Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1895 — THE BACHELOR. [ARTICLE]

THE BACHELOR.

Treatment He Once Received at the Law'* Hands. M hen a proposal was made not so long ago to tax the bachelors of France, as they were taxed in the days of the First Republic, the fact was recalled that republics generally have been hard upon the celibates. The wise Plato condemned the single men to a fine, and in Sparta they were driven at stated times to the Temple of Hercules by the women, who there drilled and castigated them in true military style. The ancient Romans, too, were severe with their bachelors, who were made to pay heavy fines; and, worse than that, for after the siege of Veii Camillus is recorded to have compelled them to marry the widows of the soldiers who had fallen in the war. Again, in the time of Augustus, the married men, all other things being equal, were preferred to the single men for the public offices. Then the Roman who had three children was exempted from personal taxes, and the bachelors not only had to pay them, but were prevented from inheriting the property of any one not a Rotnan citizen . Coming to more recent times, we have several instances of a like kind recorded for us by a recent writer on the subject. In the French settlement of Canada, for example, the single men, that they might be forced to marry, were subjected to heavy taxation and to restrictions on their trade and movements generally. Those who married Were dealt with, on the other hand, in a generous spirit. Not only were they provided with a good wife and a comfortable home, but they were rewarded according to the number of their offspring. The father of ten children, for instance, was pensioned for life at the rate of 800 livres a year. If he had twelve children he had 100 livres a year more, and the amount ran up to 1,200 livres a year when fifteen children blessed the union.

About the close of the seventeenth century the local authorities in Eastham, in Massachusetts, voted that every unmarried man in the township should kill six blackbirds or three cows yearly as long as he remained single, producing the scalps in proof; and as a penalty for not obeying the order he was forbidden to marry until he had made up all arrears. The requirements here were almost nominal; but it was somewhat different in Maryland, where half a century later the colonial Assembly imposed a tax of five shillings yearly upon all bachelors over thirty—as well as upon widowers without children—who were possessed with S2OO. At home we were not quite so severe when William 111. chose to single out the bachelors for special enactments. In those days a commoner who remained single at twenty-five had to pay a shilling fine yearly, and the amountwas increased with rank or title. A duke was supposed to be a special offender in not taking a wife, and had to pay for his whim to the extent of twelve pounds ten shillings per annum. It was thus evident that the fact was recognized that.the prosperity of a country depends upon its married citizens.