The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-06-08

thriity senoritas who have insisted on
oe'hs ihaoe independent at the time of
'e 'iaiiiase. ihere is one story told of
shi whose suitor was rich miner
whom she had long held at a distance
SAID she one day as he entered the house
senor, behold this long staircase A.
the upper end of it is my parlor. When
you can walk UP that staircase. placing
brick of solid silver on every stem vo,,
VIII receive my hand. but not sooner
am told the miner sent in the bricks
Marriage Not Easy
Alter the courtship has progressed
the engagement been announced and
sthe wedding day fixed, there are still a
lot of difficulties to be overcome before
one can get married in Mexico. If a
man is from the United States he must
nave three ceremonies, two In Spanish
and one more in either English or s,an-
lsh lie must give public notice of his
intention to marry by having 1t nosted
up on the official bulletin boards FOR oo
uass' ana his marriage must take place
DeIore tl'U civil authorities and also he
fore the priest. The three Ceremonies
consist OF a contract of marriage. the
ouNii @ marriage and the church service
q
be performed before a Judge and fo,,,.
witnesses, including the American con-
SUI. Inc ceremony of civil marriage
is In Spanish and the contract gives
the names, ages. ancestral families.
business and residences of both parties
The civil marriage has to take place
before the church marriage and for tbe
latter the priest is expected to publish
the banns for five Sundays All this
costs money. Said an American to me
yesterday:
1T takes several weeks to get mar
rled here You have to go to a half
dozen different officials and every one
bleeds you as much as he thinks YOU
VIII stand. You have to tell all about
your family, your fathers family and
your grandfather's family and you must
give the same information as to vonr
bride. You have also to fee the church.
and as rule 1t costs a pretty penny
Weddings by Wholesale
These regulations are very onerous to
the lower classes and as a result many
couples live together unmarried and
that notwithstanding the children of
those who have not undergone civil
marriage are legally illegitimate. The
Indians as rule are satisfied with n
! church marriage. and they would get
married II they had the money to paw
the fee. This is by no means always
so, and on some of the large haciendas
such as the Terrazas estates and Others
the owners have priests come at certain
times of the year and marry their peas
ants by wholesale without any charge
for the service.
The Indians are usually true to their
; wives. although they sometimes think
they have the right to change wives or
, to trade old lamps for new as the spirit
! moves. | have heard of instances where
!, men have come before the Justice of
, the peace and asked to have such trades
, legalized. and of one case where after
, three months had elapsed one of the
, parties returned. saying that he wanted
his old wife back, but that the other
man had refused to give her up saying
, that he preferred his part of the bar
, gain. In another case where a wife
. wanted to go away with another man.
the Justice said to the husband:
why don't you let her go? There
are plenty more wives to be had"
Divorces Not Common
This condition. however, does not pre-
vail outside the lower classes Amnn-E
the others divorces are far less common
than with US. The woman usually sticks
to her husband and he knows that il
would be almost impossible to get a
divorce, If he so desired. The Mexican
women make good wives and large
families ire common. The laws relating
to the property of husband and wife are
different from ours. and those as to the
wife are very much fairer She has the
right to the alb bsolute control of all the
property she had before marriage. and
also to one-half the property accumu-
lated after the marriage Such property
cannot be transferred except where her
signature is added to that of her hus-
band. FRANK G. CARPENTER.