The evening times., 1898-11-23
In Most Cases Parents Make
the Matches.
HAPPY SHROVETIDE SEASON
1t Is Then That Smitten Lads and
How Proposals Are Made and Re-
jected-Charming Irish Wives and
Gallant Husbands.

And yet, though there seems to exist 8
widespread impression that strong, pas
sionate masterful love is, a characteristic
of the Irish temperament. love-making ir
Ireland is really very calm and placid
business, and the OLD song l have quoted
Notwithstanding, the average Irish peas
ant takes unto himself mate with as
clear head, as placid a heart, and as
steady a nerve as if he were buying a
cow at Ballinasloe Fair, says a writer in
Macmillan's
Love by no means decides all the mar
riages that are made in Ireland. The
match is often arranged in a ludicrously
cool, business-like and mercenary fashion
between the parents of the boy" and the
girl, the young people themselves hot
being allowed, and indeed not expecting,
any voice in the matter. But If there is
little romance in the origin of most of
the matrimonial contracts made in rural
Ireland, they are, as rule, entirely sue
cessful. The marriages thus prosaically
arranged are as happy as happy can be.
Pat and Mary fall fondly in love with
each other after they are made husband
and wife; children quickly spring up
around their hearth, and the older they
grow the more passionately do they cling
TO each other. Their domestic felicity is
rarely, if ever, disturbed by jealousy, for
Pat makes the faithfulest OF husbands
and Mary the fondest and truest of
wives and there is little or no Illicit pas
sion, the crimes which spring from that
source and make desolate so many homes
in other countries are almost unknown in
Ireland.
The great marrying season in ireland
is Shrovetide. During the forty days of
Lent the Irish peasantry, in obedience TO
the ordinances of the church, abstain
from matrimony as well as from eggs,
butter and milk Some time before the
approach of that holy season a farmer
with a marriageable son or daughter
whom he desires 10 see settled tells his
friends and neighbors OF The fact He
usually conveys the intelligence in an in
direct, offhand manner He meets n
friend at the fair or market, and says,
with a laugh: Whisper here, Jim I'm
training up my little Maggie for your
Johnny" 'Ah, now, Jim the other says,
you do me a CRATE favor entirely But
mind you, my little Johnny is very par
tcular. The boy do be sayin what a
CRATE fortin he'll want with his wife
The subject having thus been broached.
the parents discuss il whenever they meet,
and 1t often happens that long time
elapses and many discussion and wran-
gle takes place before the terms are fin
ally settled. The farm generally goes
with the male, and the great difficulty in
the arranging of matches is the fixing of
the girls dowry. consisting partly of
money and partly of furniture and culi-
nary utensils, as a set-off against the
land.
favorite proverb of the peasantry in
regard to matrimony is: Either marry
very young or become a monk very
young" Early marriages are the rule in
Ireland, and the poorest marry the earlf-
est.
And yet many of the Irish poor enter
into matrimony as sort of provident in
vestment for old age. A very intelligent
Irish peasant once said to ME: "A poor
man ought to marry young that his chill
dren may be able TO assist him when he
grows old When Pat and Biddy begin
housekeeping their little cabin is soon
filled with children, and the more their
flock increases the more they say: "Shure,
the childer will be crate support TO us
in our ould age" And happily this in
vestment for old age never fails them
In no country in the world is the affec-
ton between children and parents so
strong: in no country in the world is the
duty of childhood to provide for their
aged parents held so sacred as in Ireland
Four generations may be seen in MANY of
the poorest cabins in the west-the chill
dren, the young father and mother the
old grandparents and an ancient great
grandmother or great-grandfather The
large sums of money which have been an
nually sent by children In the colonies and
in America to parents in Ireland during
the past half century are another strik-
ing demonstration of this intense filIaI
affection.
But happily many of the marriages in
rural Ireland have their spice of romanca.
The match is made by the boy and gill
themselves. An Irish peasant maid in
the heyday of her youth, with her pretty
figure. her abundant black hair. her large
blue eyes, with their indescribable half
arch. half-shy expression. is quite ire
sistible; and the boy has too often an i'm
pressionable heart and 'deludhsri
tongue" to render it always necessary
that the parents should make the bar
gain" The youthful couples meet at
dances or on Sundays after mass-even a
wake is turned to account for n little
courting-and they are in hearty accord
with the boy who said, 1T is a CRATE
pleasure entirely to be alone especially
whin yer sweetheart is wild ye" do you
drame of me- Nike said the girl to her
lover as they walked arm in arm down
the lonely glen. "Drame of you. Kate 3?
Shure, tbs the way wild me that | can't
sleep dramin' of you. me darlin!" Yes.
they have the f1attering tongue, those
Irish boys. Och, | wish l was in all
for stealin' ye.' was the compliment one
of them paid to a pretty colleen Even
when they get a refusal they have a soft
word to say. Eileen was engaged to an
other boy. and so she had to say no to
Tim when he asked her. 'Wisha, thin,'
said Tim with a sigh. 81 wish you'd been
born twins, so that | cud have half OF
yez."
The girls of Ireland can afford just as
WELL if. indeed. not better than, the girls
of any other country, to take up an in
dependent position inIregard to matri-
mony, for the proportion they bear to the
males is not so large in ireland as in
other lands.
The boys, therefore. have often great
deal of difficulty in inducing the girls to
agree to getting the words said' as the
marriage ceremony is 'eoiloqually desc lib
ed. In one case have heard Of, farm
servant was told by the girl whom he
proposed that she wasstoor much alta che {
to her mother. and her mother to her t,