Evening star., 1925-05-24

IDENTICAL town want husbands
right away and only few are getting
them, because there are not enough
men in the neighborhood, what are
the girls TO do?
AT Fontenay there We're 36 OF mar
riageable age. and only men to make
possible bridegrooms.
In the natural course. the girls had
no chance.
Knowing themselves to be desira BILE
and worthy TO be loved. they saw
themselves condemned to live solitary
just because men who might have
been glad to ask them did not know
them. had no opportunity to meet
them.
The girls of Fontenay made oppor-
tunity.
Today there are only II OF the 3s
remaining unmarried, and, of these l..
s are engaged.
The marriage fair did it. in four
years.
Do not ina gine that the girls of
Fontenay were forward or bold in
putting themselves up for marriage IN
q semi-annual fair, well advertised, in
their own initiative-whose unique
purpose is TO find them husba nds
Behind them are mayor and mu-
nicipality and the powerful Fedora =
II
Paris TO safeguard the dignity of the
gay functions.
Husba nds and wives are not secured
in an afternoon at the marriage fair.
1t is a three month process, carefully
ha ndled by the discreetly reticent
delegates of the Societe Amicale de la
Jeunesse Parisienne.
The girls are backed up. thus. by
the city fathers of their community;
and the dignity of their marriage
fair is guaranteed and quietly aided
by the great orga nization that sees
to the decent ordering of all the
fetes of Paris and suburbs.
Furthermore, the Societe Amicale
(which has another network of in
f1uential membership actually keeps
the registers and investigates appli-
cants.
THERE is good reason for powerful
civic organizations TO stand by
the girls in their apparently desper-
ate experimental marriage fair has
something lauShable about it, lack
ing dignity, at first glance.
Because, take note, the predica
ment in which France finds herself
since the war justifies every aid TO
marriage.
During the war .357, 900 French
men died. and 1896. 600 were wound
ed. 1t Is calculated that. of those
together, 3,00O,0 900 men were put out
of marriage.
A maria geable man is between 25
and 40. Those were precisely the
ages struck hardest so that there
are practically only half the previous
number of marriageable men remain
ing. Also. women were already in
considerable excess, before the war.
in France as in England.
So, taking the permanently manned
into account, only one first-class mar
ria geable man remains in France for
three maria geable women.
You would think that a marriage
fair. in such conditions, would have
no success
You would think that men. with
an excess of three to one to choose
from, all around them. would scarce
ly look into a fair to find a wife
Yet Fontenay has been such bril-
liant success, this season, it is getting
the attention of all France, and is
being copied in other communities.
The reason is understandable.
The war also made a great shak-
ing up of fortunes. Sons of prof
teers are coming to marriageable age
and their parents, coming up so
ra pidly, made practically no social
effort. Great quantities of young
men have been making big money
since the war.
In a word, despite man-power
losses. there is a striking proportion
of men with new money-who desire
TO marry and have not acquaintance
ship to get started. They are timid
and vet resentful of the supposed
social superiority of almost every
body.
The marriage fair captured this
great element from the start.
At it's semi-annual assembly, this
present season, a particular call mad
been made for all "old couples twho
! had met and married from the falr IN
six years pass) to make showing py
their presence.
About Is such "old couples" brought
their children-loyal to the fair wnere
they met. Not all these young nam.
mas were girls of Fontenay. as will
appear. In fact, 10 couples bringing
| children were of outside origin for
wives as we'll as husbands. AS to
these latter, all had the same look of
business hustlers, risen rapidly to
marriageable situation in the unusual
financial opportunities of the after
war.
"A husband or wife in three
monthsr' has heen the slogan of the
fair. This slogan has influenced bust
ness hustlers newly risen-it takes all
embarrassing pre1imlnarfes on their