Hiring a "Best Man."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 195, 22 August 1904, Page 4

Hiring a "Best Man."

MESSRS. WHITELEY OVERCOME I A BRIDEGROOM'S DIFFICULTY. AN IRISH ROMANCE. (Daily Mail.) A wedding, the like of which has never been depicted by the most imaginative of novelists took place a few days ago in a little town near the north-east boundary of County Tyrone, Ireland. It was a wedding in which a halo of romance surrounded not only the bride and bridegroom but the " best man " as well. The bridegroom was the most popular man in the district ; not in his first youth, perhaps but a fine, straight-backed, broadshouldered man for all that. The bride was a real daughter of Erin, with a pretty, sunny face, a pair of large, brown rougish eyes, and a wealth of wavy chestnut hair. She was much younger than the bridegroom, and her face'was her onfy fortune. These latter circumstances led to an estrangement between the bridegrrom and his relatives. Even his un'omantic male friends deserted him and not one of them would discharge the duties of " best man." But difficulties oro uprely quarry for Cupid to aim at and bring down. The happy day arrived and so did the " best man," " ARE YOU MY BEST MAN ? "

The wedding was the talk of the country for miles around, and by dawn folk' began to flock into the little town on foot and in farmers' carts. Long before the decorations were finished and the church bells began to clash out, the narrow, oldfashioned streets, were packed with people—so thronged, indeed, that a Ixjdy of the bridegroom's retainers had to force n way through for the private jaunting car containing the '•"best man," who, 'breathless and travel-weary, had arrived just in time at the railway station. Here he had been met'by the bridegroom. It was a strange meeting. "Are you my best man?" inquired the bridegroom when that functionary alighted from the train. The visitor presented certain credentials which satisfied him on that point. In a little town where everybody knows everybody else, the crowded congregation at the church—not the church ,gt which the bridegroom had Ibean a worshipper since boyhood but tho church attended by the bridewere naturally surprised that the "best man" was a stranger to them. No one could recognize that smart, immaculately dressed imli-.idual with the tawny moustache curled upwards a la Kaiser Wilbelm. Even the bride did not know him. When the ceremony was over and the " best man's " duties completed, he departed as suddenly and mysteriously as he came, only the bridegroom 'being aware of his identity. The " best man " in fact, was supplied by Messre William Whiteley, ■Limited, '•' the universal providers," of Westbourncgrove, Bayswater, London, NOVEL ORDER. When the bridegroom discovered that no friend would accept the position, he wrote to Messrs Whiteley, pointing out that he understood they were "prepared to meet any demands upon their resources." Would they therefore, send to Ireland tlie smartest and most gentlemanly man in their employ to act as his " best man" ? A number of young fellows claimed to possess those qualifications ; but finally on assistant in tho silk department was chosen for the mission. He had only a little over an hour in which to dress and fortify himself for the journey, and he was back again behind the silk counter before the bride and bridegroom had arrived in England on thoir honeymoon.

Whiteley's have aforetime supplied many strange "goods," but neither they nor, it is believed, any other firm have ever before furnished a "b»st man" to order.