THE VANISHING BRIDESMAID.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 44, 15 November 1907, Page 3

THE VANISHING BRIDESMAID.

"I'm glad bridesmaids are going out of fashion!" said a,bride, petulantly ( at hor own smart wedding only the other day (writes a London paper). "One hates a string of greedy self-conscious girls yearning after one, oach thinking herself tho centre figure of the pieco." . That was one way. of putting it, of course. Yot the bride's romark met with more applause than disfavour. Even some of tho surrounding men agreed. But is tho indictment'true? Is that really why tho bridesmaid is vanishing as an institution ? Because there is no doubt that every year she becomes rarer. Almost .imperceptibly, as each London season coines round with tho spring, and the crops of flowers, and the crops of "smart" weddings, there is less and less 'of her— "small by degrees and beautifully less," poor dear I—till, slowly but surely, we are even ceasing to miss her. Where hor. name occurred in the elaborate account we see that of a little nieoe or a little nephow, who did duty 111 hor stead. In the crowded church, as the bride sweeps in on hor, father's arm to the strains of "Tho Voice that breathed o'er Eden," people are beginning to forget to look eagerly at that blank in the wedding procession that conies just after tho tail of tho bride's train: look.curiously for the cluster of rosy faccs, pinky-flushed, expectant; the dancing whirl of furbelows and feathers, the dainty flutter of six girls coming to see their companion married. Instoad, that blank is dotted with one, or, perhaps two, tots, in laco Dutch bonnets or Georgian suits, wandering in a lost manner over the red baize, appallingly solemn, and usually hazardously near to tears. Tho women all say "How swcot!" more or less insincerely. They would much rather havo hnd some "grown-up" drosses to criticise. The mon— what few of these that can now be got to wedding services—look hopelessly bored "under the hysterically sot grin of patronising benovolenco that everybody feels obliged to wear in tho presence of children—in public. THo tots themselves aro the only ones really at ease. They aro very much so, indeed. Pointing with extended forefingers they pick out their relatives in audible accents. If thev do not cry aloud at tho sight of the offi- | ciating clergyman, they are apt to make bnrrassing remarks about his "nightgown." An air of half-suppressed nervousness flut- | ters tremulously over the whole assembly, [ with the result that there is a secret wish in

every heart—though probably not one would bo got to admit it —that the tots will do somothing madly ludicrous and upset the dignity of the whole affair. , That wish is often granted, needless to sayl Even tho bride feels tho crowd of oppression it brings. Is she not wondering, it she bo , human at all, even during the solemn words of t.ho wedding sorvice, whether or not the "tots" aro sitting on her train pulling their (lowers to pieces? Does she not, oven as she plights her troth, start with apprehension at tno faintest, the very faintest, sound of a titter from the churchful of friends behind her, in case little bunchy Molly, tho baby trainboarer, is by this time seated on tho rod baize enthusiastically pulling off her own shoes? Or the bridegroom pauses, hor-ror-strickcn, as beyond the voice of tho clergyman he hears a protracted howl from Dick, the baby page, whose mamma has vigorously plied him with a much too large pocket handkerchief! Later on comes the reception. Even hore one misses those dainty maids who once handed cako, and chattered and made a sort of centro in themselves when the brido was too busy to do more than shake hands with her stream of guests in rapid succession. But Molly and Dick, happier now than in tho church, have become unbearably sticky. They trail glutinous fingers over the delieato frocks of the guests, who liavo to smile hysterically and say "Ducky little darling!" when they aro fairly curling up witn wrath and consternation. Everyone stuffs them with sweets and cakes until they become almost apoplectic, exceedingly cross, if nothing more tragic happens. Tears, outcries, howls are tho stage following. Let us draw a curtain.

It is difficult to imagine why these poor little marionette babies should have' almost entirely supplanted the bridesmaid at the majority of weddings. Princesses —even duchesses—and many great ladies still keep to tho quaint and beautifully symbolic custom of. the maiden companions of the bride following her,to the altar, but peoplo less tied by tho, actual claims of a very exalted position are dropping the very tradition. One cannot suppose that tho harsh reason' given ljy that petulant bride holds good universally. Not ovory woman thinks so hardly of her girl friends as all (hat. People's usual answer to question's as to why they don't do most things is that they "cannot be bothered —life is such a rush." But ono can hardly consider the average bridesmaid moro "bother" than tho "tot." Whatever her faults, she doos hot get sticky and pull off her shoes 1 Is it the cost of her, or is it possible that the average age at which a woman now marries makes the bridesmaid a little do trop? For, of course, the bridesmaid, if she is to be offective, must be "caught young," as Mrs. Becton says, and where tne bride, though comely, is 35, sweet 20 may just happen to upset tho picture. On the other hand, if the actual friends and compeers of the same bride were chosen, in accordance with the old tradition, fresh difficulties would arise. Six women, nearing 40, would hardly cut their best figure dressed as shepherdesses and walking two and two in her wake! What is by no means too old for a. bride might easily be too old for publiclyparaded "maid-hood." ■But, whatover that petulant bride might say, one has a lurking suspicion that probably, the reason lies less at the doors of the brides than the bridesmaids. Some of these would be. willing enough to have a train of waiting girls behind them, but there is a kind of girl growing up nowadays who—think of it I—is not willing to follow. There is a kind of„ girl who refuses to take a second place amongst a-group of compeers. She is a very common kind indeed. Also, there 'is a kind of .girl, growing commoner, who will not come forward in that connection because it is no longer fashionable to be unmarried—that is to say. unless you are a "bachelor woman." are social • thronos to struggle for—that. of the smart married woman or that of the (often evon smarter) "bachelor" woman. Tho only person who is really out of date is the unattached and willing ingenue.' Fifty years ago all and any girls wero willing to tako the post ,even proud of it. It was altogether a more serious affair, and considered moro of an honour. But'now, apart from tho artfully artless, there aro a whole host of girls who refuse it, for quite different reasons / Then it was romantic, wonderful, full of all sorts of volcanic possibilities to he a bridesmaid. Now ifc is a crestcd sign of "grcon-* ness. . Girls fresh from college, hockey girls athletic girls, say it is "muffing" to be a. bridesmaid. It is not sport. Other girls w-ho have none of tho crude and rough ideas of the advanced of their sex, object vaguely to taking an openly admitted second placo to the over-young, fascinating married woman now so much tho vogue. Thcv are a little joyous of married women : a little sulky at the way society treats them when they onter its lists to conquer, and so they "hack °i 'Public confession of marriageable girlhood, themselves not quite clcar why.