As I’ve written before, in the 18th Century in Europe males had compulsory military service at age 21. After a year or two in the military, they returned to their villages and would usually marry a teen age girl. So there was nothing unusual about a 23 year old male marrying a 15 year old girl. The idea was to keep the girls chaste for their husbands and let them start having families, because many babies didn’t survive past age two. The U.S. being settled by European immigrants, largely followed that tradition of husband being at least five years older than the wife. For the girls, it was about finding a husband who could provide for her, not some boy her own age. They may have courted with a chaperone, but dating wasn’t accepted. The idea was to marry people off relatively quickly, not have long romances with modern drama.
when do the air baths happen