persons was, in 1890: Males, 25,271; females,
49,601. According to age, they were distributed:--

Age. Males. Females.
40-60 13,825 24,842
60 and over 4,917 7,244

These figures tell us that _widows and divorced women are excluded from
remarriage_, and at the fittest age for matrimony, at that; there being
of the age of 15-40, 46,362 widowers and 156,235 widows, 6,519 divorced
men and 17,515 divorced women. These figures furnish further proof of
the injury that divorce entails to married women.

In 1890, there were unmarried:--[96]

Age. Males. Females.
15-40 5,845,933 5,191,453
40-60 375,881 503,406
60 and over 130,154 230,966

Accordingly, among the unmarried population between the ages of 15 and
40, the male sex is stronger by 654,480 than the female. This
circumstance would seem to be favorable for the latter. But males
between the ages of 15 and 21 are, with few exceptions, not in condition
to marry. Of that age there were 3,590,622 males to 3,774,025 females.
Likewise with the males of the age of 21-25, a large number are not in a
position to start a family: we have but to keep in mind the males in the
army, students, etc. On the other side, all women of this age period are
marriageable. Taking further into consideration that for a great variety
of reasons, many men do not marry at all--the number of unmarried males
of 40 years of age and over alone amounted to 506,035, to which must be
added also the widowed and divorced males, more than two million
strong--it follows that the situation of the female sex with regard to
marriage is decidedly unfavorable. Accordingly, a large number of women
are, under present circumstances, forced to renounce the legitimate
gratification of their sexual instincts, while the males seek and find
solace in prostitution. The situation would instantaneously change for
women with the removal of the obstacles that keep to-day many hundreds
of thousands of men from setting up a married home, and from doing
justice to their natural instincts in a legitimate manner. For that the
existing social system must be upturned.

As already observed, emigration across the seas is, in great part,
responsible for the disproportion in the number of the sexes. In the
years 1872-1886, on an average, more than 10,000 males left the country
in excess of females. For a period of