A CURIOUS PETITION.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3831, 8 April 1881, Page 1

A CURIOUS PETITION.

This was addressed to the Goreiaor of SouMi Carolina, in the year 1733, by sixteen maidens of Charleston, It ran thus: "The humble petition of all the maids whose names are underwritten. Whereas, we, the humble petitioners, are in a very melancholy state of mind, considering how all the bachelors are blindly captivated o"y widowdi; and our own chances thereby.neglected; in consequence of this, of request is that your Excellency will for the future order that no widow presume to marry any young man till tbe maids are provided for; or else to pay each of them a fine for satisfaction for invading our liberties ; and likewise a fine to be levied on all such bachelors as shall be married to widows. The.great'disadvantage, it is' to u< maids is that the widows, by their forward carriage do snap up the yourig men, and have the vanity to think their merit beyond ours, which is a great imposition on us, who ought to have the preference. This is humbly recommended to yonrExcelleucy'ss consideration and hope you will permit no furtherinsults. And we poor maids, in duty bouud, will ever pray," The maidens all forlorn would have much approved the edict' ot the Portuguese King which forbade widows more than fifty years old from re marrying, on the ground that widows of that age commonly wedded young men of no property, who dissipated the fortunes such marriages brought them to the prejudice of children and other relatives. —Detroit Free Press.