WHERE ENGAGEMENTS ARE LONGEST AND SHORTEST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7678, 11 April 1903, Page 3

WHERE ENGAGEMENTS ARE LONGEST AND SHORTEST.

(Tit-Bits.)

In Russia long engagements are not relished by betrothed young men, although the ladieis usually are not at all averse to them. Indeed, the latter not infrequently use all sorts of artifices in order to stave off the wedding da^y to as distant a date as possible.

It seems a somewhat ungallant suggestion, but perhaps the custom which decrees that the Russian bridegroom-elect must send his sweetheart a" present every day, no matter whether the engagement last for ten weeks or ten years, may have something to do with this anomalous state of affairs.

The regularly recognised length of a Siamese engagement is exactly one month. For the bride to ask for an extension beyond that, limit is held to savour of reprehensible prudery. Moreover, in Siam, old maids are unknown, as all girls marry.

Tlie reason for this is probably to be found in tbe low estimation in which unmarried women are held. They are not merely looked down upon ; they are absolutelv of no account whatever.

Aa soon as the marriage ceremony is performed, however, the hitherto neglected and despised little, female atom becomes distinctly a "somebody." People who would not have deigned to even recognis. her existence, while in a state of single " blessedness," now admit her willingly to their houses, and even go out of their way to seek her friendship.

Still, it -is nob until she has become a mother that she is held to have reached her highest estate. Then she has attained the pinnacle of honour, can claim as a right presentation at Court, and is addressed by the coveted title of "Tho Matronly One."

In the Argentine Republic an engaged man who dallies beyond a, reasonable time ere leading his fiancee to the altar is heavily fined; that is, if he is over twenty. Moreover, he is not permitted by the State, after attaining that age, to enjoy free the pleasures of bachelorhood, even although he may not have committed himself so far as to have promised marriage to any maiden.

In other words, every Argentine Jack must choose his Jill as soon as he arrives at years of discretion. If he fails to do so the penalty is a payment by the defaulter of £1 a month to the National Treasury ; and this is increased, as the years go up, up to no less than £6 per month.

Only when he has celebrated his eightieth birthday, if he ever does so, is he held exempt ; the Legislature probably regarding him then as a " hopeless case," so far as the matrimonial market is concerned.

There is, however, even as a young man, one loophole of escape- provided for him. If he can prove thalt ho has proposed and been refused three times in one year he is held to have, as it were, done his best, and to have earned immunity.

The result i_ that there has sprung up, in course of time, a number of lady " professional rejectors."

These accommodating damsels are ready, for a consideration, to permit themselves to be wooed by any Benedict, to coquette with him, and finally to cast him oif ; and, what is more to the point, to swear to the same before the local Alcalde.

Among the Kolarians of Bengal the engagement is a matter of minutes only. A lad sees the lass of his choice carrying a full pitcher from the well. He steals behind her as she trots along, and lets fly an arrow between the crock and the arm that holds it.

It is as if be should say : "Go on, beloved, without fear ; my bow shall protect thee and cleaT for thee a road through life."

If tbe lass thinks ill of the lad's suiti she continues her*journey and takes no notice ; but if, on the other hand, " she ba favourably disposed, when she reaches the arrow she daintily raises it between her great- and second toes and offers it with a low bow to her husband — as he is from that moment.

On the other hand, in no country in the world are such abnormally long courtships the rule as in Bohemia.

Among the peasantry, especially, engagements lasting fifteen and even twenty years are so common as to call for no remark whatever.

Occasionally this national eccentricity is carried to the verge of tragedy ; as, for instance, in a case reported the other day from Oberpolitz, and which involved what is almost certainly the very longest courtship on record. The names of the wooer and wooed were respectively Franz Rosner and Anna Renner, and they had been courting continuously for seventy-five years, but had repeatedly deferred tlie bridal day. At last Franz became fatally ill, and was married on his deathbed, on tbe eve of his one hundredth birthday, the age of the bride and widow being ninety-nine.