The inside history of most of the German princely courts and n.o.ble families is to the informed an almost uninterrupted _chronique scandaleuse_, and not infrequently has it been stained with crimes of blackest dye. In sight of these facts, it certainly is imperative upon the sycophantic painters of history, not only to leave untouched the question of the "legitimacy" of the several successive "fathers and mothers of their country," but also to take pains to represent them as patterns of all virtues, as faithful husbands and good mothers. Not yet has the breed of the augurs died out; they still live, as did their Roman prototypes, on the ignorance of the ma.s.ses.
In every large town, there are certain places and days when the higher cla.s.ses meet, mainly for the purpose of match-making. These gatherings are, accordingly, quite fitly termed "marriage exchanges." Just as on the exchanges, speculation and chaffer play here the leading _role_, nor are deception and swindle left out. Officers, loaded with debts, but who can hold out an old t.i.tle of n.o.bility; _roues_, broken down with debauchery, who seek to restore their ruined health in the haven of wedlock, and need a nurse; manufacturers, merchants, bankers, who face bankruptcy, not infrequently the penitentiary also, and wish to be saved; finally, all those who are after money and wealth, or a larger quant.i.ty thereof, government office-holders among them, with prospects of promotion, but meanwhile in financial straits;--all turn up as customers at these exchanges, and ply the matrimonial trade. Quite often, at such transactions, it is all one whether the prospective wife be young or old, handsome or ugly, straight or bent, educated or ignorant, religious or frivolous, Christian or Jew. Was it not a saying of a celebrated statesman: "The marriage of a Christian stallion with a Jewish mare is to be highly recommended"?[69] The figure, characteristically borrowed from the horse-fair, meets, as experience teaches, with loud applause from the higher circles of our society.
Money makes up for all defects, and outweighs all vices. The German penal code punishes[70] the coupler with long terms of imprisonment; when, however, parents, guardians and relatives couple their children, wards or kin to a hated man or woman only for the sake of money, of profit, of rank, in short, for the sake of external benefits, there is no District Attorney ready to take charge, and yet a crime has been committed. There are numerous well organized matrimonial bureaus, with male and female panders of all degrees, out for prey, in search of the male and female candidates for the "holy bonds of matrimony." Such business is especially profitable when the "work" is done for the members of the upper cla.s.ses. In 1878 there was a criminal trial in Vienna of a female pander on the charge of poisoning, and ended with her being sentenced to fifteen years in the penitentiary. At the trial it was established that the French Amba.s.sador in Vienna, Count Bonneville, had paid the pander 12,000 florins for procuring his own wife. Other members of the high aristocracy were likewise highly compromised through the trial. Evidently, certain Government officials had left the woman to pursue her dark and criminal practices for many years. The "why" thereof is surely no secret. Similar stories are told from the capital of the German Empire. During recent years, it is the daughters and heirs of the rich American capitalist cla.s.s, who, on their side, aspire after rank and honors, not to be had in their own American home, that have become a special subject of matrimonial trading for the needy n.o.blemen of Europe.
Upon these particular practices characteristic light is thrown by a series of articles that appeared in the fall of 1889 in a portion of the German press. According thereto, a _chevalier d"industry_ n.o.bleman, domiciled in California, had recommended himself as a matrimonial agent in German and Austrian papers. The offers that he received amply betray the conception concerning the sanct.i.ty of marriage and its "ethical"
side prevalent in the corresponding circles. Two Prussian officers of the Guards, both, as they say themselves, belonging to the oldest n.o.bility of Prussia, declared that they were ready to enter into negotiations for marriage because, as they frankly confessed, they owed together 60,000 marks. In their letter to the pander they say literally: "It is understood that we shall pay no money in advance. You will receive your remuneration after the wedding trip. Recommend us only to ladies against whose families no objections can be raised. It is also very desirable to be introduced to ladies of attractive appearance. If demanded, we shall furnish, for discreet use, our own pictures to your agent, after he shall have given us the details, and shown us the pictures, etc. We consider the whole affair strictly confidential and as a matter of honor (?), and, of course, demand the same from you. We expect a speedy answer through your agent in this place, if you have one. Berlin, Friedrichstra.s.se 107, December 15, 1889. Baron v. M----, Arthur v. W----."
