MARRIAGE IN GERMANY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 387, 16 August 1911, Page 3

MARRIAGE IN GERMANY.

THE GERMAN" MOTHER'S

GENERALSHIP

"A girl in Germany must bo a deformity and a. pauper combined not to be able to lind n husband if sh<

wants to ; and more than once 1 have been bewildered by the brilliant match?.-: which the most dowdy mif impossible looking have been able tc brim: about, under their mothor't .skilful generalship. "For the men in Germany do not marry —they are married. They are more or less passive articles for sale whieli stand in rows in the matrimonial shop-window with their price labelled in large letters in their bat-con-holes, waiting patiently for a purchaser. They arc perfectly willing even eager., victims : they want to bt bought, but their position do?s not allow them to grasp the initiative, and they are thankful when at. last someone comes alone and herself capable and willing to pay the price.

"This may seem exaggerated, and there arc always the exceptions to be reckoned with, but it is true in the rule, and in every social circle, however high or low. The girl and her mother with their purse in hand, pass the articles in review and choose out the one which best, suits their means and fancy.

"A pretty and charming girl can , find her partner without any other perquisites than her face and charms, j but her choice becomes a t rimes more j limited, for the men who can afford : to marry a penniless wife are too few in number and too scattered. "Hence. marriages in Germany ; have in most cases a practical side, i though they in no way resemble the j French manages, de convenaiice. A young man in the marriageable age— ; in Germany, from twenty-three on- i wards to thirty-rivo--is rarely in a ! position to set up housekeeping un- j less he receives support either from j his own father 0 r from the family of j his wife. ;

"Should he have chosen a State or professional career his income will not he sufficient until he is at least thirty-three, and an unmarried man

of thirty-three in Germany is a man who has been a considerable time on the shelf.

"The officer is even worse off. At no time in his life is he in a position to support a family on his pay alone. All the support he gets from home is needed to fill up the gaps in his own personal existence, and only one man in a hundred is able to put. the financial side of the question quite out of sight.

'" ' T cannot, marry a wife without money, but I will not marry her for her money,' is the clear and definite standpoint of most German men, and they prove their sincerity, A DEFERRED PROPOSAL. ''The financial side of the case explains the custom of first, appealing to the parents before speaking to the girl. Naturally, the girl knows well enough whither matters are finding. but no doubt she suffers many auxijus moments of suspense. "An amusing illustration occurs as

I write, relating to a young pair whom the world had for a long time looked upon as 'settled.' They were ilways together, his attentions wore rery obviously intentions, but somehow or other he never—-as it is vulgarly described — came to the point. The girl was distracted with uncertainty, until one day her parents returned from America after a long coy age. AN UNUSUAL RErEV. '''The same hour that they landed ;n Bremen the young cavalier packed :iis trunks and went to meet them, received their blessing—and the promise of the dowry—returned by the next, train, and laid his hand and heart at his P-neiopo's feet. Whcretpon she iking herself into his amis ivitli the exclamation. 'Endlich, (hi. Sheusal !' (At. last, you horror !'). ■Vhich form of acceptance, if unusual, vas distinctly satisfactory."—From 'My German Year," by Miss I. A. R. Wvtie.