The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-02-23 00:00:00

AMERICAN HUMOUR.

Chicago has 700 hackmen, and if you ever go there
you will wonder how the whole 700 can get hold of your
carpet-hag and hollor in your let I ear at once.

A Californian philosopher has extracted the following reply
from a school lad to the query, "How Ls the earth divided,
my lad?" "By earthquakes, sir."

-
There were only seventy cats at Philadelphia's recent ea
show. The other 7,000,547 were sitting on back fences and
sheds o' nights growliug at the small amount of the premiums
offered.

Science says that it took millions of years to evolve
man from the oyster; observation, Josh Billings says, shows
that it takes less than a minute to transfer the oyster to a
man,

The man "whose departure left a blank in our
office," says an American paper, "did not die; he was a
census taker, and will return again"
Mr. Redding, one of the Fish Commissioners, don't believe
that the shark is a raan-eater. We know a few who think
as does Mr. Redding, but we have failed to find one willing
to prove the working of his theory.—San Francisco News
Letter.
Out in Dakota the other day a stage-load of pas-
sengers were compelled to hold their hands above their
heads while a gang of highwaymen robbed them. One of
the victims, who remarked, " This is a high-handed piece of
business," was allowed to keep his watch as a reward for his
humour.

Rhetoric, in all places, is a big thing. A writer the
"
other day went into a newspaper office and said, I've got an,
article on 3lahomet for some paper that spells it that way."
He was immediately kicked downstairs, for he had gone into
a Mahomet office. l'hen he climbed the stairs into a Nlahorn-
med office, and was let out on the fire-escape gently, but
positively. Next he struck a magazine where the proof-
readers were partizans of the old school of Mohammed, and
he went sadly away. One man whom he met on the stairs
of a religious but practical journal informed him that
Mehemet was the style there. An hour after he was seen
to be let down the coal-hole of a Mohammed Establishment.

THE ROYAL MARRIAGES IN BERLIN.
On Monday evening the marriage of the Princess Charlotte,
eldest daughter of the Crown Prince of Germany, to the
Duke of Saxe Meiningen ; and that of the Princess Elizabeth,
daughter of Prince Frederick Charles, to the Grand Duke of
Oldenburg, were celebrated in Berlin. The Berlin Corre-
spondent at The Times gives an interesting description of
the ceremony; and from his letter we make the following
extracts :

Berlin is in a glow of festal excitement. The
auspicious double marriage at Court strongly appeal-
ing to the sympathies of this loyal capital, thousands
are crowding the streets to greet the Royal personages
as they drive from palace to palace, and to enjoy the
pomp displayed to their eyes. To look at the splendid
uniforms of the gentlemen, the royal robes of the
ladies, and the gorgeous finery exhibited by their
attendants, it is no great stretch of imagination to
believe that the Court, so unpretending in every-day
life, has never shone so resplendent as on this joyous
day. The occasion is certainly one to call upon every
one, gentle or simple, to do their best. Two grand-
daughters of an aged Emperor are married on the
same day. The tie uniting the bridal couple is
believed to be sincere affection, not reasons of State;
and, to shed additional glory upon this union of hearts,
the wedding is the first since the assumption of the
Imperial dignity by the illustrious head of the family
—a Sovereign than whom none more popular
ever reigned in these parts. A numerous host
of Royal and princely personages have arrived
to assist at the festivities and to pay homage to
the Emperor on this happy day. .Nature, too,
smiles upon the vare event, and, by inverting the
seasons, creates a summer's day in February. Of the
two young brides, Princess Charlotte, the eldest
daughter of their Imperial and Royal Highnesses
the German Crown Prince and the Princess Royal
of Great Biitian and Ireland, was born on the 24th of
July 1860. Her affianced husband, the hereditary
Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Meiningen, her senior by
five years, is the eldest son and heir of the reignin
Duke, George 11., and his deceased wife, Princess
Charlotte of Prussia, a niece of the Emperor and
eldest daughter of Prince Albrecht of Prussia, and
Princess Marianne of the Netherlands. Prince
Bernhard is a Captain in the Prussian Foot
Guards, and has spent the greater part of his life in
Berlin, where he formed an intimacy with the Crown
Prince and his family. His future dominions will
be limited to a comparatively small area; but
being described as a young Prince of considerable
gifts and excellent character, he is expected to
make a name for himself among the rulers of the
land. Prince Bernhard has inherited a large fortune
from his mother and grandmother, in addition to what
is allotted to him as the son and heir of his father.
The Princess Elizabeth of Prussia, the other youthful
bride, is the second daughter of Prince Frederick
Charles, the Red Prince of the late wars, and Princess
Maria Anna of Anhalt, one of the ornaments of the
Prussian Court. Her husband-elect is the hereditary
Grand Duke George of Oldenburg, born the 16th of
November, 1852, and the senior of his bride by five
years. He was educated at Oldenburg, and subse-
quently studied at Leipsic University, after which he
travelled in the East. Both of the bridegrooms went
through the whole of the French campaign with their
Royal fathers. . . .
This afternoon (Monday), in accordance with in-
vitations issued, the Royal family, with their illus-
trious and distinguished guests, assembled in the
various halls and apartments adjoining the chapel of
the old Palace. In the great Elector's room reserved
for the Royal personages there were gathered the
Emperor and Empress, the King and Queen of the
Belgians; the Crown Princes of Germany, Great
Britain, Oldenburg, Meiningen, Altenburg, Anhalt,
Baden, and Hohenzollern; the Grand Dukes of
Oldenburg-, Hesse, and Baden; the Dukes of Con-
naught, Saxe-Coburg, Saxe-Meiningen, Anhalt, and
all the members of the Royal House of Prussia.
The Royal personages being mostly accompanied
by their august spouses and some having their chil-
dren with them, about sixty members of reigning
families were counted in this magnificent assemblage.
According to German custom, the brides, with their
affianced husbands, freely mingled among the Royal
throng. At half-past six the coronets worn by the
Princesses of the Royal blood on their marriage day
were carried into the room by Officers of the Royal
Treasury, escorted by Life Guards and Palace
Grenadiers. When the Empress in an adjoining
cabinet, assisted by the Countess Perponcher, the
Mistress of the Robes, had fastened these symbols of
Royalty on the heads of the youthful brides, the
Emperor gave the signal for the procession to
form and proceed to the chapel. The Marshals
and Chamberlains of the Court opened the
cortege. Immediately after them walked the bridal
couples, closely attended by their Ladies and
Gentlemen-in-Waiting. Preceded by the dazzling
functionaries of the Court and folluwed by an ho-
posing army of Generals, appeared the Emperor,
with the Queen of the Belgians on his right and toe
Grand Duchess of Oldenburg on his left. Next
walked the Empress, having the King of the
Belgians to her right, and the Prince of Wales to
her left. A galaxy of Ladies-in-Waiting end Maids
of Honour separated this part of the procession from
the Crown Prince and Crown Princess, the Princess
supported on each side by the fathers of the bride-
grooms, the Prince leading Princess Frederika
Charles and the Grand Duchess of Baden, his sister-
in-law and sister. Prince Frederick Charles con
ducted the Duchess of Saxe-Altenburg and the Prin-
cess Albrecht of Prussia, while the Duchess of Anhalt
wat between Prince Charles, the grandfather of one
of the brides and the grand uncle of the other, and
the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Then followed
the Duchess Williphn and Alc,klehburg, with the
Grand Dukes of Baden and Hesse; the Duke of Con-
naught with the hereditary Princess of Hohenzollern
and Princess Mary of Prussia; and Prince William of
Prussia, the oldest son of the Crown Prince, with
Princess Louisa Margaretha of Prussia and Princess
Marie of Saxe-Meiningen. _ _ _

