HOW THEY MARRY IN FRANCE

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 333, 21 October 1908, Page 11

HOW THEY MARRY IN FRANCE

A wedding in • France is a very serious affair, ■ and - more of an - ordeal than the American bride and groom have to go through, says a writer in an American maga-

! The above illustration shows one of the new bordered robes. In cream mousseline de soibj with brown embroidered spots, the border of brown satin,' outlined with roses in shades of yellow and brown, it makes a remarkably "effective, costume.

zinc, for the-happy couple must be married twice.,-: First there is the civil • ceremony, performed ■ by the Mayor at' the city hall, and' then there is the religious ceremony 1 iu tho' church. 'V- • It was a ' typical- bourgeois'' wedding the writer 7 went-to. Our ■ char-a-banc, a sort of brake, loaded with the wedding party, flashed noisily over the cobblestones from . the bride's house to ;the inairie. There Was .need : 'for haste, for, like all. wedding parties') wo-'were late. But there were others even, more .tardy, for thirty couples were to.', be -united that morning, and seventeen of. them had not arrived when our party reached .the mairie. Our. turn came after about, a: quarter of- an hour's waiting, and in; response to the names of the bridegroom and brido,. called ■ by an attendant, wo all filed- into;tho Mayor's offico and sat down on long ; benches placed against the wall. There was a couple before us and a couple behind, and as one party departed, so we moved.' up. and another filled tho vacancy. .The wedding was delightfully short as a cereinony, and with such a batch to . marry it, needed to be. Thero was much signing of . registers by the newly-wedded pair ana their witnesses, and the bride received her marriago certificate in the form of abrowucovercd book. Everybody dropped coppers in the. large money-box on the desk—contributions for tho poor. : Then vvo/moved on, out, and as quickly lis'wo could we got into tho carriage waiting for' us*, and drove, rapidly to the church'. In"-.tha. little open chapel, off ,the centre aisle of the old. church,, tho couplo were wedded ■ in ■ the sight of God. Rings were exchanged,: and" then in' the vestry more bookswero signed, a collcctipn ma do for the cliurch, and wo emerged into the sunlight again. It was a laughing, jolly party that scrambled-into the char-a-banc. The horses' heads wero not turned for the' bride's home, for the wedding feast is held in a restaurant: No even-the poorest—would think she had been properly married unless there was a wedding feast, with music, song, and dance. , Even though she can only afford a walking wedding, she will have the wedding partj at a neighbouring cafc in town, and, giving this, she will bo happy, though the dinner costs no more than two francs (Is. 9d.) per person, wino included, and each gugst pays for his or her own moall The promenade is an essential part of all weddings. A walking wedding will visit some local museum or tho Louvre or go for a street-ear rido;- — ••• "NYo wero very thirsty and hungry when wo reached tho restaurant at Neuilly. But bofore any of the • party dined, bride and bridegroom each ate soup together at a side table.That is one of the customs. Thon came thn bridal dinner. It was a lengthy menu, opening with liors d'oeuvre and closing with ice cream, with soup, fish, entrees, otc., between, washed down with various red and'white wines, including, , of /course, champagne. Meanwhilo the coach-

man had been dining elsewhere, and was now all ready to take us to drive. The Zoological Gardons had been decided upon, and through tho Bois de Boulogne tncro never sped a 1 merrier, !\ more good-tempered party, waving hunches of tissuo paper of many colours on the end of cardboard batons.

The evoniiig was reserved to dancing, and everybody danced until they could dance no more from sheer fatigue, then wo adjourned for supper. In the courso of the meal came tho usual a.uction. From somewhere the best man had secured a tri-coloured garter of the national colours of Frauco. While the bride looked demure, he cut it into bits with a pair of borrowed scissors. Each morsel realised something, from a franc to five, and the rosultant total became the property of the brido to buy a present with. About a fortnight after the wedding, lettrcs de faire part are sent out by the relatives. These "letters" arc ponderous documents—a huge, envelope, and a big, closelywritten (printed copper-plate) sheet. They announce the wedding to all and sundry." The lettra de faire part is curious, whether issued for a wedding or a death, as it shows the close self-adhesion of "the family" in France. It is not only "Mr. and Mrs. X" who announce the marriage of. their daughter or son; but the names of "Monsieur ot Madame X" as announcers are coupled with the names of tho grandparents, of their sons (with their wives and children), of their daughters (with their husbands and children), of their nephews and nieces (with their husbands and wives and children), of their uncles and aunts,' their brothers and sisters' (with their wives and husbands and children) —of every relative of any importance. The complicated relationship of the bride to all these people has also to be announced. Hence the volume of the lettre de faire part, which takes a good long time to read through. Though sent out about a fortnight afterward, it is dated the day of the wedding.

SIMPLE AMUSEMENTS FOR CHILDREN. A small boy will -find--infinite - delight in hammering tacks into a block of soft wood. When one end is full, he can turn it over and drive in more at the other, and so on, further employment being found' in taking them out again. Small tacks, soft wood, ana a very light hammer, of course, are necessary.

A big box of sand is a source of great joy to small children when a slight ailment or bad weather confines them to the house all day; arid this'-is not impossible to manage in a workmanlike nursery,-if a largo dustsheet is spread on the floor when the'operations commence. Tho box should be on wheels,' as' sand is very heavy, and it! should be rolled away out of sight when not in use. Tiny spades and pails, also some pebbles and shells, are required to make this famous play complete, and should any sand be spilled on tho unprotected part of the room, it is easily swept up. However soon children tire of playing with toys, they always find endless amusement in making new playthings for themselves. Tho fabrication of paper dolls out of coloured fashion plates iB a work which will easily serve to pass away a wet afternoon in tho nursery. The figures should be cut neatly round, pasted on to cardboard and this in turn cut out so as to stiffen the figures. The arms and legs can.be made to move if these are divided in the first instance, mounted separately on cardboard and attached to tho dol)s by means of srnall paper fasteners, the heads being treated in lake