THE MARRIAGEABLE AGE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 148, 23 June 1906, Page 11

THE MARRIAGEABLE AGE.

/■ ♦ In Austria a "man" and a "woman" are considered to be capable of conducting a home of their own from the age of 14 —a fact which accounts in no small degree for tho spirit of "child- fatherhood of the man ' so prevalent in Austria. In Germany a man must be 18 years of age, but the age of tho bride elect is left to popular discretion. In France the man must be 18 and tho woman 15, while in Belgium the same standard prevails. In Spain the intending husband must have passed his fourteenth year and tho woman her twelfth. These figures, in connection with the admitted poverty of Spain, socially considered, aro full of tno deepest meaning. In Hungary for Eoman Catholics, tho man must be 14 years old and tho woman 12 ; /or Protestants the man must be 18 and the woman 15. In Greoco the man must have seen at least fourteen snmmers and tho woman twelve. In Portugal a boy of 14 is considered marriageable and a woman of 12. In Russia and Saxony they aro a little more sensible, for in both countries a youth must refrain from matrimony till he can boast of 18 years and tho woman till she can count 16. In Switzerland the men from tho aco of 14 and the women from tho ago of 12 are allowed to marry. In Turkey any youth and maiden who can walk properly and can understand the necessary religious service are allowed to be united for life. To go further afield, mere children of 10, 9 and even 8 years of age aro, by Indian custom, often married. This applies to the girl only, although nativo boys of from 12 to 14 become husbands and tho nominal heads of households. In China, too, the custom is nearly as senseless, boys and girls who ought rather to bo on tho school bench or playing battjedoro and shuttlecock sot up their family gods and-start upon their 23£0»