Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1892-12-30
SELLING WIVES IN MARKET.

SUNNI Oh IhG OuBCOhB w Mon AAEk00 tine
Reigns of the Norman Kings.
The earlier Norman kings lay on
straw, and land was held at Aylesbury
on condition of finding this commodity
for the royal couch. Some of the old
tenures were exceedingly comforta BILE
things. The service was nominal and
the pay was gold. The kings cham
pion, who rode into Westminster hall
to challenge all corners who disputed
his masters title, was handsomely re-
warded. One of the Russians obtained
a grant of land in Dorsetshire for put
ting away the pieces after playing at
chess with the king.
A gentleman at Stafford, who held
the kings stirrup when he came to that
town, enjoyed a perpetual grant of a
dsh pond. Some obtained grants on
condition of saying daily paternoster
for the throne. Others gave an annual
snow ball or an annual rose in exchange
for most substantial privileges.
At Norwich-when Norwich was q
fishing station, though it is eighteen
miles from the sea-there was, by in
denture, an annual delivery of her
rings to the king. A certain number
of fish from the first yield were put in
twenty-four "pyes" we'll favored with
spices, and sent up to town. 1t was un-
derstood that there should be at least
FIVE behring's in every pye, but occa-
sionally the officers of the royal house
hold had to complain of short measure.
The wolf and boar hunting tenures
involved by no means a nominal serv-
ice in the early part of our history, nor
could the gentlemen in Hants be said
to have a sinecure whose business it
was "to keep in order the female do
| mestic servants and dismember male
factors" The latter must have been
by far the lighter flask. Women were
always bad to manage until some one
invented the art of treating them prop
erly.
The old art of management included
the right, or, at any rate, the custom
of selling wives in the open market
There is no room for doubt on this SUBJ
ject after many instances which Mr..
| Andrews has given by chapter and
| verse. The common people had a no.
ton that a husband might lawfully dis
pose of his wife in this way, provided
| he conducted the transaction in some
public place and delivered her to the
purchaser with a halter about her neck.
The sales were duly reported in the
newspapers of the period, without any
special comment, as items of every day
news.
SIN some instances market tolls were
| collected similar to those charged for
animals brought to the public market"
The business was usually conducted by
auction, but now and then it was man
| aged by private tender. One of the
| lowest prices is six dimes and quid OF
/ tobacco. In one instance a writer
ironically instanced the increasing
value of women in the market as a GER
tain criterion of advancing civilization,
the price of wives at Smithfield having
risen from half a guinea to three and
one-half guineas.
| At Carlisle, in 1882, farmer offered
his wife for sale in the following
terms: Gentlemen, it is her wish, as
| we'll as mine, to part forever. She has
been to me only born serpent
took her for my comfort and the good
of my home; but she became my tor
mentor, domestic curse, a night in
vasion and a daily plague" He then
thought proper to say a word or two
on 1.-The bright and sunny side'' of the
picture. ''She can read novels an6
| milk cows.
"She can laugh and weep with the
same ease that you can take glass o.
ale when thirsty. She can make but
ter and scold the maid; she can sins
Moore's melodies and plat her frills
and caps. 1 therefore offer her, with
all her PROJECTIONS and imperfections
for the sum of fifty shillings.''
Good old timesl But stay. In 1882
at Alfreton, Derbyshire, a husband solo
his wife in public house for a glass o
beer.-London News,