The times., 1898-11-20
In Most Cases Parents Make
the Matches.
HAPPY SHROVETIDE SEASON
Ii Is Then That SmItten Lads and
Lasses Are Given In Marriage.
How Proposals Are Made and Re-
jected-Charmins Irish Wives and
Gallant Husbands.


close on a century ago, says:
Love is the soul of a neat Irishman,
lie loves all that's lovely and loves all ne can
And yet, though there seems to exist
widespread impression that strong, pas
sionate masterful love is a characteristic
of the Irish temperament, love-making In
ireland is really 4 very calm and placid
business, and the old song / have quoted
Notwithstanding, the average Irish peas
ant takes unto himself Il mate with as
clear head, as placid a heart, and as
steady a nerve as if he were buying a
cow at BalIinasloe Fair, says a writer in
MacmHlan'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 a 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
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 to see settled tells his
friends and neighbors of the fact. He
usually conveys the intelligence in an in
direct, offhand manner. He meets a
with 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
ticular. The boy do be sayin' what a
crate fortin he'll want with his wife"
The subject having thus been preached,
and it often happens that a 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.
a favorite proverb of the peasantry in
regard 10 matrimouy is: Either marry
very young or become a monk very
young" Early marriages are the rule in
Ireland, and the poorest marry the earli-
est.
And yet many of the Irish poor enter
vestment for old age. a very intelligent
Irish peasant once said 10 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-
tion 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 nlial
affection.
But happily many of the marriages in
rural Ireland have their spice of romance.
The match is made by the boy and girl
themselves. An Irish peasant maid in
the heyday of her youth, with her pretty
figure, her abundant black hair. he- large
blue eyes, with their indescr. bable ha'f-
arch, half-shy expression, is quite ire
sistible; and the boy has too often an i'm
pressionable heart and a ''deludh ring
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 u
wake is turned TO account for little
cctrrfI.,p-apd they in
with the boy who said. 1T is q graf
pleasure entirely TO be alone especially
whin yer sweetheart is wild We" Do you
drame of me, Mike?" said the girl to her
lover as they walked arm in arm down
the lonely glen. ''Drame of you, Kate?
Shure. tits the way wild me that l can't
sleep dramin' of you, me darlinir Yes,
they have the ilattering tongue. those
Irish boys. "Och, / wish l was in iaIl
for stealin' ye." was the compliment one
of them paid TO pretty colleen. Even
when they get a refusal they have 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 sigh, 81 wish you'd been
born twins, so that 1 cud have half OF
yez."
The girls of Ireland can afford just IS
well if, indeed, not better than. the girls
Of any other country TO take up an in
dependent position in regard 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
WHAT DO THE CHILDREN DRINK?