Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-29
BOY AND GIRL MARRIAGES.
A Social Evil Which is on the Decline
in Great Britain.

From the london Express.
Sociologists and psychologists, doctors
and clergymen alike deplore the boy and
girl marriages which fill the police courts
with unhappy wives and result in the rear
ing of a race of physically and mentally
unfit 1t is satisfactory, therefore, to know
conclusively that these premature unions
which have contributed in no small meas
ure to the tragedy of slumland are on the
decline. A strong and increasing tendency
among all classes to defer the age of mar
rage is one of the most notable facts
brought to light by the latest vital statiS-
tics for England and Wales. OF every 1COo
bridegrooms married last year only 46. and
OF every 1000 brides only 152, were under
age.
To appreciate the full significance of these
figures it is necessary to explain that fewer
boy and gtrlS marriages In proportion to
population took place last year than in any
one OF the preceding fifty-five years.
Exactly a quarter of a century ago the
proportion of boy husbands was IT'S per
1,0GQ-almost twice what it Is now-and the
proportion of girl wives 217 per 1000. The
decline, moreover; has been gradual but
steady. So recently as 1895 the boy huS-
bands numbered SO per 1000 and the girl
wives 1S2.
The fact that the problem of boy and girl
marriages is local one is also borne out
by the latest statistics to surprising de-
gree. In Nottinghamshire. for instance,
the home of the textile industries, there are
more boy and girl matches than in any
other county, and of every Loco married
couples 227 brides and so pridegrooms are
under age
In Staffordshire, another county where
young men and women work together in
the factories, 1913 girls and Il youths per
1000 marry under age. Durham men pre-
sumably prefer girl brides, and 234 out of
every 1000 girls married in that county are
under age.
Agricultural districts, on the other hand
notlceably discourage premature marriage.
In Herefordshire the proportion of bene-
diets who have not yet reached years of
discretion is only u, and in Hampshire "a
per LOCO In Carnarvonshire the number
drops to Ia.
Two boys of fifteen and one of sixteen
became husbands last year, IS married at
seventeen, GA at eighteen; one of them to
a widow. and no fewer than so of the 3 OBS
nineteen-year- bridegrooms married wild
ows. Twenty-Five children of fifteen be-
came wives, and 100 husbands led seven
teen-year-old brides to the altar
Although there are unmistakab'e signs
that the evil of early marriage is being
stamped out. these iil-advised and often
criminally foolish unions are still far too
common in those overcrowded areas of
London where the discomfort of home is a
direct incentive to matrimony. The medi-
cal officer of health for one of these af-
fected boroughs has just made some strong
comments on the boy and girl marriages
which prevail in his Observation-Disclosures
FROM the union of the wretched lad of our
Hogan, spring children who are bold,
pert and dirty as a London sparrow, who
are precociouS in all the smart vices of a
new century, and who are hopelessly want
ing in the old-fashioned virtues of truth
courtesy and reverence"