The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-04-30
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

ten with a curiosity to know whether
 those who seek welded bliss have any of this worlds goods.
 
 Let wedding announcement be male
 and one of the first questions will be,
 Have they got any money?" Or on the other hand if visiting beau or belle visits the city, the curious, and I might
 as well say. the interested want to learn
 if they are good catches, thereby mean ing are they heirs or heiresses. I sup
 pose it's wise provision of nature, mean
 human trature, to concede wealth to vfs- itors of both sexes
 I do not suppose that either Dunn or
 Bradstreet would care to admit publicly
 but I daresay if the truth was known
 they have to make reports to their sub scribers on the financial standing of men land women who are in the matrimonial market to make a good catch. 1 happen
 to know of Birmingham bank who
 was asked to report on certain bachelor
 who was counting in another city, and
 am sure some mercenary swain out Of town has inquired as to the size of the pocket book of some paterfamilias whose daughter was being wooed
 All this in spite of the fact that Ameri-
 cans have never been as great on mar riage settlements as our oversea neigh bors, for every now and then we get shock in the papers because some titled nobleman in an effort to recoup his fallen
 fortunes comes to the land of the Stars and Stripes on an heiress hunt and when successful makes us sit up in wonder ment at the cold blooded manner III which he makes father come across be- fore he will take a walk down the church aisle with his daughter
 An by the way there still fingers in the l marriage service an expression on the part of the groom if fully understood | by him who pronounces it in so hesltant and samefaced1y manner, or by those who sit eagerly straining their ears to hear it. and particularly so if he happens to | be penniless, it would mean on his ana their part knowledge of English M" which runneth back into the past l refer to the phrase with all my lands thee endow," which has been gradually whittled down to with all my worldly goods thee endow."
 l Now. I am not going to attempt to elucidate here the law of settlement, the
 mutual agreement between living persons for regulating the enjoyment of property and the instrument by which such en- | ioyment is regulated. It has passed | through many changes reflecting the mind and manners of many centuries. might say that they may contain any provisions not contrary to law, or puphc policy, and that the English law allows greater freedom than the French, under l the code Napoleon, in contract Of mar riage the succession to a living person cannot be renounced.
 In the United States marriage settle ments are not in common use, owing 10
 the fact that most states long ago adopt 1 ed the principles of the English Mar I ried Woman's Property Acts. As mat ter of fact we hear much more in this country about 'alimony' of post nuptial settlements than we do about re-nuptlal ones. I was amused by a good friend or mine who finding one of the famous 'Margery letters, in her husbands pocket post marked Salt Lake City, which was sent out as joke to the Rotarians, TOT the moment took it seriously and think ing her husband had an affinity con- fessed that she had begun in her own mind to calculate the amount Of ah- mony she would be entitled to.
 The elements of the modern settlement are to be found in the Roman law. took "a course in Roman law while al Paris but that is no reason why l shoalo l inflict you with dose of it. I'll let you off with a homeopathic one. In the ear l Hest period of Roman law no provision | for the wife was required, for she passed under manus of her husband, and became ] in law his daughter, entitled as such to ! share of his property at his death. 1 f <
 | If would be interesting to set out the losing story of the husband, and how the wife is gradually coming into her own, hut mass it up I will cite the fact that in course of time in Rome the plebian form of marriage by usus, according to which the wife did not become subject to
 manus superseded the old form, and 1t hacame necessary to make a provision for the wife by contract. Dos was or three kinds but I'll not set them out here.
 l Tn France the dot plays big part in ] the social life of the nation as it does in many of the European lands. Here we do not ask so much of the maiden who eives her heart into the keeping of her lover. but we do make it so that he will bavs to make provision for her after rraa ge and so we have the wife's dover rights. I merely call attention to the mama without any thought of treating
 it in extenso.
 Norr all this came to me because on 1 a recent visit out in the country, after | . sood dinner, and while seated on the front porch, my dear old hostess asked
 me if I would like to see bottle of
 dewberry wine that was 25 years old.
 pid I would and she stepped inside and | hrougbt if out. and held it up between
 me and the sun and it was a clear and I