Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1885-04-23
WEDDINGS.

Two weddings in n day in q city of33,'
600 inhabitants. Who will deny there was
not q boom in the matrimonial market yes
terdayP Sad to Say weddings all over the
cosutry are dangerously few, while unWhOle-
some Opponents and kindred species Of
Illegal mating are as dangerously frequent,
and indicate q radical lack of equilibrium in
this social and moral sphere Of ours.
Appropos of this increasing i~rregularity
everywhere, a writer in Connecticut writ
ing to the Sun declares it is the lax laws re-
lating to marriage and divorce in that
State that is accountable for the grow
ing tendency to celebaey. He states
further that latterly both New York
and Connectieut have attempted to limit
the cause for absolute divorce to adultery.
10 the former State the bill was defeated
By only o few majority. Writing further he
remarks: up to the time of the war it
was expected that the young Connecticut
citizens would be married and settled down
to the business of life not later than at Is
years Of age. The bachelor Of 80 found
himself an object Of no little contempt.
This was shown in countless little ways,
and in a small community vas apt to make
. man of sensitive feeling particularly uu-
comfortsbie. Such q a found that pub
lie Iaeihion had set him down as one not
1eihg his duty; an anomaly, and frequently
almost g curiosity. 1t Is probably well
within the correct figure to say that 90 per
cent. Of the young men were married be-
fore they were IS or 26 years old.
Il End BY an examination Of the figures
Of registrars Of births, marriages and deaths
in q few Of the towns, taking the country
towns where there has been slight influx Of
foreign population, that the number Of mar
risgss in each year for q number of years
back has been steadily decreasing, and that
during the year just passed there was q less
number than in any other year, though the
population has not decreased and in some
instances has increased. On inquiry ofthe
town Clerks il is found without exception
that at least 6hy per cent. of the young
men between q and 30 are unmarried, and
show no disposition to get married. Al
most al Of them are hard at work accumu
latipg wealth. The desire to get rich seems
to have superseded the desire to have q
family When they are spoken to about it
the i~nyariAble answer is, oh, by and by
when ! can support a wife and family in
the style they would expect, l may get
married
This writer in his comments upon the
tendency to celsbacy among theyOung men
Of Connecticut has to q considerable degree
mirrored the situation in Wheeling. Every
succeeding year the marriages are growing
less and the bachelors are on the increase.
Ifthis tendency to eelebaey on the part Of
men does not check itself through natural
causes, il may be necessary in the
near future for Legislatures to take
legal steps to make celebacY very unpop-
ular, such for instance as q heavy annual
6ne on al bachelors over the age of forty
years. Such q Law would have its objec-
tons too, because of the officially in find
ing 9 bachelor over that sge. The sisus.
ton Is wosful indeed, and for want Of time
the REGIsrER must dismiss it to g more
favorable opportunity, to analize the rise