DANGERS OF THROWING RICE AT WEDDINGS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 221, 23 October 1909, Page 4

DANGERS OF THROWING RICE AT WEDDINGS.

( People often talk about the danger of throwing rice at wedding*. Occasion ally a bride or bridegroom, or perhaps the vicar of a particular church, will ask that the custom shall not be observed. But in Germany they have gone farther. The reigning Duke Leopold Fred erick of Anhalt, noticing that in his capital of Dessau several serious accidents—some of them with fatal results —happened through rice being throw ji. issued a decree entirely prohibiting the custom from being observed anywheie in his dominions. People say that his example will very likely be followed by the rulers of other German States. And' the Kaiser himself has written to Duke Leopold, warmly approving his action. There may even be an Imperial decree prohibiting the throwing of rice at weddings' all over the German -Empire—unless this would he regarded as an indiscretion on the Kaiser's part! FATAL RICE.

Of course, the custom has been the cause of many serious accidents at weddings. Only the other day (says a Home 'paper) a bride and bridegroom were just stepping into their carriage, amid a shower of rice, when some of the s'fiaip, -tinging grains caught the oar of One of the horses. The animal bolted, and his fellow promptly followed his example. The bridegroom was half in the carriage and half out. He fell as the vehicle started oil' and was dragged along the ground for several yards. The bride wis thrown out of the open door. The coachman leapt from his box and was seriously injured, and the maddened horses finished up by dashing into a wall, smashing the carriage to pieces and injuring themselves so severely that they had to be shut.

Hut even without serious affairs of this tort rice is not the most pleasant thing in the world to have Hung at on". If the grains strike the face they sting like—like anything. If they work down into one's garments—and they usually do—they are extremely uncomfortable. And when a honeymoon couple are trying to pass themselves off as married folk of long standing, and a shower of !ell-tale rice, descending from a pocket or a suddenly-opened umbrella, gives the whole show away, the result U cmliarrassing. Nor are its drawbacks appreciably less wh as with the hdy in the'wellknown joke, the rice is boiled before us", i-iiccialiv when neople foriiel. a- she did, to lake il on! of the basin before throw. | ing it. Itut that's frivolous. Kice as a wedding luck-bringer is a very doubtful blessing.