STRANGE MARRIAGE SCENES.

Lake County Press, Issue 982, 3 October 1901, Page 2

STRANGE MARRIAGE SCENES.

A very fine-looking couple once came to me to be married (writes a clergyman in the ‘Scotsman’). They gave their ages. He was thirty-one and she was twenty-five. I noticed she was sad and serious: but I was persuaded he was honest, and also that he loved Iv I began the ceremony, and he repeated his vows ; but when it came to her ‘uni she broke down utterly jmd sobbed and wept. I paused. her to a seat. and, leaving her crying there, suddenly disappeared. I learned afterwards that six years before she had loved another man. They quarrelled, he- went away, and she had never seen him since. For two yeans the second man had been soliciting her love, but while she really loved him she still thought she loved the first. Finally she had consented to marry him, hut Mas not altogether happy. He must have known the " ways of life,” for. unknown to her. he had hunted up the first man, made him promise to be in the city on that day, and at that very hour to be in waiting at an adjacent hotel. In five minutes the groom returned, bringing the other man with him. When they entered she recognised the man, and for a full minute there "'as a dumb show. During that minute she realised how changed he was, how changed she was, and what an unreal memory she had cherished. Ido not expect to see again such an outburst of affection a.s that with which she flew into her real friend’s arms. They took their places for the second time. 1 finished the ceremony, pronounced them man and uife, and she went out the happiest woman I have ever seen.

One day a couple came to me, bringing as witnesses the parents of both parties. Everything proceeded smoothly to the point “love, honor, and obey," when s:hc refused to say the last. I repeated it again, and Mailed. Again she refused, and I shut up my book. Then there was a scene. They talked it over, and the more seriously they argued and discussed the more stubbornly she refused. The parents became angry, the groom excited, and the bride hysterical. To humor her, he joined in the request to have me leave it out. But 1 liked the fellow, and decided that a little sternness from me in the present might bo a favor to him in the future. So 1 told them I had no authority to change it. and M’onld not do so. Then there was ii scene. 1 tried to sliom- the foolishness of her objection, but it was no use. Finally 1 said to him: “Well, this household must have a head somewhere. I will leave it out for her if you will say it.” Then it M - as his time to refuse. M'hich he did. He gathered up his hat and started for the door, when, presto! change! She sprang after him. led him back by the hand : l ooked meekly up at him. and said it. Often those who make the greatest pageant leave the smallest perquisites behind, and invariably those who ask most from rhe church for baptisms and burials give the least to it between times. There, was one case which was vulgar to the point, almost, of being shocking. We had had t funeral in the church one afternoon at two o’clock. The aisles and chancel had been decorated lor the occasion v.ith ferns and palms and rubber plants, and the place looked beautiful in its sombre drapery. After the service was over I Mas returning to the vestry room, when a woman came hurrying in through the front .door, and overtook me in the middle aisle. She Mats out of breath with running, and between gasps inquired hon- long the decorations M ould he up. I replied : “ Probably until the undertaker returned from the grave.” Then “Would 1 main - her sister before his returnV" Why should I? Who wits she? Xo one M-hom I knew or who knetv the church. , But they had planned to have a wedding that day. and had expected to come to me for the ceremony. Htr idea at present was to change the hour in order to have the free use of the florist’s wares. True, rhe groom M - as at work for the day. but she would send and get him. The guc<ts could be notified, and the bride was already dressing. I sent her home—a sadder but a wiser woman.