Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 October 1874 — Hurrying Off Foundlings in Italy. [ARTICLE]

Hurrying Off Foundlings in Italy.

The follow ing description of how girls iu u foundling hospital at Palermo, Italy, j 1 are married off is given iu an article by the late Lady Amberley, on “ Foundling : Hospitals in Italy,” published in MacmiLlun’x Magazine: The-long dormitories were clean and orderly, out the curious and peculiar feature of this establishment was the parlatoriu, or reception-room, the center portion of which is, divided off from the sides and further end by an iron grating which forms a cage, entered only by a well-barred street door, through which visitors from the outer world art admitted. Here they sit on benches to converse with those on the other side of the irun grating. Friends of the sisters or employers of the place and fosterparents are the usual visitors. Once $ week, however, on Sunday mornings from ten to twelve, this place is the scene of the most , novel, and ludicrous courtships we ever heard described. One of the objects of this motherly establishment. is to find fit and"proper husbands fore* the girls under their charge; The fit and proper here is much like the fit and proper of society; the one requisite being that the young man is bound to show himself in possession of sufficient means to maintain a wife in comfort before be is allowed to aspire to the hand of one of these precious damsels. Having given in his credentials of fitness to the guardians, he. receives a card which admits, him the next Sunday morning to an in- , spection of the candidates for matrimony. There, sitting on a bench, if his curiosity and ardor will allow him to remain sitting, he awaits the arrival on the other side of the grating of the lady superior accompanied by a girl. She has been selected by order of seniority and capacity for household work from the hundred or more between seventeen and twenty-offe waiting for a youth to deliver them from their prison. The two young people, both, no doubt, breathless with agitation at the importance of the ceremony, have to take one long, fixed look at each other. No word is spoken, no sign made. These good sisters believe so fully iu the language of the eye that to tlieir minds any addition is futile, and might but serve to mystify the pure and perfect effect of love at first sight.

Tlie look over, tlie L;uly Superior asks -the- ißftß-i£ bo will accept “the maiden—asliis bride. Should he answer in the affirinative, the s;tme question is put to her, and if she bows assent the betrothal has taken place, and they part till the Sunday following. The young lover again makes his appearance before tlie tribunal o! guardians; and there the contract is signed, the day of marriage fixed, and he is granted leave to bring the ring, carriage, a wedding dress and confetti, and present them —through the grid, of course—to liis betrestlied. Everything has to pass the scrutiny of the sisters for fear of a letter or some word being slipped in with gifts. During the few Sundays that intervene between the first love scene and the marriage an hour’s conversation within hearing of the Lady Superior is allowed, but not a touch is exchanged. The empty talk, interspersed with giggling, consists of inquiries as to the wedding-dress, the sort of confetti most liked and the occupation and place of abode of the suitor. Should the young man refuse the first damsel presented to him he is favored with tht sight of three or four more, but should Tie still appear difUcilc. he is dismissed! The girl also has the power of refusal. The marriage over the task of the sisters is done; here falls a veil they never lift—and whether happiness and faithfulness are tlie result they naver inquire. Our readers must before now have wondered what inducement there can be to make the youths who have the world to choose from come here in search oi' a wife. Two hundred and fifty francs is the great attraction. That sum is given in a dowry for each of these girls, and for that sum it seems a Sicilian is willing to sell himself for life. Those girls for whom the institution fails to find husbands are allowed at twenty-one to face temptations alone, and situations are found for them.