MARRIAGE IN GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 175, 28 August 1909, Page 4

MARRIAGE IN GERMANY.

in ITS PRACTICAL ASPECT. [C If in England the young man of the middle classes is showing a growiii" I tendency to postpone matrimony, it is because lie cannot afford it. In Germany i,he reverse is true. There a young man marries because it is more advant:i"euua than to iivc a bachelor a life—more ailvaiitageous and more economical. II The average German look-; at matri- " lnony from a very different point of view ' i.um that of the average liiium. To _ him a wife means a heipmate in eve-y ' sense of the word. L " lie marries, not in order to keep a woman in as much luxury as possible , but in order to found a' home and a l-iinily. Both he and his wife enter the married state in orde r to better their i former one. To .both marriage is the I solution of many dillirul ties. PROVIDENT BRIDES. 11l the first place, ihev stun on a different. basis from that which is general' m Eng.and. Every girl who expects to; 11M1T; (and as the lot of spinsterhood is : j.ai ticularly dreary in Germany, every t gnl expects to marry) prepares fori matrimony almost from childhood. She : begin* to prepare her trousseau, not her l j tio'ks and frills, but the table linen 11 ''ii* .inon. and so forlii. long before a suitor appears on the scene. Il'er parents Hi ginrdians 011 their side have ever I sun ' her birth laid money aside for her | T.V-<e dowries, by the w »v. are ver«- modiwt compared with English conceptions of the term, 'often amounting mwcly to a hundred pounds or less. But however great or small the dowry be gives his daughter, the prospective talhcr-in-law docs not expect to ,f gct his daughter off his hands," as the saying is, merely because she changes her 1 name. On the contrary, in the normal tourse of events lie will be expected to • make some provision fo r her household tor some years to come, for in Germany ! a man's salary at thirty, even in the so- j - called "upper classes," would not as a ' rule enable him to support a wife and 1 1 family unaided. I i

; MUTUAL HELP. O n the other hand, the young couple ' are generally expected to contribute something towards making the "old . people' comfortable in those cases where the retiring pension or savings of the ! parental household are not sufficiently: large to ensure a care-free old age. Thus ' one generation helps the other. In Germany it is always better for a woman to be married, whatever the conditions and state of her married 'ife, than for her to be single. The "confirmed spinster" and the "hardened bachelor" are not popular in the Fatherland, and their state is seldom an enviable one. This is especially the case with the spinster. Therefore a wise father will always prefer to marry his daughter even to a poor man than to see her remain :n the undesirable single state. That is one of the reasons why there is less ta>k of a girl making "a good match" in Germany than in most other countries. Of course, in the leisured classes the co.i-j ditions are changed. THE GERMAN BACHELOR. Take a typical example: that of the 1 bank clerk or employee in a commercial house. Between the ages of twenty-five and thirty he is earning, say, between £l5O «nd £2OO per annum. If he lives in one of the large cities 1 he will probably inhabit a small furnished room on the third or fourth floor at a weekly rent of about Bs. His meals '"ill be taken at some restaurant, where he l«as joined a mess 'table. His mending and sewing will probably be done by his landlady or her daughter, and his amusements will not be taken at his fireside. HOME LIFE. j Then he takes it into his head to marry, and lo and behold, hie condition ( is altered almost miraculously. In the ( first place, his wife provides ,ail the furniture and all the household utensils, j Instead of hired lodgings, he is now th*i c proud possessor of a home. His rent t will be almost doubled, it is true, but t instead of eating at a restaurant he ivnl 1 fare better and more economically H t home, for the typical "haitsfrau" is notliini if not a good manager. > Then there are his parents-in-law, who I will assist him, not only with counsel, but more materially. In return he be- ] conies a member of their family in every ■. sense ot the word, devoting much of his spare time to entertnining "the old j people," and being always Teady to b ■ , called upon for rendering little servics of one kind or another, instead of se?k- ■;! iiKI his pleasures outside he now cu.tivatrs his fireside. |

Then, again, how often a young man lacks the necessary small capital to start an enterprise of his own. or realise some pet scheme. Now he has a small capjtal in the bank, for as a rule he h.is control over his wife's money, though this is not nccessarilv the case. And there is another essential point—in Cermany it is easier for a married man than for a bachelor to obtain certain positions. THE HAUSFRAU. The practical virtues of the German "hiusfriMi" have been so often dwelt upon that she has become a svnonvni in manv languages. One of her least regarded merits, perhaps, is that she has actvalh- been a prime factor in aiding the intellectual development of h"r country. For the labors of research work a man must have a mind entirely free from material cares. The fact is that most of the intellectual toilers in Germane earn about as much as an English bank clerk. Xow. it is safe to nssert that under these conditions they could not obtain the neace of mind and absence of material cares necessary to their work if it were not for the "hausfrau," who shoulders these burdens on herself.

These rather practical aspects of marriage are not very favorably regarded in England, for thev smack a little ol esotism, and yet appearances are too often deceptive. For. being founded on a conunonsense and practical basis, the married state in Germany Is not without its poetical side. Tn France a foreigner is hardly ever made welcome at a man's fireside; in Germany, as soon as he makes friends, he will, as a matter of course, li" taken into the family circle. He will learn to appreciate a very sincere and unpretentious form o' hosnitality thai does not inspect the visitor to have come to "discover the nakedness of the land," and which is offered with no idea of an ultimate l'e turn in kind.

When there are so many reasons for a man to marrv, and lie obstinately 'efrains from doinor so, some suspicion not unnaturally attaches to him. And so Muller ns he anproaches fortv gradually loses prestige. lie becomes all eccentric person, and is looked on a little suspiciously. Unless he can atone for this move! defect bv an exceptionally winning personality, and possibly a hint of some ronnntic and unrequited passion. he will in time be nositive.y shunned bv manv of his married friends. —Manchester Chronicle.