The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-01-02
COST OF Love
-courtship and Marriage In
New Jersey For A
Year.
Special to the Jersey City News.

TRENTON, Jan. 2, 1S94.-The statistics just
issued show that there were 1920 marriages
in the State during the past year. Just con-
slider for a moment the great amount of
money spent i'll connection with 1920 mar
riages. 1t means just 1920 courtships, the
length of which-that depends like many
other things on the girl. But seeking a
happy medium, we may fairly take eighteen
months as an average.
Say that one half of the sweethearting
couples are so situated that letter writing be-
comes a necessity, say they correspond with
each other every week, and that is not above
the limit by any means. Put them on q
moderate allowance of two sheets of paper
and a envelope, and we shall see the ,443, 100
sweet nothings amount in a mass to a Sta
toner's bill Of S14, 433. go at one cent apiece.
The stamps which Uncle Sam ordains shall
be put on these letters will bring the postage
bill up to SOS, S63. 20 more.
But these are small matters to think
about. The jewellers must be visited and
will reasonably enough average S. each, a
total of $50, 100. Of course, the lover must
buy peanuts and ice cream for his sweet
heart, let alone the candy for the little
brother, and surely $25 is as small average
for courtships when one thinks OF the ex-
| penses our nabobs must meet before they be-
com benedicts. This will call for at least
S430,500 for the 1920 courtships. Then
comes the wedding rings, some costly, some
| cheaper, but the soon-to-be-husband is afraid
to pay less than IS for the ring because plate
| win wear off, and a wife who finds in a few
years that she was welded with a plated
ring is liable to say something. These little
~circlets also call for at least $S7,0 DOC.
Then come the railway companies. They
must surely reap a golden harvest with the
inevitable trips and travelling of sweet
| hearts to meet each other. We LAY safely
claim $40 a fair average, which, when paid
for, each courtship will roll up S344,400
more.
But all these are only preliminaries, the
| greatest expenditures come with the wedding
day. There is the trousseau, more or less
| costly according to circumstances, for the
bride, and at least a new suit for the groom.
| Taking only the moderate sum of $50 in
each case, a total of about $5l6,600 will be
| reached.
That there are license costs and ministers
fees, which will amount to at least $40, this
insignificant sum adds STE, 200 more to the
debt side. OF course there must be a we'd
| ding cake and some sort of breakfast or sup
per, reckon these at only $40 and we get
SIP, 200. There are carriages also to be paid
for and if one carriage is allotted to a we'd
ding at the nominal charge of IS, just $50, 100
more is added.
Finishing up the honeymoon we shall
find another tolerable sum to De charged
TO the costs of matrimony. Here there
will surely be diversity enough; every
stage between the favorites of fortune,
who may fit luxuriously through Europe
for a year, to the steady daily toiler whose
idea of bliss is limited to day off. If we
accept S25 as a reasonable average of so
many honeymoons we have the sum of $780,
500. Thus without speaking of furnishing or
the preparations for married life and con
filming ourselves to the expenses of courtship
and the honeymoon, we see that the annual
marriage census of New Jersey represents a
ton which would certainly indicate that
marriages are by no means bad for trade.