The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-09-16

girls you have to WOO, to hatter, to be ro-
mantle and are often precipitatsd from the
highest point OF bliss 70 the abyss Of de-
spair. But in counting a widow it is one
UNMARRIED season OF ecstatic bliss. You may
propose at any time with the confidence
That a favorable answer awaits you"
VARIETIES IN MARRIAGE.
After giving these valuable recipes or
rules for guidance in wooing, which every
bachelor should cut out and carefully pre-
serve, the odd little volume referred to adds
a few items of information respecting mar
| riAge In general.
| Women were considered originally in the
light Of property Even In the New Tesla
ment they are spoken of from that point of
| view, together with the OK, the ass and
other chattels. Like other useful and
more or less precious possessions, they
we're In ancient times to q consider
able extent monopolized by the rich, being
| expensive Injuries to the poor. In ancient
Assyrla all the manageable girls we're
assembled once a year at a fair, according
TO herodotus, where, after being exhibited
and inspected by the men who wanted
| wives, they we're put up for sale at public
auction. First we're put up the most beau
tiful, and competition for them made them
come high. But the ugly ones were also to
De provided for, and with them it became
a question not how much the purchaser
would give, but what he should receive as
dowry. The extravaganza prices paid for
pretty girls went to make up the dowries
OF those less favored by nature. In Thrace
| the fairest virgins were sold for the benefit
Of the state, and the magistrates OF Crete
| exercised the sole power of selecting wives
for the young men.
In China il is considered 80 much of a
public duty TO marry and have children that
bachelor of 20 is an object of contempt.
Wives are purchasable commodities. and a
beautiful woman of the upper class costs
from 81, 900 to $1,000. The marriage Of the
Soonga Tartars is determined by race on
horseback. The lady has a fair start If
she permits her sutton to overtaks her she
becomes his wife. In Western Tartary wo-
men vary in price from 2 to 3 rubles up to
200 or 800. Every man mas as many
as he can afford, and rich merchants
have wives at different points they visit
In certain Siberian tribes the bride is car
ried at night on mat to the bridegroom,
with the words Here, wolf, take thy
lamb" Among the Ostiacs the husband
can live with his wife at her fathers when
he has paid half the price set on her, but he
cannot beat her without the fathers con-
sent nor carry her away until the whole
price is paid.
MATRIMONIAL CURIosITIEs.
In Samatra the Battas have as many
wives as they please, generally five or six,
who all live in one common apartment with
the husband, each having a separate fire.
place. Husbands purchase their wives of
their fathers-in-law, gambling them away
| or selling them whenever they choose.
| In New Holland, before a girl is given
to her husband, two of her front teeth
are knocked out. The happy lover then
throws a kangaroo skin over der shoulders,
marks her with painted stripes OF different
| coors and orders her to carry his provision
bag to bis hut. Among some tribes of the
Congo Basin the men take their wives for
year on trial, at the end of which time
either party may annul the contract When
the Catholic missionaries tried to abolish
| this custom the mothers resisted, declaring
it TO be wrong that a girls happiness
should be risked by binding her life TO a
man who might prove a totally unsuitable
companion.
In Dahomey all unmarried females are
the property of the sovereign. Wives are
state monopoly, like tobacco in France.
Once year all the marriageable girls are
brought before the king, who selects those
he wishes for himself and then sells the
others to his subjects. Each mau pays a
certain price and takes whatever one the
king sees tit to give him. This monarch
has 5000 wives. The King Of Ashautee has
1888, and the prosperity of the kingdom is
believed TO depend on his keeping up this
exact number. 74 .. =. .
ANTIQUITY FPoLYGAMY.
Polygamy was praotioed by the petriarchs
and was continued among the jews as long
as they remained an independent nation. IL
was the custom for every man TO have as
many wives as he pleased and could main
tain. This practice was common over q
large part Of Europe until a comparatively
recent period, though discouraged by the
Greeks, prohibited by the Romans and
finally interdioted by the Church OF Rome.
In Christian Europe, as late as the sixth
| century, 1t was enacted that any man mar
ried to several wives should do penanca.
1t was ordained at the council of Narbonne
that such clergymen as were the hus-
bands of two wives might be presbyters aud
deacons, but should not be allowed to per-
form marriage or conservation. plurality
of wives WAS allowed III some of the Euro
pean states In the sixteenth century. When
Luther was applied TO by Philip, Landgrave
of Hesse- Cassel, for permission to marry a
second wife, while living with his own, the
Princess Of Savoy, he assembled a synod Of
six OF the principal rsformers. They de-
cided that, as the gospels nowhere in ex-
press terms Commanded monogamy, and
that as polygamy had been praesiced by the
highest dignitaries Of the church, the re-
qutred permission should be granted.