Twenty more Dukes and Princes brought up the
rear of the Royal cortege. As the procession slowly
advanced through the Knights' Hall, the White Hall,
and the Picture Ciallery to the chapel, it formed a
brilliant pictuie. Ihe magnificent dresses of the ladies,
with their long trains, carried either by damsels of
high degree or by pages, vied with the ermine of
the principal personages and the jewelry of all in
dazzling the spectators' eyes. Like dark specks in
these waving floods of drap d'or, velvet satin, and silk
appeared the gentlemen in their comparatively sober
array of Prussian blue, relieved by sparkling riba.nds,
sashes, and Orders. As usual in these Prussian as-
semblies, there was no lack of feminine grace and
masculine beauty. . . .
The bridal couples took up their station in front of
the altar. The Imperial Family, with their Royal
guests, ranged themselves in a semi-circle around
them. The Rev. Dr. Koegel, Palace Chaplain to His
Majesty, standing before the altar, delivered a short
and appropriate address on a passage from Romans
xii.—" Rejoicing in hope, patient. in tribulation, con-
tinuing instant in prayer." He then read the Liturgy,
put the searching question to the four young beings
before him, whether they would be true to each other
for better, for worse, and exchanged the rings. At
this moment the roar of artillery announced the joyous
tidings to the town. Warm and affectionate were the
congratulations offered to the brides and bridegrooms
by their parents and grandparents, who were spared
to witness this propitious day.
A more general congratulation was offered in the
Red Velvet Chamber, whither the Royalties returned
amid peals of sacred music. After a short interval,
the Emperor and his Royal Consort moved again to
the White Hall, and, ascending a dais in front of
the Throne, surrounded by the Royal Family and
guests, gave a signal for what is technically called
"La Cour." The ceremony consists in the whole
assembly defiling severally past the Throne and
bowing to the Emperor and Empress. The brides
and bridegrooms, the Ambassadresses, Lady Odo
Russelland Countess Karolyi, opened the stately array.
The wives of the various Envoys and Secretaries
followed. When the foreign ladies had passed, the
wives of the German dignitaries preceded by Princess
Bismarck, stepped forward. The feminine section of
the pageant over, the gentlemen marched on in end-
less file. Who is to count the names and titles?
Whose imagination is fertile %lough to estimate the
profuse amount of Stars and Orders paraded? ft
could not but remind one of the apposite remark of the
Emperor Francis I. of Austria when admitting a host
of foreign Generals to his presence.—" Now let the
firmament enter." As a characteristic trait of ancient
Court manners, it may be observed that until very
lately the Royalties at a wedding used to play whist
while the Court was defiling past; but this worldly
rite has been discontinued.

