WHY WOMEN LOVE WEDDINGS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 275, 14 November 1908, Page 4

WHY WOMEN LOVE WEDDINGS

In all this wide world there ia Slothing of more engrossing interest to a woman than a wedding. Were a woman lying ill in bed, to be told tinit a wed-. Uing was in tile oiling, sue would at once sit up and begin to take notice. invite a man to a wedding, and he will, without delay, send in his present, and then forget all about the cere-j moay. Invite a woman to a weidifig, und she is obsessed by the invitation right up to the very day. Her thoughts constantly dwell 011 weddings she has seen, and weddings she would like to sec. A wedding, for her, is packed as full of interest as an egg is of meat. it is a noteworthy fact that men obstinately refused to be stirred by weddings, and if tiiey come across an account of awedding in the paper, they give it the go-by. Therefore, it seems obvious that it is for women alone that our local newspapers publish these elaborate accounts of the weddings 01 .Miss Js'obody-in-i'artieular and .Mr .So-One Especial. Who else but a woman would be interested in tile details which the junior reporter has so assiduously gathered—the list of the guests, the roll of presents, the fashion of tile bridesmaids' dresses, and so 011'/ What man would be edified in learning that the bride,3 aunt wore a purple toque, or that the bridegroom's second cousin acted as amateur pew-opener at ths church '! To tesl the stability of a v.oinan,s mind, one has only to post her a slip of white cardboard, with an announcement printed ill silver to the effect that | on a certain day one more wedding is going to be added to the myriad of weddings which have taken place since the world begun. Let the recipient of the card be a model housewife, let her be ever so domesticated, she will, none the less, be completely demoralised for the time being. Forthwith she will hurry out to discover which of her friends have been invited, and which not, and why not. Klie will spend her afternoons in passing from At-iionic to At-home, discussing the latet phases of the. afl'.ui'. Within a week she will know haw many guests art; expected, ana >wio is going tu do the entering, it. is not that she is really inquisitive; it is simply that she cannot help asking questions about a wedding. Next, siic will beg-in to exercise herself about her present. She wil uiaius lilt a list of suitable tilings, and keep adding to them until her list resembles a stores' catalogue. She will commune with her husband ia the dead of night as to whether a cruet-stand is really prefefable to a toast-rack ; she will ciin vass her women friends for their opinions as to tin! priority of a set of carvers over a plated rose-bowl. Then, there is the .question of her frock'. She must have a new frock, she! says, hinting that derision and disgrace will fall on her and hers should slwMlppear in a dress anyone has ever seen before. And so she lays ill a stock of fashion-books, and puzzled out whether she shall order something thin and festive and summery, or something which can be utilised subsequently on less elaborate occasions; With puckered brow, she will tell you she must not have anything too light in pattern, less she should clash with the bridesmaids : and she must not have anything too dark in hue, unless she should appear too dark in sombre. Also, she will probably add that something of a mauve shade would suit lrer, only she cannot bear mauve ; and that green would be the ideal shade, were it licit unlucky for such occasions. As the day of the wedding draws nearer her excitement, increases. If fine weather prvails, she will pessimistically declare that it is bound to change : if it has been raining, she will lugubriously maintain that the wet wenther has set in for a month. And she will anyway, sit and mope over the tremendous troubje the whole a( : ; !r 11111st be causing the bride's pa rents. Well, the wedding-day will a! Myh come round. All the inorninf.-' -!i 1 v. ; ll be flurried and unhappy, imagining all sorts of dire accidents. Sice will set oIT for the church, arriving there with a good half-hour to spare, and she will utilise that half-hour imagining what would happen were tile bridegroom to fail to keep the appointment, or the bride's father to slip, and break his leg, as he passed up the aisle. That is just like a woman—she not only takes account of possible, mishaps. Im't ropes in extraordinary accidents as well.

When everyone turns up to time, and the ceremony gets going good and strong, she will probably smile a little and cry a lot. Xo one knows why a woman cries at a wedding. Ask any woman why she is weeping, and she wiil indignantly reply.. " Why not V - And at the reception afterwards she will be tremendously busy, telling everybody how well everything went oil'. And presently she will return to her neglected hom*-. wearied with stiver happy excitement. Siije will talk of that wedding, to the exclusion of all other subjects, ]'uj- ignite a long- time—or until she receives an invitation to another wedding. There must be some reason for her excitement. Where is it to be found? After all, one wedding*ls exactly like another, unless you happen to Ik> the bride. It always seems to me that a wedding resembles some extraordinary play, where the supers are as keenly interested in the drama as the £SO-a-Week principals.

WHY FRENCHMEN DO NOT MARR7.

j Everyone who writes 011 France .-hows ; deity concern at the falling birth-rate 1 and at the fact that the population h actually decreasing. In twenty-live years, they tell us, Germany will have double (Tie population of France, and in fifty years the nation will have disappeared—unless, in the meantime. It be gobbled up by its powerful and rapidly-increasing neighbour. Above all things, the French people are logical. Having become aware of the danger, they have set to work to lind a cause. One of those causes'ls the complexity of -marriage in France. Persons are deterred from entering wedlock, especially persons of the pooler class, because of its difficulty. Until a year ago the law demanded a formidable array of papers before the young mm |nd woman could be joined together in matrimony. The consent of the parents had to be obtained in writing; there| were birth certificates and. certificates oi resilience, and, i u the case of the man. evidence that he had completed lu's military service. Jf the parents were dead, the affair was even more complex. Papers had to prove their death ami tile death of the grandparents. The total number of documents required was nineteen. In country parishes in France such documents arc fairly ea*y to procure, as the iMvnch peasantry have a wr,y •A remaining rooted To the soil from generation 'to generation. Hut in the towns it is dillicult. The papers had 'o be -sent for from distant parts; theve was delay and there was expense. In the case of foreigners there was the added formality of translation, sometimes representing an expenditure of a hundred or more francs. This was a grave impediment in the \va v of very poor persons an almost impossible obstacle. Hence many neglected the formal ceremony oi marriage altogether. .Some mayors of communes recognised ho-v impossible it was to comply with all the requirements of the law and'eoonived at irregular attestations. The marriage law has been amended. .Abbe fjeinire. one of the few priests who are members of the Chaipber of Deputies, brought in a Hill to simplify the formalities. Now, after tile age of thirty, the consent of the parents is no longer required. This seems a very ineagrfc concession to the modern spirit, but, according to reports, the change has worked marvels in « few months. The marriage rate is on the upturn to the tune of 8.0(H) more marriages in the half-year than for the corresponding period of (he year before. The good abbe attempted a still greater reform, but he was unsuccessful. Tie wished, in imitation of the reform in Belgium, to pla'.e niariage within the limits of the common law- lhat is to say. to enable the person who had obtained his majority to contract it without the intervention of his parents. This, however, was to) daring a proposition for the Chamber, and it stopped short aC absolving (he contracting parties from their parents' consent after [Tie age of thirty.