An Austrian n.o.bleman also, Karl Freiherr v. M---- of Goeding in Moravia, seized the opportunity to angle for a rich American bride, and to this end sent to the swindle-bureau the following letter:
"According to a notice in the papers of this place, you are acquainted with American ladies who wish to marry. In this connection I place myself at your service, but must inform you that I have no fortune whatever. I am of very old n.o.ble stock (Baron), 34 years old, single, was a cavalry officer and am at present engaged in building railroads. I should be pleased to inspect one or more pictures, which, upon my word of honor, I shall return. Should you require my picture, I shall forward same to you. I also request you to give me fuller information. Expecting a speedy answer in this matter, I remain, very respectfully, your Karl Freiherr v. M----, Goeding, Moravia, Austria, November 29, 1889."
A young German n.o.bleman, Hans v. H----, wrote from London that he was 5 feet 10 tall, of an old n.o.ble family, and employed in the diplomatic service. He made the confession that his fortune had been greatly reduced through unsuccessful betting at the horse races, and hence found himself obliged to be on the lookout for a rich bride, so as to be able to cover his deficit. He was, furthermore, ready to undertake a trip to the United States forthwith.
The _chevalier d"industry_ in question claimed that, besides several counts, barons, etc., three Princes and sixteen dukes had reported to him as candidates for marriage. But not n.o.blemen only, bourgeois also longed for rich American women. An architect, Max W---- of Leipsic, demanded a bride who should possess not only money, but beauty and culture also. From Kehl on the Rhine, a young mill-owner, Robert D----, wrote that he would be satisfied with a bride who had but 400,000 marks, and he promised in advance to make her happy.
But why look so far, when at hand the quarry is rich! A very patriotic-conservative Leipsic paper, which plumes itself very particularly upon its Christianity, contained in the spring of 1894 an advertis.e.m.e.nt, that ran thus: "A cavalry officer of the Guards, of large, handsome build, n.o.ble, 27 years of age, desires a financial marriage. Please address, Count v. W. I., Post Office General Delivery, Dresden." In comparison with the fellow who makes so cynical an offer, the street-walker, who, out of bitter necessity, plies her trade, is a paragon of decency and virtue. Similar advertis.e.m.e.nts are found almost every day in the papers of _all_ political parties--_except the Social Democratic_. A Social Democratic editor or manager, who would accept such or similar advertis.e.m.e.nts for his paper, would be expelled from his party as dishonorable. The capitalist press is not troubled at such advertis.e.m.e.nts: they bring in money: and it is of the mind of the Emperor Vespasian,--_non olet_, it does not smell. Yet all that does not hinder that same press from going rabid mad at "the marriage-undermining tendencies of Socialism." Never yet was there an age more hypocritical than the one we are living in. With the view to demonstrate the fact once more, the above instances were cited.
Bureaus of information for marriage,--that"s what the advertis.e.m.e.nt pages of most of the newspapers of our day are. Whosoever, be it male or female, finds near at hand nothing desirable, entrusts his or her heart"s wants to the pious-conservative or moral-liberal press, that, in consideration of cash and without coaxing, sees to it that the kindred souls meet. With ill.u.s.trations, taken on any one day from a number of large newspapers, whole pages, could be filled. Off and on the interesting fact also crops out that even clergymen are sought for husbands, and, _vice versa_, clergymen angle for wives, with the aid of advertis.e.m.e.nts. Occasionally, the suitors also offer to overlook a _slip_, provided the looked-for woman be rich. In short, the moral turpitude of certain social circles of our society can be pilloried no better than by this sort of courtship.
