They go to the neighboring
farm-house, they knock at the window, the girl comes to the window, and,
if she know the young man--or, after a little parley, if she does not
know him--she either comes out and goes with him to an outhouse, or he
comes into her bedroom. You must remember that they have no other means
of intercourse."
"That is the point you press so much?"
"Yes; a young woman cannot see either a sweetheart or an acquaintance in
any other way. I believe if it was not for fear of being out at night,
the girls would visit one another in the same way; they have no other
means of visiting; the customs of the country are such that a young man
could not be seen going in day-light to visit his sweetheart."
Mr. Justice O'Hagan: "If the father knew that the young man was coming
into the house, and knew that he was with his daughter, would he not
interfere?"
"He would lie comfortably in his bed, knowing that his daughter was in
an out-house or barn with a young man, for perhaps two hours; shutting
his eyes to it in the same way that a person in the higher ranks would
shut his eyes to his daughter going out for a walk with a young man."
Dr. Strahan said also: "When you come to the middle class a young man
would not marry a girl that had had a child to another man; and very
probably he would not marry a girl that had had a child to himself; but
in the lower classes it is not so; it is almost universal to marry a
woman that has had a child, or that is with child to himself; but it is
very frequent to marry a woman that has had a child to another man; the
only objection is the burden of the child; the burden of the child might
be an obstacle, but the disgrace would be none.
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