The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-04-07
THE BACHELOR.
Treatment He Received in Ancient
Times mt the Laws Hands.
Pittsburg Gazette.

iitSpAi
AS matters stand at present, the bachelor
as a householder, at any rate-contributes
nothing to the rates and taxes of his coun-
try, whereas the married nan mas to pay
both for his own privileges and for those OF
the single man, This, 10 say the least, is
hardly fair. Why. then, not revert to an
ancient usage, and subject the bachelor to
pecuniary penalties for his selp-appointed
immunity from the cares of domestic life?
When q proposal was made not so long
ago to tax the bachelors of France as they
were taxed in the days of the First Re
public, the fact was recalled that republics
generally have been hard upon the celibates.
The wise Plato condemned the single men
to a fine, and in Sparta they were driven at
stated times to the temple of Hercules by
the women, who there drilled and castl-
gated them IN true military style.
The ancient Romans, too, were severe
with their bachelors, who were made to pay
heavy fines; and, worse than that, for, after
the siege of Veil, Camillus is recorded to
have compelled them to marry the widows
of the soldiers who had fallen in the war.
Again, in the time of Augustus, the mar
ried men, all other things being equal, were
preferred to the single men for the public
offices. Then the Roman who had three
children was xempted from personal taxes
but were prevented from inheriting the
property of any one not a Roman citizen.
Coming to more recent. times. we have
several instances of a like kind recorded
for us bv a recent writer on the subject.
In the French settlement of Canada. for
example. the single men. that they might
be forced to marry. were subjected 70 neavy
taxation and TO restrictions on their trade
anu movements SCtfC iiy
Those who married were dealt with, on
the other hand. in a generous spirit Not
only were they provided with a good wife
and a. comfortable home, but they were
rewarded accordine to the number of their
offspring. The father of ten children, for
instance, was pensioned for life at the rate
OF 800 livreS a year. If he had twelve
children, he had leo livres a wear more
and the amount ran up to l,2O ifvres a
year when fifteen children blessed the
union.
About the close of the seventeenth CEN
trrrv the local authorities of Eastham, in
Massachusetts, voted that every unmar-
ried man in the township should kill six
~blackbirds or three crows yearly as long
as he remained single. producing the scalps
in proof; and as a penalty for not obeying
the order he was forbidden to marry until
he had made up all arrears.
The requirements here were almost norni-
nal: but it was somewhat different in Mary
land. where half a century later the col
nnial Assembly IMPOSED a tax of 5 shilings
yearly upon all bachelors over thirty-as
we'll as upon widowers without children
who were possessed with $500
when William III chose to single out the
bachelors for special enactments. in those
days any commoner who remained single
at twenty-five had to pay a shilling fine
yearly. and the amount was increased with
rank or title. A duke was supposed to be
a special offender in not taking a wife, and
had TO paw for his within to the extent
of twelve pounds ten snlliings per annunl.
1t is thus evident that the fact was recog-
nized that the prosperity of a country de-
ponds upon its married citizens.