The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1888-01-14 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

MARRIAGE MART IN TILE CARPATHIANS—A remarkable custom exists among the Roumanians living in the westerly Carpathians. Every year, at the Feast of the Apostles Peter and Pau!, a market is held on the crest of the Gains, from 5,000 to 6,000 feet above the level of the sea. and here all the marriageable girls of the entire district assemble with their parents in order to be viewed and claimed. Mothers, aunts, grandmothers, and various female friends contribute to the dowry, and this completed, it is carried to the market on the Gaina in neatly-made trunks, decorated with flowers, and carried by the family's best horses. Cattle, bees, and other household requisites are also added to the dowry. On the Gaina every family which has a marriageable daughter occupies a distinct tent, in which the dowry is exhibited, and in which the bride-viewers are expected. The bachelors, too, are accompanied by parents or relatives, in whose , company they inspect the girls who are eligible. The young men bring the best they possess, and each must particularly come with a girdle of gold or silver. After the brides are chosen the public betrothal takes place, being conducted by a hermit who lives in this lonely spot. The mark of betrothal is not a ring, but a beautifully embroidered handkerchief. The betrothal is in many cases prearranged; but the ceremony must be gone through all the same. If a girl goes to the market knowing beforehand that an admirer will be there to claim her, so much the better for her. Still she must take her dowry and occupy her tent mud place herself on view like the rest. Pes:cocrry.—Mozart was exhibited as a pianist before he was five, told Mendelssohn's first cantata was written at eleven; while Beethoven at nine had outgrown his father's musical teaching; Raphael was a scholar in the studio at twelve; Titian painted a Madonna at the same age; Morland was accepted portrait-painter, highly paid by his customers, at ten; Landseer exhibited his pictures at thirteen ; and Flaxinan carved busts at fifteen. Goldoni at eight sketched out a comedy; Calderon wrote a play at fourteen ; Goethe was a poet at fifteen; Beaumont composed tragedies at twelve; ad Cowley's epic, written at ten is said to be an astonishing feat of imaginative precocity. Scott ievented stories at twelve; Dickens was a charming race/atm:, the delight of his companions, at nine ; anti Charlotte ronte wrote stories, as well as poems and plays, at tourteen. Grotius was a scholar at twelve ; Porson could repeat time whole of Horace and Vigil before he was fifteen; and Ma,eiulay at eight put together a compendium of universal history. Newton was a mechanician at school; Laplace, while a mere lad, was a mathematical teacher; Pascal at eighteeu invented a calculating machine ; mud Liebnitz thought out difficult philosophic problems before lie was fifteen.— These are mere selections from a much longer list; and as in many cases the capacity must have appeared and have es :aped either notice or record, we may take it that with men of genius, precocity, sometimes of the most unusual, and occasionally of an almost miraculous kind has been a rule.—Of course, the rule is not invariable, and of course, also, it is MOSt frequently ohs rved in .those depart. me its of theught in which, as in music and painting, a certain inherent aptitude of the senses is necessary as a condition. Not only a brain, but a finger is necessary to the great musieal executant and i;aphael must not only have a gifted mind but exceptionally precipient eyes.—Young philosophers are scarcer than young musicians, and there have been many boy painters for one boy distinguished in any science except mathematics, which seems, like arithmetic, to have some ituknown relatiou to particular brains, calculating boys working out ' their results, it seems almost proved, by ulicon' scious methods. At all events, they often do not know their own processes, and their power sometimes dies away in manhood as a mere power of thinking hardly would do. The special powers in childhood of a ni:Oirity of men of genius would, • however, Seem to be proved past cfaestion.  Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound togetli,r. Do good with what thou hut r.t will do thee no good.  A WAGGISH journalist who is often merry over his personal plainness tells this story of himself. "1 went to a chemist the other day for a dose of morphine for a sick friend. The assistant objected to give it to me without a prescription, evidently fearing that I intended to commit suicide." "Pshaw !" said I. "Do I look a man who would kill myself?" Gazing steadily at me for a moment, he replied, "I don't know. It seems to me, if I looked like you, I should be greatly tempted to kill myself."