The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1883-03-24
THE MARKET VALUE OF A
MAN.
Facts Brought Out by a Verdict
in q Recent Breach of
Promise Trial.

The price of husbands is looking
up. A New York jury has just fixed
a figure which will make every mar
ried woman in the country regard
herself a capitalist. II the price be
confirmed, husbands need give them
selves no more concern about endow-
ments or insurance. The uncertainty
in the question is the varying nature
of the value set upon a man.
Even when slavery fourished, the
ruling price Of q full grown man was
contingent upon extraneous condi-
tons. Neither looks, nor weight,
nor stature, governed the price alto
gether. Neither did the t~raits-vir-
tue, vice, amiabillty, irritability and
what not. These were never entered
IN the schedule that made n man
more valuable than another. The
question of the value of grown man
cannot, therefore, be settled by ref
erence to the scale existing in slave
times; and though the right of a man
to himself has been the object of war,
legislation. church government and
philanthropy since Esau rated him.
self at a mess of pottage, and Jacob
thought. Rachel worth twice seven
years of his toll, there is to this day a
curious f1uctuation in the value of a
man. For. example, a corporation
that has to do with humanity in bulk
sets a very low valuation upon the
mere tabernacle of the flesh, contest
ing with great bitterness the claims
of widows and orphans. The ruling
price Of the vital spark is fixed by a
jury, commonly at $1,000.
This price, however, rules in coun-
try districts where it would seem a
man is not of so much value as in the
city. What this difference in valua.
ton is based upon it would be invid-
ious even to speculate over
closely. The fact, however, seems
well established that, when rail-
way economy results IN the
mangling of a citizen of any of the
large towns, the urbane jury promptly
awards from $15, 600 to $4,000. When
railway parsimony does the farmer to
death in the rural regions, the
verdict is never more than
5 5000, AS high as $35,o00 was re-
Gently fixed by a Brooklyn jury for
the Gripping Of business man. It
will be seen, therefore, that a mans
right in himself is q, shifting sort OF
asset. The problem was complicated
some time ago when the body of MI.
Stewart was stolen. The thief, under
the Impression that the man who had
made millions would bring a ransom
in proportion, boldly entered the
charnel house and stole the body
hence. But, curiodsly enough, the
dead Stewart didn't evoke a penny
not even on the cynical estimate of
the poet which counted that:
Cesar dead and turned to clay
May stop a hole to keep the wind away.
The subject is revived by some
pending suits for damages. 1t seems
that men are more valued as lovers
than in any other relation. From
$50, 900 to 500, 900 is the ruling price
disappointed females set upon their
loss in the case of faithless lovers. A
celebrated case in New York a year
ago exposed curiously fiuctuating val
uations even here. The pretty Jewess
who was east off by her Richmond
swain claimed $4,000 and was made
happy by 81, 500. But in this case it
was shown that she considered her
"ice cream young man" the equiva-
lent of the:.difference. Miss Lawrence
who reclaimed her rights in tickle
Nj. FIemming, considers that envia-
BILE rake worth $4,000 to her. The
case, which was concluded Friday,
shows that, all told, the faithless
Flemming represents a money yalua-
ton of $l25, 600 to the detected sutton
that sum representing what she has
already received. Still, it must be
avowed that these figures may be con-
sidered fancy prices" as all men do
not rule so high, even in the market
of the Tilted, In antiquity there were
men whose ransom was fixed at an
equivalent weight in gold.
The bad Duke of Austria received
twice that sum for Richard Plan
taganet. When Cresus was on the
pyre, he offered a mountain of gold
for his life. But, as a rule, the price
of a man has been steadily increas-
ing. and it. is at once a testimony OF
the superiority Of our own race and
the appreciation Of the women of the
land, that the man is rated higher in
this country than anywhere else in
the world. In England noblemen
bring a good price, but the law is SO
unequal that it is difficult to assimil-
ate the demand with the market
valuation. In France men fetch low
figures, because the Courts rather
discourage the enterprise of the wo-
men. Here, however, a mar who
wants to find out his worth has only
to disappoint the hopes of a woman