" He believes it is very common for
women to allow themselves to be seduced in the hope of being married.
They go on until they are _enceinte_, and then, if the young man is at
all a decent fellow, the friends interfere and the marriage is hurried
on. The sketch which Dr. Strahan supplies of Scotch courtships, explains
all this part of his observation. Young men and women meet together at
night, and the ordinary time is the middle of the night, when every one
else is in bed. "It is universal," says Dr. Strahan to the commission,
"among the working classes, to have this manner of courtship of which I
speak; there is no other courtship, in any other form; the fathers and
mothers will not allow their daughters to meet a young man in the
day-time; the young man never visits the family, but the parents quite
allow this; they have done it themselves before, and there is no
objection to it. The young man comes, makes a noise at the window; the
young woman goes out, they go to some outhouse; or perhaps the young man
is admitted to the young woman's bedroom after all are in bed, and there
is an hour or two of what is called courtship, but which would more
properly be called flirtation, because it is not necessary that there
should be any engagement to marry in these cases.
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