State and Church play in such "holy matrimony" a by no means handsome _role_. Whether the civil magistrate or clergyman, on whom may devolve the duty to celebrate the marriage, be convinced that the bridal couple before him has been brought together by the vilest of practices; whether it be manifest that, neither in point of age nor that of bodily or mental qualities, the two are compatible with each other; whether, for instance, the bride be twenty and the bridegroom seventy years old, or the reverse; whether the bride be young, handsome and joyful, and the bridegroom old, ridden with disease and crabbed;--whatever the case, it concerns not the representative of the State or the Church; it is not for them to look into that. The marriage bond is "blessed,"--as a rule, blessed with all the greater solemnity in proportion to the size of the fee for the "holy office."
When, later, such a marriage proves a most unfortunate one--as foreseen by everybody, by the ill-starred victim, in most instances the woman, herself,--and either party decides to separate, then, State and Church,--who never first inquire whether real love and natural, moral impulses, or only naked, obscene egotism tie the knot--now raise the greatest difficulties. At present, moral repulsion is but rarely recognized a sufficient ground for separation; at present, only palpable proofs, proofs that always dishonor or lower one of the parties in public esteem, are, as a rule, demanded; separation is not otherwise granted. That the Roman Catholic Church does not allow divorces,--except by special dispensation of the Pope, which is hard to obtain, and, at best, only from board and bed--only renders all the worse the conditions, under which all Catholic countries are suffering. Germany has the prospect of receiving, in the not too far distant future, a civil code that shall embrace the whole Empire. It is, therefore, a side-light upon our times that, although even the superficial observer must reach the conclusion that at no previous period have unhappy marriages been so numerous as now--a natural consequence of our whole social development--the new draft for a civil code still renders divorce materially difficult. It is but a fresh instance of the old experience,--a social system, in the throes of dissolution, seeks to keep itself up by artificial means and compulsion, and to deceive itself upon its actual state. In declining Rome, marriage and births were sought to be promoted by premiums: in the German Empire, whose social order stands under a constellation similar with that of the decaying Empire of the Caesars, it is now sought to prevent the ever more frequent desire for the dissolution of marriage by means of forcible constraints.
Thus people remain against their will chained to each other through life. One party becomes the slave of the other, compelled to submit out of "conjugal duty" to that other"s most intimate embraces, which, perhaps, it abhors worse than insult or ill-treatment. Fully justified is Montegazza"s dictum:[71] "There is probably no worse torture than that which compels a human being to put up with the caresses of a person it does not love."
We ask, Is such a marriage--and their number is infinite--not worse than prost.i.tution? The prost.i.tute has, to a certain degree, the freedom to withdraw from her disgraceful pursuit; moreover, she enjoys the privilege, if she does not live in a public house, to reject the purchase of the embraces of him who, for whatever reason, may be distasteful to her. But a sold married woman must submit to the embraces of her husband, even though she have a hundred reasons to hate and despise him.
