The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-06-12

he does not. A man whose daughter be-
comes an old maid must expect to spend
a million years in hell for that crime.
He will be disgraced while he lives and
sneered at by his fellows. AS a result
of this belief girls are often betroth d
in their cradles. They are married as
soon as they are able to walk, and are
old women at the ages our girls be-
females in India who are not wives or
widows by the time they reach IA years
of age.
One of the native states recently
passed law prohibiting the marriage
of girls under 8 and forbidding men of
over so to marry girls under IA. The
baby marriages are usually little more
than engagements or contracts which
cannot be broken. When the wedding
ceremony Is over the little bride is
taken back home and she stays there
until she Is s, 10 or IL years of age,
when she must live with her husband.
No Race Suicide
There Is little race suicide In India
The people want children. They marry
for that purpose. and the more they
have the better they like it. woman
who has no children is a curse to the
family, and she who does not bear a
son Is considered failure. The mar
riages are at such an age that there are
thousands of mothers of II and 13, and
there are some little moth ers Of II or
10. There are 25-year- grandmoth
ers, and I have heard of great great
grandmothers at As years of age. The
country Is thickly Inhabited. 1t grows
greater every year and there are 49,,
900 more people here now than
there were in 1880. the average in
crease being IS per cent every year.
Girls Not Wanted
Indeed, tho condition of women In
India is such that no parent wants to
bring q daughter into the world. He
knows she will be a slave as wife
and an outcast as widow. For this
reason infanticide was common few
years ago, and for the same reason It is
still practiced here and there away
from the eyes of the police. hear it
whispered that girl babies are stran-
gled and that poison is sometimes laid
on their mothers breasts SO that when
they suck they eat no more. The pol
soning Of them with opium was COM
mon in the past, and 1t is mentioned
by old writer's. About 20 or 80 years
ago the government passed an infanti-
eide act, and at that time investigated
conditions. 1t was found that in GER
tain localities hundreds of children were
annually carried off by wolves and
strange to say. the wolves took only
girls. In the year 1870, 900 girl babies
were stolen by wolves from the city of
Amritsar. Before that the wells of
some parts of India were polluted by
the drowning of infants and typhoid
was comomn thereby
One of the worst things that can hap
pen to these baby brides Is to be mar.
ried to old men. This is not uncom-
mon, family often being glad to make
a union with a higher caste, even If the
husband be gray. In such cases wild
owhood is almost sure to come early,
and in India to be widowed is hell.
Indin's Baby Widows
OF all the women on earth there is
none whose misery is SO great az that
of the widow of India. The moment
her husband dies she becomes an out
cast, her touch is pollution. and she is
the slave of the family. She must take
off her good clothing and dress In
coarse cottons. Her head must be
shaved and she cannot battle as the
rest of the family do. She must not
sleep on bed, but on the bare floor
nia of tiv,e ~
tween her and the bricks. She cannot
eat with the family and must have but
one meal day and that of the coarsest
food. She must fast every two weeks
with special fasts now and then. the