The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-06-25
FREE LOVE IN AUSTRALIA.
A Country Where the Old Men Mo,
nopolize all the Manageable
Women.
SATURDAY. Review

In Australia, as elsewhere, tie OF
more or less permanence and acknowl-
edged validity binds men to their part
ners. Marriage, again, is surrounded,
as among civilized people, by laws of
forbidden degrees" which are very
curious, very little understood, and
which i'll many ways resemble, while in
others they seem to differ from, the
laws of other undeveloped peoples. The
dominant male of a group-father,
eldest brother or uncle-has the custo-
mary right of swapping away the young
women of the group in exchange for
other young women whom it is lawful
for him to marry. 1t is clear that old
men with families have the best chance
of getting more wives, while young men
with no sisters are likely to remain
bachelors. If this system worked itself
out, each tribe would consist of few
overgrOwn harems and n set of wild
bachelors. As it happens, young men
and women revolt against the old, and
voluntary elopements or marriages by
capture are common. The course of
true love runs anything but smooth.
The lover is exposed to the "Ordeal of
spears" which are hurled at him by the
relatives of the lady. The runaway
bride is beaten, perhaps her feet are
speared, to prevent her from running
away again. If young pair are coura-
geOus and true to each other, however,
the sympathy of the group usually
comes round to them, and they enter on
peaceful married life. 1t has been said
that the old men sometimes give wives
to the young, who thus "take stock,
as the ancient Irish said, and become,
in a way, the vassals Of the old fellows.
Society in Australia is not sufficiently
advanced for it but, according to some
authorities, a very Australian state of
things prevails in rural Russia.
The Responsibilities of Humorists.
Boston Traveller
Oliver Wendell Holmes informs us
that
I" 1t is very serious thing
To be a funny man,
a reputation for wit, or made the &C
quaintance of one of those preternatur-
ally solemn and funeral-looking indi-
viduals whose lives are made miserable
by the consciousness that the public
looks to them for diurnal dose of dis
guised physic in the shape of Jokes, can
corroborate the genial Doctors state
ment. The responsibility entailed by
a reputation for being perennial fount
of spontaneous humor is enough to make
a man prematurely aged. He must
maintain a high-water of hi
larity, and occasionally surpass himself
Not satisfied with his professional efforts
in this line, he is expected to scatter
jests around him in his daily walk and
to write neatly turned ep-
igrams for young ladies' albums, and to
scintillate at social entertainments. III
he is invited out to dinner it is a tacit
understanding that he shall pay for his
meal by his hlumor, and it behooves him
to 90 plentifully provided with a stock
of extempOre puns and conundrums, to
be dispensed at intervals. If he does
not feel up to the mark, his host will
probably spur up his tagging energies
with the remark that he is unusually
dull, or some other pleasing reminder Of
his breach of the implied contract. A
fearful warning against the social perils
of a humorist's career is conveyed in the
anecdote of the gentleman who habitu-
ally earned his dinners by his wit, and
on one occasion of temporary absent
was recalled to a sense
of his duties to society by the fol-
lowing message delivered in an audi
BILE tone by the daughter of the hostess;
" Mammals compliments to Mr.. -,
and she wishes to know when he is GO
ing to begin to be funny"