When in advance, and with the knowledge of both parties, marriage is contracted as a marriage for money or rank, then, as a rule, matters lie more favorably. The two accommodate themselves mutually, and a _modus vivendi_ is established. They want no scandal, and regard for their children compels them to avoid any, although it is the children who suffer most under a cold, loveless life on the part of their parents, even if such a life does not develop into enmity, quarrel and dissension. Often accommodation is reached in order to avoid material loss. As a rule it is the husband, whose conduct is the rock against which marriage is dashed. This appears from the actions for divorce. In virtue of his dominant position, he can indemnify himself elsewhere when the marriage is not pleasing to him, and he can not find satisfaction in it. The wife is not so free to step on side-roads, partly because, as the receiving s.e.x, such action is, for physiologic reasons, a much more risky one on her part; then, also, because every infraction of conjugal fidelity is imputed a crime to her, which neither the husband nor society pardons. Woman alone makes a "slip"--be she wife, widow or maid; man, at worst, has acted "incorrectly." One and the same act is judged by society with wholly different standards, according as it be committed by a man or a woman. And, as a rule, women themselves judge a "fallen"
sister most severely and pitilessly.[72]
As a rule, only in cases of cra.s.sest infidelity or maltreatment, does the wife decide upon divorce. She is generally in a materially dependent position, and compelled to look upon marriage as a means of support: moreover, as a divorced wife, she finds herself socially in no enviable situation: unless special reasons render intercourse with her desirable, she is considered and treated by society as a neuter, so to speak. When, despite all this, most actions for divorce proceed from wives, the circ.u.mstance is an evidence of the heavy moral torture that they lie under. In France, even before the new divorce law came into effect (1884), by far the more numerous actions for separation from bed and board came from women. For an absolute divorce they could apply only if the husband took his concubine into the married home, against the will of his wife. Actions for separations from bed and board occurred:[73]
Average Per Average Per Year Years. Year by Wives. by Husbands.
1856-1861 1729 184 1861-1866 2135 260 1866-1871 2591 330
But not only did women inst.i.tute by far the larger number of actions; the figures show that these increased from period to period.
Furthermore, so far as reliable information before us goes, it appears that actions for absolute divorce also proceed preponderatingly from wives. In the Kingdom of Saxony, during the period of 1860-1868, there were inst.i.tuted, all told, 8,402 actions for divorce; of these, 3,537 (42 per cent.) were by men, 4,865 (58 per cent.) by wives.
In the period from 1871 to 1878, there were actions for divorce in Saxony[74]:
Year. By Husbands. By Wives.
1871 475 574 1872 576 698 1873 553 673 1874 643 697 1875 717 752 1876 722 839 1877 746 951 1878 754 994 ----- ----- Total 5,186 6,178
The fact that divorce, as a rule, hurts women more, did not restrain them in Saxony either from inst.i.tuting most of the actions. The total actions for divorce increased, however, in Saxony, as in France, much faster than population. In Switzerland, during the year 1892, there were granted 1,036 applications for divorce. Of these, wives had inst.i.tuted 493, husbands 229, and both parties 314.
Statistics teach us, however, not alone that wives inst.i.tute the larger number of actions for divorce; they also teach us that the number of divorces is in rapid increase. In France, divorce has been regulated anew by law since 1884. Since then, divorces have greatly increased from year to year. The number of divorces, and years they fell in, were as follows:
1884 1,657 1885 2,477 1886 2,950 1887 3,636 1888 4,708 1889 4,786 1890 5,457
In Vienna there were, from 1870 to 1871, 148 divorces; they increased from year to year; from 1878 to 1879 they ran up to 319 cases.[75] But in Vienna, being a preponderatingly Catholic city, divorce is hard to obtain. That notwithstanding, about the year 1885 a Vienna Judge made the remark: "Complaints on the ground of broken marriage vows are as frequent as complaints for broken window-panes." In England and Wales there was, in 1867, 1 divorce to every 1,378 marriages, but in 1877 there was 1 to every 652 marriages; and in 1886, 1 to as few as 527. In the United States the number of divorces for 1867 was 9,937, and for 1886 as many as 25,535. The total number of divorces in the United States between 1867 and 1886 was 328,716, and the fault fell in 216,176 cases upon the husband, in 112,540 upon the wife.
Relatively speaking, the largest number of divorces occurs in the United States. The proportion between marriages and divorces during the period of 1867 to 1886 stood for those States in which an accurate record is kept:
Marriages to Every One States. Marriages. Divorces. Divorce.
