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16
1913
MARRIAGES
During the year there were 5,968 persons united in marriage, as contrasted
with 6,182 in the previous year; and the marriage rate was 17.98, as against
18.94 in 1912. It is, therefore, nearly 1.0 per 1,000 of the population less
than in the latter year. Although this is so, yet an examination of the returns
for the last seventy-two years reveals the fact that in only fifteen has the rate
been higher than that now recorded. This is gratifying, for it shows that the
period through which the borough is passing is not a lean one, but, on the
contrary, rather indicates that trade is good; for bad trade has a very
depressing effect on the matrimonial market. "Marriage Returns," as the
greatest of our vital statisticians (Dr. Wm. Farr) wrote so long ago as 1847,
" point out periods of prosperity little less distinctly than the funds measure
the hopes and fears of the money market. If one is the barometer of credit, the
other is the barometer of prosperity, present in part, but future, expected, anticipated
in still greater part." And again, having discussed the effect on marriages,
of war, the grain crops, the establishment of new, and the extension of old,
employments, epidemics of speculation, and of sanguine politics created by
a great leader, he adds, "in fine the great fluctuation in the marriages of
England are the results of peace after war, abundance after dearth, high wages
after want of employment, speculation after languid enterprize, confidence
after distress, national triumphs after national disasters." And so we find
it still, as also that what is true of a nation is true of a smaller community.
Prosperity, even though it last but a year, has its effects and often induces
thoughtless men and women to marry when they ought rather to consider if
the prosperity were going to continue or to prove merely a wave which was
followed by a depression, and not a full sweeping tide, or at least such a tide
as would enable them to meet with confidence the backwash when
it comes, as come it will. The higher marriage rates of the last two years
indicate that the flow has been steady, and that these were the times to marry.
The marriage rate in 1913 showed that one woman was married for every
57-2 women living in the borough, and one man to every 51.9 men, or putting
it another way, as regards females the marriage rate among those of a
marriageable age, that is over 15 years, was 23.9 per 1,000, and among males,
of whom very few, however, marry before 21, 27.4 per 1,000.
In the following Table it will be noticed how the marriage rates fluctuated
according to the period of the year; the best period being apparently the
third quarter, and the worst the second. Probably the reason why the third
quarter holds the premier position is that during it persons usually take their