Cape Breton Marriages

Courtship is by no means a necessary preliminary to marnage. To ben at the beginning: When a young man decides that he will marry, he often first builds a house; and it is no trivial matter here, where most of the lumber is sawn by hand in a pit. A man maybe said to be in earnest when he begins his suit with months of such hard labor - and tliat, too.fromadisinterested motive, not having the faintest idea, perhaps, as to who will be the mistress of the house. We saw a number ot such expectant buildings, in all states and of many ayos; lor some, faiilugu gnt ii LL-naiu, stood without windows or doors, the image of a desolate and empty heart. John , a young man duly prepared and determined to marry, hau set out the previous week with his spokesman to got a wite. He had.iio particular preference for any one, but they decided to go lirst to the house of Mary , one of tho brightest girls of the parish, whoin lie had often noted, . but with whom he had never spoken. When they entered the house, a hint of their object was given to Mary, and she retired from the sitting room. ïhe spokesman then delivered his speech, in which he praised the personal qualities, the fortuno, the social position, of his friend, and asked the hand of Mary for him. As the father had no objection to the offer, he at once consented to leave the matter to his daughter. She was called in, and the spokesman conferred quietly a while with her in a corner, and she consented to the marriage. The spokesman then led her out to the middlo of the floor, and John carne from his corner and took her by the hand; tlius the "contract" w8 accepted, under the usual penalty of forfeiting twenty dollars in case the engagement was broken. The evening was spent in dancing; but if any of the deacons had had wind of the affair, it is probable that they wou'd have come and changed the festivity into a prayer meeting. The young man afterward engaged the priest to publish the banns for the first and last time on the following Sunday. But Mary had herown plans in all this; she knew that tho affair would reach the ears of Sandy -, for whom she had a strong perference, and perhaps bring him piomptly to a proposal. Sandy did come, and the upsnot of t was thathe and his father went late on Saturday night, roused the priest, and had Sandy 's name substituted in the banns for that of applicant number one. This new shufilinüof the cards was common enouh, sotbat it caustiibut a passing smile amona the friends of the parties most interested. But a certain young man who heard the banns went home in such depression that he asked his father for ten dollars. When questioned he explained that the girl whom he had always intended to marry was to become the bride of Sandy , and he was going away to the States. "Wel!, and why don't ye carry her off and marry her yerself.Malcolm? I'll give ye the upper farm this minute. Go get yer brother, see the girl, and bring her home here. We'll keep her safe." Now thappenedthatMalcoIm was the richest of three applicants.besides being, I willsuppose.forchanty's sake, a good fellow. Suffice it to say that they brought the girl home bag and baggage, by stealth, that Sunday night, mounted a guard that prevented the success of any strategem on either her part or the part of tne others, and they were married on the following Tuesday. These persons were by no means of the lowest ranks; the girl was described to me by an old fisherman as a "noble-minded lookin' girl, sir; a fine specimen of the highland craft." A junn is n.11 tho moro KigUly ootowOl for such a feat. The rejected fellow does not lose heart; he generally keeps on with his negotiations day after day, house after house, until he finds a partner. An intelligent woman, while admitting the general predominance of the worldly interests in these matters, and th suddenness with which marriages were very often made, said that unhappy families are nevertheless rare among this people. Thedomestic life of the couple even to-day in most of thepeasants' hornea will beexceedinely primitive, the woman will do the spinning, weaying and knitting required by the family; and the man will make nearly everything needed in the house and on the farm. A farm and family will require about" two hundred dollars' worth of feed, food and sundries, and this amount representa the averasre production, of the little farms of Cape Breton, together with the fishing that many do at odd times. In the spring, actual want is sometimes feit by many famcive milk once more. But the island