Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 240, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1917 — WED, COURT LATER [ARTICLE]

WED, COURT LATER

Armenians Choose Girl First, Take Chance on Love. American Principal of School In Turke* Receives Letter Requesting Any One of Three. Armenian marriages are always arranged, the question of love not entering, writes Hester Donaldson Jenkins in World Outlook. I remember when the principal of an American school said to one of her teachers who was contemplating matrimony: “I hate to have you go, bat I should not mind so much if yoa loved him, ** that the Armenian drew herself up indignantly; she would not be so unmaidenly as to love a man before marriage. An Armenian man generally picks out his own wife, one whom he has seen and approved. But he does not court her; instead he goes to her parents and makes very careful inquiries as to her health, disposition and housewifery, after which he bargains keenly for her dot. Without a dot an Armenian girl may scarcely marry. The American principal of a school for Armenian girls In Turkey received a great many applications for wives from the Armenian men of the neighborhood. Once she received a letter which redd something like this: "Your Nobleness. “Mademoiselle: I wish to marry one of the girls in your school. Will you get mi little Aznlf, her of the curly braids and strong eyebrows? Or If you cannot obtain her for me, then I will take Marian, with the big, black eyes and the shining teeth; or if I ctuinot have her, I wish Zarroohee, with the straight features and white skin. But do not offer me any other, for I love only these three.” In. the same school occurred the unique experience of Schnorrjg. Dikran had come to her father and bargained for her. When she was told of her Impending marriage she was sulky and sad, for she had read English books and did not wish to be sold to a husband like a bale of rugs. But she left school and let her mother prepare her trousseau. At the formal betrothal she and Dlkfin met for the first time. When the priest put the question whether she was • willing to be betrothed to this man she shocked all the relatives assembled in festive array by a bold “No.” The priest 1 argued with her, and the Irate father would probably have forced her by pushing her hend forward had not Dikan declared that he •liked her spirit and would not have her forced to take him. So the party broke up in tears and lamentations. But the two young people met each other a good deal that winter, naturally taking an interest in each other, so the story ends with a happy marriage after a real American courtship.