OF one. Thus Miss
Quihye is left lamenting on the shore of celtbacy
While Captain Null naVigates his own
CANOE ON THE OPEN OCEAN
there, avoiding the quicksands represented by
waving tresses, bright eyes and twinkllng ankles
that, In theee days Of state economies, bring men
waiia, who asked the Government for a compass
sionate allowance wherewith to educate his
children, is no exaggeraton Of the poverty Of the
Gay. Hundreds of married men in India st this
moment are q hting the battle Of life with very
little-we might almost say, without any ammu-
TO sSy e9p IN
here now, and debt is now incurred In India not so
much through extravaganza as under necessity.
Naturally, when watching the shattered wrecks
Cf matrimo nial adventures about them,
THE YOUNG AND WARY
gentleu en- of the country sheer clear OF such
signals of distress; whence, we repeat, the
memory Of the mother for the past, and the
decadence Of q trade which dealt chiefly IN
beauty. In Justice, however, TO the young men
from the Mofussil, We must say that the mon
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS of female dress has much to
do with their avoidance Of marriage. Ten
guinea dresses and three guinea bonnetE, coming
fast and furious on one another to answer the de-
mands OF church, dances and dinners upon them,
are enough to bring any modest income to I'M
timely grief; but such Is the for dress to-day
that we constantly girls willfully frightening
away their lovers with their gorgeous robes
rather than deny themselves the qualification Of
Haunting them in the faces Of other women, This
may be pleasure for the moment, but 1t certainly
does not induce proposals. In short, between
dress and her lover, the girl falls TO the ground,
which Is pity for nature doubtless intended her,
but for worth and his kind, to be q gracious wife
and the happy mother Of children.