MATRIMONIAL CUSTOMS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 230, 27 August 1938, Page 12

MATRIMONIAL CUSTOMS.

ADDRESS TO LUNCH CLUB. “Matrimonial Customs” was the subject of an interesting if unusual address given to the Palmerston North Citizens Lunch Club, yesterday, by Mrs J. Walker, a teacher at the College Street School and a member of the Palmerston North Debating Society. Mr H. G. Mills presided and welcomed as a visitor Mr L. Lovelock. Mrs Walker said that since time immemorial it had been the custom of man to take unto himself a wife. In the days of the cave-men there was no mutual understanding about the business. When a man found tho maiden of his fancy he simply took her whether she liked it or not; if she_ objected she was clubbed into submission and if there was another suitor in the offing the two of them would fight for the coveted prize. Such practices, of course, did not obtain to-day, the speaker added humorously, hut there were still hundreds of women who liked men of the cave-man type. Mrs Walker went on to deal with some of the greatest lovers of the ages. Because they were great lovers it did not mean that they were great men, but they had a fascination which won them many admirers. Florenz Ziegfield was one who was said to have had a longer list of the telephone numbers of pretty girls than any other man. Sir Basii Zaharoff had been called the “Mystery Man of Europe.” He, too, had hundreds of admirers and was extravagant in his love-making. Mrs Walker said that it was well known that women literally went mad about Lord Byron, the poet. He was not just a handsome man, he was really beautiful and women fell at his fe.et. On the part of woman it could be stated without fear of contradiction that no wife adored her husband more than did Queen Victoria. Her love for him, her readiness to take his counsel, was an object Jesson. The many strange forms of marriage were referred to by the speaker, who quoted instances of peers and statesmen who found the lady of tlielr choice and “set sail for Gretna Green, there to be married by the famous blacksmith.” Many Royal weddings, too, had been celebrated under strange circumstances. George 111. had been so upset when his brothers became secretly and, to him, unfavourably married, that he caused to be passed the Marriage Act of 1772, wherein it was laid down that no descendant of George 11. was allowed to marry without the consent of the ruling Sovereign. Wedding customs of years gone by and of many countries were dealt with by the speaker. The Tudors used to throw wheat over the heads of the married couple as an outward expression of the wish that tliev would never want in their married lives, and in Yugoslavia to-day the custom was to throw raisins, sweets and nuts over the happy couple. Many people thought that the shoe was a symbol of good luck; actually in tho early days the shoe was placed on the head of the bride, indicating that “just as she got from beneath the heel of her father she was going beneath the heel of her husband” The speaker was accorded a vote of thanks.