WAR WEDDINGS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 268, 1 August 1918, Page 2

WAR WEDDINGS

1 suppose I should lie ashamed lo own it, but when yuu marry people by the dozen a wedding tends to become-just part of the day's work. You turn up ai church twenty minutes or so beforehand, to get the registers filled up in readiness—which is .illegal, but we nil do it. Then more or less to time the ver-' ger looks in with "All ready, sir." You piri on .ymt.v stole, fake up your buck, gu in to .church, and begin, it is only when you hoar a strained voice saying "I wili" thai you realise that Ibis is deadly serious for somebody, , Hut is it. 11 Very otlcn it is. We givo the blessing from our hearts, and from another Heart, too, knowing that it is desired and deserved. If oiilv it could always be so! Often there has been a lengthy pause in the ceremony, as. I stood silent, waiting for the bridal pair to subdue their laughter. There is, of course, laughter caused by nervousness, easily detected and passed over. But there is laughter which makes us' wish to shut the book and tell the couple, to go aud be married somewhere else, and there is the ribald giggle, accompanied by nudges, at the outspoken exhortations and allusions in the marriage ?ervico.' Unbelievable, you say? But it is true, and (.here is the fear that, a.hghtliearted marriage will, mean a. heavy--hearted future. Many officers' weddings fill one with foreboding, ft. is only too common for an officer, a buy of 21 or so, to marry a woman five or six years or moru oider than himself—doubtless a good and virtuous girl, but iu upbringing and traditions entirely different. liho is proud uf her oilicer-husbund, but' the pride is often centred in herself as beiiig an officer's wife. They havn. met; Heaven knows how and where. The future is a long way off—never mind it. And so it goes on. It may be all right now, but the war will end some- time, and tne husband will cumo back. Tho glamour of uniform will disappear. Civilian clothes and civilian lite will bring— want? Ono can picture the intermittent iri'ilaMons; the husband's friends and the wife's friends, the differing and irreconcilable tastes and ideas, a few dreary years, aud then the crash. Onlookers sec most of the game, andthe judgment of a bachelor priest -a that tiie married life needs n lot of griicc. Is it to be found in these light-hearted beginnings? Perhaps it is, for Divine mercy is wide and wonderful—(By a clergyman iu the "Daily Mail.")

I The wedding took place at the Roman ! Caiiioiie Uiuiuurai. Uii'isiciiiiren, on iionuiiy, oi Jnss Miniiicd bojM', oucunti daiiguier ol Jirs. A. vjOoko. .uuhoihi, io i»ir. ti. J. Jvt'iilanoii. oi tne liovernincia Audit Ullice, Me.uiii'toil. Tne ltov. Fatner Fogaily ouu-ialeu. Preparations for the Red Cross Jumble Sale are progressing with energy and success, and a most .saleable collection oi goods will be lound at tne Tmvn Hall on Friday and Saturday iiltornoons. Many people wno have in i.ieir iiuu.h's collections ot old newspapers will lie gllivl to hear that these are asked for by the organisers. Rubber goods, such as motor tyres, boots and shoos, doming oi all sorts, jewellery, crockery, etc.,' all arc welcome, and will add to the Copper Trail Fund for the Rod Cross. All goods should reach tho Town Hull 10-day in order lo classify and sort thciu to advantage. . Miss Miles Franklin, who made her name us the writer of "My Brilliant Career," has returned to Londun from Salonika, where she had been attached to the Scottish Women's Hosoital for some time. ' j At tho Ancient Chapel of Toxteth, on May 30, Lienteiuinl-Colonel Lawrence George Hutchison. M.C. younger son of Mr. and Mrs. (ieonte Hutchison, of Wellington, was married lo Ri'.ilh Mav, daughter of Mr. aril Mrs. Henry Leceli, Parklield 1/udge. Si'flnn Park, Liverpool, writes a London .eurrespond-'iil. All parents are horeby cordially reluestcd to encourage Stationers unci Storekeepers to push the sale of "Thinker" Brand Writing Tablets and "Thinker" School Exerciso Books foi the nation's good—Baunntyno and Hunter, Ltd., wholesale agents for tho "Thiuker." -Advt,