The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-04-06
The Dowerless Daughter

fTum the LONDON Express.
A well known woman artist in Copen-
hagen evolved a. shrewd idea for the
foundation of an insurance company for
the executive benefit of women. A reas-
enable premium was to be paid to insure,
against the possibility of finding no hus-
band. Ladies who marry before 40 lose
all the money they have paid. which goes
to the benefit of those who reach the age
limit unmarried and who receive an in
come for the rest of their lives.
In France, to which we look as the
home of the dowry, we have 1t on the au-
thority of M. Brieux. La Memme Seule,"
that there are about 100000 single
women in France today" and that many
of these do not marry because they have
no dot" "The daughters of working
men are too well educated to marry a
workman and the workman does not want
to marry them because the girls are too
poor"
At the same time the system Of the
dot" system in France, where the pa
rents put by a certain sum every week.
for a girls dowry when she grows up.
The fate of the dowerless girl in France
is much worse, from the matrimonial
point of view, than that of her similarly
uncovered sister in England, where mar
riages would indeed be few and far be-
tween in any class were a dowry an in-
dispensable adjunct to tying the knot.
In Germany there is the Stiff (chari-
table institutfom described by Mrs. AL
fred Sidwick There are Stifte from
which woman may absent herself for
the greater part of the year and yet
draw an income from it's funds and have
a room or rooms appointed to her use;
there are others where residence is COM
pulsory Some are open only to descend
ants of the founders; some sell vacancies.
"A woman may have to wait year after
year for a chance of getting in or she
may belong to one that will admit her
at certain age Some are just
sets of rooms with certain privileges of
light and firing attached. But you
cannot be much among Germans without
seeing women who have been educated.
endowed helped in distress or supported
in old age by one of these organiza-
tions.
"In Greece II Is considered wrong for
brothers to marry until their sisters 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 remained single The
men of family are thus naturally anx-
ious to see their sisters settled, and as
a dowry is indispensable, its provision is
often matter Of serious anxiety and the
fruit of great self-denai on the part OF
the brothers if the parents are dead.
There are cases where brothers have
remained unmarried and devoted all their
hard earned savings to the dowries of
their sisters Among the poorer classes
emigration IS resorted to, not infrequent-
'ly solely with this object. and many a
dowry comes to a Greek maiden from
across the Atlantic. ts t
"The average young woman living in
luxury in her fathers house. says a
famous novelist, lis between the devil
and the deep sea- on account of the
English system--in the case--piling the
money on the eldest son.
There is happy medium and though
it takes good deal to remove hidebound
prejudice and custom. once the English
man is convinced of the Justice of plea
he is rarely deaf to 1t. and money is a
greater necessity to the woman than to
the man, because any man who is real
man can work. but many woman
brought up in sheltered idleness can't
work; that is. can't work to gain an In
come and independence, and so, sooner
or later. without money or without cour-
age, she sinks and Is submerged"