Connecticut 96,737 8,542 11.32 Columbia 24,065 1,105 21.77 Ma.s.sachusetts 308,195 9,853 31.28 Ohio 544,362 26,367 20.65 Rhode Island 49,593 4,462 11.10 Vermont 54,913 3,238 19.95
In the other States of the Union, from which less accurate returns are at hand, the proportion seems to be the same. The reasons why in the United States divorces are more frequent than in any other country, may be sought in the circ.u.mstance, first, that divorce is there more easily obtained than elsewhere; secondly, that _women occupy in the United States a far freer position than in any other country, hence are less inclined to allow themselves to be tyrannised by their marital lords_.[76]
In Germany there was, by judicial decision, 1 dissolution of marriage--
In the Years To Population. To Marriages.
1881-1885 8,410 1,430 1886 7,585 1,283 1887 7,261 1,237 1888 6,966 1,179 1889 7,155 1,211
According to Dr. S. Wernicke, there were to every 1,000 marriages, divorces in:
Years. Belgium. Sweden. France.
1841-1845 0.7 4.2 2.7 1846-1850 0.9 4.4 2.8 1851-1855 1.0 4.4 4.0 1856-1860 1.4 4.3 4.9 1861-1865 1.6 4.8 6.0 1866-1870 1.9 5.0 7.6 1871-1875 2.8 5.8 6.5 1876-1880 4.2 7.1 9.0
It would be an error to attempt to arrive at any conclusion touching the different conditions of morality, by deductions from the large discrepancy between the figures for the different countries cited above.
No one will dare a.s.sert that the population of Sweden has more inclination or cause for divorce than that of Belgium. First of all must the legislation on the subject be kept in mind, which in one country makes divorce difficult, in another easier, more so in some, less in others. Only in the second instance does the condition of morality come into consideration, i. e., the average reasons that, now the husbands, then the wives, consider determining factors in applying for separation.
But all these figures combine in establishing that divorces increase much faster than population; and that they _increase_ while marriages _decline_. About this, more later.
On the question how the actions for divorce distribute themselves among the several strata of society, there is only one computation at our disposal, from Saxony, but which is from the year 1851.[77] At that time, to each 100,000 marriages, there were actions for divorce from the stratum of
Domestic servants 289 or 1 application to 346 marriages Day laborers 324 or 1 application to 309 marriages Government employes 337 or 1 application to 289 marriages Craftsmen and merchants 354 or 1 application to 283 marriages Artists and scientists 485 or 1 application to 206 marriages
Accordingly, the actions for divorce were at that period in Saxony 50 per cent. more frequent in the _higher_ than in the _lower_ social strata.
The increasing number of divorces signifies that, in general, the marriage relations are becoming ever more unfavorable, and that the factors multiply which destroy marriage. On the other hand, they also furnish evidence that an ever larger number of spouses, women in particular, decide to shake off the unbearable oppressing yoke.
But the evils of matrimony increase, and the corruption of marriage gains ground in the same measure as the struggle for existence waxes sharper, and marriage becomes ever more a money-match, or be it, marriage by purchase. The increasing difficulty, moreover, of supporting a family determines many to renounce marriage altogether; and thus the saying that woman"s activity should be limited to the house, and that she should fill her calling as housewife and mother, becomes ever more _a senseless phrase_. On the other hand, the conditions can not choose but favor the gratification of s.e.xual intercourse outside of wedlock.
Hence the number of prost.i.tutes increases, while the number of marriages decreases. Besides that, the number increases of those who suffer from unnatural gratification of the s.e.xual instinct.
Among the property cla.s.ses, not infrequently the wife sinks, just as in old Greece, to the level of a mere apparatus for the procreation of legitimate offspring, of warder of the house, or of nurse to a husband, wrecked by debauchery. The husbands keep for their pleasure and physical desires hetairae--styled among us courtesans or mistresses--who live in elegant abodes, in the handsomest quarters of the city. Others, whose means do not allow them to keep mistresses, disport themselves, after marriage as before, with Phrynes, for whom their hearts beat stronger than for their own wives. With the Phrynes they amuse themselves; and quite a number of the husbands among the "property and cultured cla.s.ses" is so corrupt that it considers these entertainments in order.[78]