Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1913-07-25
DOWERLESS GIRLS
Millions of Them Abroad Doomed
to Spinsterhood.
BUT SACRIFICE SAVES MANY


Common In Countries Where a Dot
Is Necessary Before Daughter orr
Sister Can Wed.
A we'll known woman artist in Cos
penhagen evolved shrewd idea fo6
the foundation of an insurance COM
pany for the exclusive benefit Of wo-
men,, writes NJ Winifred Jones. A
reasonable premium was to be paid td
insure against the possibility of find
ing no husband. Ladies who marry
before forty lose all the money they
have paid, which goes to the benefit
of those who reach the age limit unS
married and who receive an income
for the rest of their lives.
In France, to which we look as tho
home Of the dowry, we have it ON thu
authority of NJ. Brieux, La Femmg
Seule, that ''there are about 1900, 600
single women in France today and
that many Of these do not marry be~
cause they have no dot. 'The daugh-
tiers Of workingmen are too we'll edu-
Gated to marry a workman, and the
workman does not want to marry theW
because the girls are too poor"
AT the same time the system Of the
dot obtains in France, where the "par-
ents put by certain sum every weeks
for girls dowry when she grows up.
The fate of the dowerless girl in
France, says the London Express, is
much worse, from the matrimonial
point of view, than that Of her SINH
larly uncovered sister in England,
where marriages would, indeed, be
few and far between in any class were
dowry an Indispensable adjunct til
tying the knot
In Germany there Is the stifte (char~
| liable institution, described by Mrs.
Alfred SidWick. "There are stifta
from which a woman may absent her.
self for the great part Of the year and
yet draw an income from its funds
and have room or rooms appointed
to her use; there are others where RESI-
idence is compulsory Some are open
only to descendants of the founders;
| some sell vacancies; some are just sets
of rooms with certain privileges Of;
| light and firing attached. But youi
cannot be much among Germans with
out seeing women who have been edu-
Gated, endowed, helped in distress on
supported in old age by one of these
organizations.
I'm Greece it is considered wrong
for brothers to marry until their sis
tiers have been wed. Again, girls must
marry in order of seniority 1t would
not be right for a girl to be married
while she had an elder sister who re-
manned single. The men OF a family
are thus naturally anxious to see their
sisters settled, and as a dowry is in~i
diSpensable its provision is often a
matter Of serious anxiety and the fruit
of great self denial on the part of the
brothers if the parents are dead
There are cases in which brother4
have remained unmarried and devot-
ed all their hard earned savings to tha
dowries of their sisters. Among the
poorer classes emigration is resorted to.
not infrequently solely with this OBJ
ject and many a dowry comes to %
Greek maiden from across the Atlans
TIC"
"The average young EnglishwomaIr
living in luxury in her fathers houses
says a famous novelist, "is between,
the devil and the deep sea- on account
of the English system of piling the
money on the eldest son. There is q.
happy medium, and, though it takes a
good deal to remove hidebound preju-
dice and custom, once the Englishmau
is convinced of the justice of a plea
he is rarely deaf to it."