The age-herald., 1897-11-25
'CHILDWN IN LITTLE ITALY
Betrothed When Infants and Mar
 ried at Sixteen.
TWO WEDDINGS NECESSARY
Aldermen Perform the First-Sunday Process sOns to the Church to Strengthen
 and Solemize the Second.
Ennn, ths New York Press,

From the New York Press.
 For the marriage at tender age Of the young girls of the Italian quarters, the aldermen of the city are responsible. To @ large extent the national customs of the Italians prevail among the immi- grants. In Italy the practice of in- fantile betrotlhals and youthful mar ridges is general. The rule, too is to have a civll marriage first and a church ceremony afterward. As practiced in 2 New York the justices are rarely resortsd to, nlnety-nine in one hundred of the Italians going to the aldermen for the civil formaltties.
 Every bright Sunday in the year Mott and Mulberry and other streets in the older Italian quarter are gay with we'd ding processlons. The knott having been tied by an alderman a month or so be- fore, the wedding party repairs to the church to have the union Strengthened and solemmzed by the priest. In fair weather the carriages are open, for poor, indeed, IS the bridegroom who cannot hire half a dozen hacks that the event in his life shall pass off In splendor It is also a chara oteristic of the Italian that all such affairs shall be celebrated in as public a manner as possible. There Is no shrinking bride, and no rattled bridegroom
 On the street about the railways Through which the bride must pass are crowds made up from the people of the nelghborhood. Usually, for some reaIson fewer men are seen loungdng about theI steps and doors than on week days. Wo- men with bare heads and brie4t-oolored gowns. and children who are hardly iarge enough to stand up, jam around the doors. The swarthy complexion of the people sets off we'll their gaudy dress. but good looks would command high premium if they were thereL
 In the first carriage Is inc bride usraI- dy yelled. Her appearance at the door is greeted With a shower of Italian can dies, and of pennies which means good luck. No child is too small to have two or three bits of candy in it's tiny fist, and the tossing is accompanied With much daugh CT and he crack ng of many jo1 es. Wlth her in the hack sit nep bridesmaids, while in the second carriage is the bridegroom, already husband, with his 10 sSt man and one or two Intimate friends Relatives and other friends fill the rest of the carriages, and tht procession moves down the streets to the church. On the return a feast Is held in the home of the pair. Then the bride begins to help earn the family living In candy factories or in clothing shops
 
 other prsse tl.e t bP iaderoom for the hand of his daugh.er. Her school ing has stopped at the age of 12, and four years later, on theaayeIage, she is a. , wife. But her brothers continue to at tend school, and geb a fair American education. The husbands, too. are young, though not within half a dozen years of the age of the wives. Occasionally, the husbands are 30 or 35 years old but the usual age is not far from the year of majority
 About the first thing Italians do when coming to America is to declare thelr in- tsntion of becoming citizens for they know that i'm New York at least only citizens are employed as city laborers. Often especially in winter when many emergency men are employed, the incen- tive to mary Is the preference shown to married men, who presumably have fam lilies to support.
 All through the three Italian districts of New York may be seen the faces of the child wives. Prematureiy old. joyless and without a ray of hope or ambition on their countenances, they begin rearing children at an age when girls elsewhere, and even their own brothers are still go- ing to school. The Italian Is a fairly lsnd though an insansly jealous husband. He is not abusive as a rule. but the older he is, the more closely he guards his child wife, who Isn't old enough to know how to sim.
 Deplorable as seems the crowded con- dition of the Italians in a big city like New York. these people are really better off, as far as opportunity and advan tages go. than they were in their native land, or than they are when they go into the country districts of America to work on railroads and so on. In the city they can send their children, or at least their sons to school, an advantage which is denied them in Italy, and which does not present itself even in the country of their adopted land. Italian children are brglrt-minded and quick to learn, and their parents are pround of them and usually anxious that the boys shall be sent to school.