|| An American short story ||
“And Solomon had seven hundred wives,” read Pastor Brandt.
Gretchen Edeler sat up to listen. A new idea had come to her. A distressing state of affairs existed in the village of Eisen. From their village, three hundred men had gone to fight in the war. From the war there had returned fifty-one—only fifty-one—and there in Eisen were two hundred and eighty-one girls wanting husbands.
Of the fifty-one returned soldiers twenty had wives and families already. Two had married during the war, married the nurses they had in the hospital. Hilda Sachs, the rich widow, had captured one. That left just twenty-eight men available for husbands—twenty-eight to two hundred and eighty-one girls.
Yet no marriages occurred. The men wished to marry as much as the girls, but how could a man decide with so many to pick from? Thus stood matters that Sunday morning.
After the service Gretchen waited to speak to Pastor Brandt.
“Everything in the Bible,” she asked anxiously, “is it always right?”
“Ja,” the pastor affirmed, “the Bible always gives right.”
“About everything?”
“Ja, about everything.”
“The Bible says that Jacob had two wives and that Solomon had seven hundred wives.
Is it right for men to have many wives?” “It was right in Bible days,” affirmed the pastor cautiously. “In those times many wives were needed to populate the land.”
“Many wives are needed now to populate the land,” asserted Gretchen. “Why should not each man in Eisen take now ten wives?”
“It is against the law,” declared the pastor.
“It is not against Bible law.”, she replied.
The pastor pondered for ten minutes.
“Nein,” he answered, “it is not against Bible law.”
“It would be for the good of the Fatherland.”, Gretchen said.
The pastor pondered twenty minutes more.
“Ja,” he decided, “it would be for the good of the Fatherland.”
“We will do it,” announced Gretchen. “Ten of us will take one husband. Better a tenth of a husband than never any husband. Will you marry us?”
The pastor pondered another thirty minutes.
“Ja,” he said at length, “for the good of the Fatherland.”
Quickly Gretchen spread her news. Quickly the girls accepted the Gretchen plan. Quickly they formed themselves into groups of ten and selected a husband. Quickly the twenty-eight men accepted. What man wouldn’t?
Only Selma Kronk, the homeliest of homely old maids, was left unmatched. In indignant dismay, she appealed to the already married men and women.
The men were reluctant with their support. So the other men were lucky and the women were fine.
What could they do anyway?
Even the married women were shocked but they did not want to interfere. They were happy with a whole of a husband, much better than one-tenth, thank you very much. Only a few handful people supported Selma and her monogamy idea.
“It is for the good of the Fatherland,” it was declared finally. “What man would not have ten wives if he could?”
Selma appealed to the mayor and the Governor, but in vain. “You’re making a terrible mistake”, she warned. Everyone ignored her because they thought she was just jealous and bitter.
The Gretchen plan was carried out.
Each war hero took ten wives, not only in Eisen, but throughout the land.
Nevertheless, Selma, the lone maid and the other supporters of monogamy had their revenge.
As invariably happens after a war, all the babies born were boy babies. (This, by the way, is a real phenomenon noticed after wars, known as returning soldier effect!).
“Aha!” cried Selma exultantly, as each new birth was announced. “Twenty years from now there will not be women enough to go around. Each wife then will have to have ten husbands. I wonder how the men will like that?”
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