Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 November 1884 — RUSSIAN MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. [ARTICLE]

RUSSIAN MARRIAGE CUSTOMS.

A Bo<Ul Bar barium of the Country of the Northern Boar. A token of the social barbarism of Russia in the olden times was found in the position assigned the female sex. Even a czar’s daughter had much ta complain of, for they were vety seldom allowed to marry, and they were very generally immured for life in a convent. In all ranks the women were treated as infeiior beings, and governed by the lash; and, except in the case of peasants and serfs, an almost Oriental seclusion was their lot. A husband might flog his wife at his pleasure, and even if she died under his band the criminal law failed to touch him. The wife, on the other hand, who might be goaded by bis cruelty to the murder of her husband, was ruthlessly buried alive. What our travelers report of the method employed to select wives for the czar affords further illustration of the backwardness of Muscovite civilization in that century. Instead of seeking suitable alliances with foreign courts, or among the noble families at home, the custom was, when a czar was to be married, to issue a proclamation inviting all marriageable girls of good position and tolerable pretensions to beauty to present themselves at Moscow on a given day for his czarish Majesty’s inspection, and after a careful scrutiny of the hundreds of fair candidates for the great matrimonial prize, the royal choice was announced to the nation. But there was still room for the proverbial slip between the cup and the lip. Disappointed families were apt to seek revenge for the failure of their candidate by endeavoring to “get at” and disable the successful beauty. In 1017 one of these brides-elect was drugged by the ruling clique at court, and thrown into such a state of apparent disease that she was pronounced incurable, and banished with all her relatives to Siberia. Soon afterward another actually died of foul play on the very day fixed for her wedding. When Peter’s father, the Czar Alexis, was contracting his first marriage, in 1647, and the elect maiden was being arrayed in the royal robes, the ladies-in-waiting were bribed to twist her hair so tightly that she swooned in his presence, and the complaisant physicians were induced to declare her hopelessly epileptic, with the usual result of exile to Siberia. Peter’s own mother, the pretty dark-haired Natalie Naryshkin, who became the second wife of Alexis, narrowly escaped a similar fate. She was the niece by marriage, and also the ward, of the Czar’s principal minister. Matveof, at whose house the royal widower noticed her when she brought in the refreshments, fell in love w'itli her, and offered her marriage. It happened that a proclamation had been already issued, summoning candidates for the Czar’s hand to present themselves in Moscow for his inspection and choice; and at Matveof’s entreaty, to give less handle for jealous intrigue and opposition, the girl was instructed to present herself with the rest, and appear to take her chance among them. The expedient, however, failed of success. As soon as the royal selection was known, every engine was set in motion to render it abortive. Her guardian was accused of bewitching the Czar with magic and sorcery. A long investigation followed, carried on, as usual, by the free infliction of torture on all concerned, and nine montiis passed before the intriguers were baffled and the marriage was solemnized. — New York Home Journal.