Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1889 — What Are “Morganatic” Marriages! [ARTICLE]

What Are “Morganatic” Marriages!

The term “morganatic” applied to marriages had its origin in an ancient custom by which the bridegroom on the day after the wedding gave his bride a morning gift—morganabe. In the case of a nobleman wedded to a wife of low estate this morning gift constituted the wife’s portion, or endowment, and from this gift such marriages took the name morganatica. The German law, continuing this tradition, allows the members of the reigning house and certain noble families to contract marriages in all respects legal and valid, except that it gives to the partner of lower birth and to the children no share in the rank, titles and distinctions of the privileged house. Such marriages have often been eminently happy ones.— London Life. ' Why not save your clothes by using the best, purest, most economical soap, Dobbins’ Electric. Made ever since 1864. Try it once you will use it always. Your grocer keeps it. Look for the name. Bobbins. Patti says that sleep is the secret of beauty. If this be so, what sleepless lives some of us must have led.