The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-19
REAL COURTSH|P IS BROUGHT BY WAR Frenchmen Are Learning
 How to Make Love MARRIAGE RECOVERS Was Hard Hit During Early Days of Conflict-Changes May Develop
 Into Revolution of the Mar
 riage Laws
MARRIAGE RECOVERS

Paris. March 1.-(Correspondence of 1 the Associated Press )--Genuine court ship-real love makng-as an incident to l marriage is one of the innovations that war has brought to France. It may develop into a revolution of the marriage system, and is almost certain in any | case to be the death of much of the red tape that has entangled, and more or less strangled Cupid.
 Marriage was hard hit during the first months of the war but by reason of the authorization of unions by proxy and the infusion of war romance, it is rap idly recovering.
 In Paris there were only 76S marriages in January, 1915, as against 2S41 in Janu-
 ary, 1914. In December, 1915, there were 12s9, showing remarkable recovery un- der the circumstances.
 WITHOUT A DOWRY In great many of these war mar riages, it is noticed that girls without fortune are for the time being run ming their more facvored sisters close race, since in a great proportion of the
 marriages celebrated since hostilities be- gan the marriage contract has been dis pensed 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 in fighting regi-
 ment corresponding with an unknown sympathizer who has come home on leave to find that his ''godnother' is worth marrying for herself
 Women and girls acting aS "pOdr11o h. CTS" to unknown correspondents at the front have developed what is lightly called ''the flirt at the front into for midable proportions, and this is at this moment perhaps the most efficient mar riage agency in the world. The sacri- fees made by some girls marrying sol- diers who have been blinded or maimed almost to the point of total helpless ness have spread the contagion, and love affairs are born at every hand by the close communion of sympathetic minds centered on great events, and through the constant movement of soldiers com ing in contact with new faces, every one of which under present circumstances is bound obe sympathetic.
 NEED OF NATION
 Some psychologists have inquired whether there was not in France cry ing need for deeper affection and whether the decreasing natality in the country was not due In great part to the obstacles of marriage and the more material considerations that always en- tered into it. The soul stirring incl dents of the war have unquestionably brought everyone into closer union and there seems to have been general wiping out of old scores that kept acquaintances and even families apart. There have been many reconciliations through the ex- change of news of the exploits of mu- tual friends, and many instances of di- vided families reunited over the tomb of fallen hero.
 Young people are now being brought together not by contract nor by the at- traction of wealth, but simply by the greater force now asserting itself of young hearts and common wills. It is asked whether it will continue after the war and what effect it will have upon the future of France; an idealistic peo- pie, after being held in materialistic bondage so far as concerns so vital a question to the race, is coming out so strong in the present irresistible appeal to romanticism that many believe it will result in a transformation, if not in a revolution, of the marriage system. Some contend that men will marry younger and marry for love instead of for money, will marry more in reason and sincer- ity, and that with the stronger tie of affection taking the place of interest, di- vorces will become less while the popu- 'ation will grow correspondingly more numerous