RAGGING BRIDES AND BRIDEGROOMS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 359, 9 April 1910, Page 9

RAGGING BRIDES AND BRIDEGROOMS

SD.MK IMi"MI il.\.M)lj!X;,, Hark to the cry of the hazed and hazy newly-weds in the United Stales! It cannot be drowned out by the furious blasts of rice, the whack of the old slipper, or the jangle of the cowbell. So insistent has been the need for reform that compromises are oti'ered. ' Moditication is urged by the society editors, who, clinging to the traditions of the' game of the ring,'would substitute a live-ounce shoe. Railroad station-mas-ters suggest a brief closed season. Tradition does not have its lovers so persecuted-. Tile old shoe custom is generally supposed to have come from the Hebrews. Originally it implied that the parents gave up all authority over the bride. In Anglo-Saxon marriages the father gave the Sliae of the bride to the bridegroom, who gently touched her on the head with it, to remind it that he was the master. The okl German custom of putting the groom's shoe on the pillow of the bridal bed has not yet been given up. But America's ''semi-oil's" have become boisterous.

Police Magistrate Henry Connole, of Madison, 111., and his bride, Miss Mary Riekert, -were married at the latters home, and did not return to Madison for two weeks. They got 'back quietly—they thought. At 8 o'clock in the evening the firebell clanged, whistles blew, and the gong on the volunteer fire department's engine clanged as it rattled down the streets. The town went mad. When the chase ended, and the moil stood in front of a little cottage, everyone enquired breathlessly: "Where's the fire?"

' Suddenly Magistrate Connole and his | 'bride were dragged from* the darkened j house and placed upon the fire engine, j Mayor F. A. Garesche went with them, | and the outfit moved back to the city : ball. When Connole began speech-mak-ing, then, and then only, the firebell stopped ringing. He was a member of the volunteer 'fire company, and this I was his comrades' idea of a royal re- j ception. J Adolph Wiseman, a Peoria groom of! a few hours.' lolled comfortably in his ; newly-furnished flat. An easy chair, a j pair of comfortable slippers', .n new | smokinsr jacket, and a pretty wife, for- ' merly Miss Fannie Rengstorff, of Havana. for whonvhe had slipped a war that . rav to Havana, and bribed a license clerk and newspaper reporter to silence.' added to his feeling of satisfaction. j Suddenly the sitting-room door open- j ed. five young men walked in, picked up Wissmann, house-slippers, smoking-jack-1 fct, sans hat. and bundled him into a { taxicab. Three hours later he was! shoved gently from the taxi to the ■ streets of a neighboring village to cower ' in a suburban tram ear. He reached home early in the morning to hear his w ; f■■•'s s'torv of being subjected to an endless round of moving picture shows, j The revels following a double mar- J riasre near Manchester. Tn<T., cost IS-year- ' old Mr. bridegroom Shelby Partridge his life. Tn the country noise-making is ; not hampered by municipal restrictions. ■ and batteries of shot-guns are used, and sometimes powder between two anvils gives an cannon-like roar. A shot-gun I was aecidently discharged. and one of Partridge's leers -was torn off. The newly married counles refused to let anybody into, the house to telephone for medical assistance, as thev believed it a ruse to sain Entrance. When a doctor finally •' was reached it 'was too late.