Benjamin Franklin before the Revolution drew an impressive contrast between the old settled countries where all berths were full and the new world where the abundance and cheapness of land and the relative ease of subsistence banished forebodings and led to readi ness for early marriage; so that marriages in America are more general, and more generally early than in Europe. And if it is reckoned there, that there is but one marriage per annum among one hundred persons, perhaps we may here reckon two. At the time Of In dependence marriage was the regular thing; sports and recreations turned largely on the mimic choice Of a partner; the unmated player was the butt Of ridicule. Thus did merrymaking re?ect the status of the min cing spinster or the crusty old bachelor.