The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1916-03-09
MANY WAR R0MANCES.
Dan Cupid Seems to Have Returned to
France.

| Paris, March 9.--Genuine courtship-
real oyemaking-a an incident to mar
riage is one of the innovations that war
has brought to France. 1t may devel-
i p into revolution of the marriage sys-
TEN, and is almost certain in any case
to be the death of much of the red tape
that has entangled, and more or less
lstrangled, cupid.
| Marriage was hard hit during the first
month of the war, but by reason of the
authorization of unions by proxy and
the infusion of war romance, it is rapid
| ly recovering.
In Paris there were only 76s marriages
in January 1915 as against 2,34l in jan
uary 1914. In December 1915 there were
], 2s9, showing remarkable recovery
under the circumstances,
In great many of these war mar
riages, it is noticed that girls without
fortune are for the time being running
their more favored sisters a close race,
since in great proportion of the mar
riages celebrated since hostilities began,
the marriage contract has been dispensed
with no mention of dover nor talk
about money; romance has taken the
place of finance.
Wounded heroes have in hundreds of
cases fallen in love with and married
their nurses; nearly every day the story
is told of some man i'll fighting regi-
ment corresponding with an unknown
sympathizer who has come home on leave
to find that his "godmother" is worth
marrying for herself.
Women and girls acting as ''godmoth.
ers" to unknown correspondents at the
front have developed what is lightly
called "the airt at the front" into for
midable proportions, and this is at this
moment perhaps, the most efficient mar
rage agency in the world. The sacrifices
made by some girls marrying soldiers
who have been blinded or MANNED almost
to the point of total helplessness have
spread the contsgion, and love affairs are
born at every hand by the close commune
ion of sympathetic minds eentered on
great events; and through the constant |
of soldiers coming in contact |
with new faces, every one of which I'M |
der present circumstance is bound to be |
sympathetic.
Some psychologists have inquired !
ing need for deeper affection, and wheth- |
er the decreasing natality in the country
was not due in great part to the obstacles
IF marriage and the more material con
siderations that always entered into it.
The soul-stirring incidents OF the war
nave unquestionably brought everyone
INTO closer union and there seems to
nave been general wiping out of old
scores that kept acquaintance and even (
antilles apart. There have been many 4,
through the exchange OF /,
news of the exploits of mutual friends.
md many instances of divided families
over the tomb of fallen hero.
Young people are now being brought
ogether not by contact nor by the at
rsction of youth, but simply by the
yreater force now asserting itself of
'oung hearts and common wills. Il IL ,
sked whether it will continue after the
var, and what effect it viii have upon .
he future Of France; and idealistie PEG. !
lie, after being held in materialistic ,
,ondage so far as concerns so vital :
uestion to the race. are coming out Sc ,
trong in the present irresistible appeal
o romanticism that many believe il will q
esult in a Transformation, il not in =
evolution. Of the marriage system. Some
ontend that men will marry younger :
nd marry for love instead of for mon
y. viii marry more n reason and sncer-
w, and that with the stronger tie Of
Fiction taking the place OF interest, di-
oree will become less while the popula
on will grow correspondingly more num-
rOus