A necessary interlude was the supper. The Royal
personages partook of it in the Knights' Hall, while
the guests had ample buffets to resort to in a whole
suite of apartments. At the Royal table Princes and
Dukes handed about soup tureens and poured out the
sparkling wine. These important functions are here-
ditary and appertain to some of the most distinguished
families in the land. A special feature of the enter-
tainment was two towering wedding-cakes ordered by
the Crown Princess from England, and much admired
by those Teutonic personages who had never seen or
tasted anything of the kind. When the soup was
removed the Emperor gave the toast, "Abiding
happiness to the newly-married couples."
And now ensued the famous ceremony peculiar to
this Court known as the Fackeltanz, or torch light
procession. A more formal, un-terpsichorean dance
cannot well be imagined. Their German and Bel-
gian Majesties, together with the newly-married
couples being seated on the dais in front of the
Throne, the other Royal personages ranged them-
selves on both sides, the ladies on the right and the
gentlemen on the left. This preliminary duly
settled, the Prussian Cabinet Ministers, headed by
Prince Salm, the Grand Marshal of the Court, ap-
proached the Emperor. Carrying immense lighte 1
wax tapers in their bands, they bowed before His
Majesty and turned to the right. On this the newly-
married couples rose and made the circuit of the hall,
the Ministers going before them and the band playing
a polonaise composed for the occasion. The first cir-
cuit over, the Emperor got up and went round with
the brides; next it was the Empress's turn to conduct
the bridegrooms over the same ground. Then the
other Royalties, one by one, came in for their share
of the pageant, till at last every Royal lady pre-
sent had danced, as it is euphemistically called,
with the two bridegrooms, and every Prince
with the two brides. To complete this cycle
no less than twenty - two circuits were required.
The brides or bridegrooms figured only alternately;
but the Cabinet Ministers, undergoing an even
worse infliction, lighted the path at every successive
round. Prince Bismarck did not take part in this
laborious ceremony. The papers have once and again
discussed the question whether it would not be prac-
ticable to deviate from the ancient usage and intrust
the hymeneal torch to Chamberlains. After the last
round the Ministers handed their tapers to pages, who
conducted the newly-married couples to their apart-
ments in the Palace. While the company were dis-
persing, the ceremony of distributing the bride's
garters—likewise a relic of medizval times—was
duly performed. The bride's garters are now-a-days
silk ribbons bearing the initials of the young spouse.

BERLIN, Feb. 19

To-day at noon the two Royal couples attended a thanks-
giving service in the Royal chapel at the Castle. The
Emperor and Empress, as well as all the Royal personages
and Princes in Berlin, were present at the ceremony. A

&Omar was afterwards given by the newly-married couples,
at which their Mgjesties, the Royal Family, and the guests
at the Court sat down. Instead of the grand reception
which was to have taken place this evening at the Castle a
private reception will be held by the Emperor and Empress.

In noticing the Court ceremonials observed on the
occasion of German weddings, The Tinzes, in a leader,
observes :
"Neither revolution, nor war, nor the process of
mediatizing ' superfluous princes has lessened, however, the
pomp and ceremony of Royal weddings in Germany. The
Courts of that country are, on State occasions, pre-eminently
the places of elaborate etiquette. Their conservative spirit
has jealousy guarded the forms which in other ages shielded
the dignity of the Crown not only from the ordinary multi-
tude, but from the nobles themselves; and those forms were
all the more rigidly maintained because in many cases they were
accompanied by a peculiar simplicity of life. The present age is
not favourable to the perpetuation of elaborate ceremonial.
It tends, indeed, to cut away so many of the trappings of
society that it is falling into a kind of inartistic monotony.
The every-day appearance of the Court of Berlin is eminently
free from display ; and there is a soldier-like simplcity in
the tastes of the Emperor himself. He never fails to show
that lie is made of the same stout stuff as the older Hohen-
zullerns. Still, in no country is the deference for rank
greater than in Germany, or are all the grades of Royalty
teneed round on high occasions with more stately cere-
monial. Much of it has fallen out of daily use ; much
of it is merely the relic of a military age ; but it is all
brought into play by those great events of life which,
by calling out the deeper emotions, are redeemed from any
taint of triviality. On that account the ceremonies at the
double marriage in Beilin are peculiarly interesting for
the glimpse which they give of the courtly life of Prussia
at a time when every form of etiquette was a s)mbol
which had not yet lost its meaning. The throng of Royal
personages was imposing, for there were about sixty of
them, and they were all dressed in the trappings of their
ranks. The procession of Kings, Princes, Ambassadors,
Ministers, and soldiers to the chapel formed a picture which
will excite the peculiar kind of eloquence that is at the
service of Courts ; and the subsequent religious ceremony
of the Lutheran Church calls to mind how great a part the
sturdy Protestantism of Prussia has played in the history of
Europe. The religious ceremony at the Royal wedding
cannot be dissociated from the political vigour of Germany.
But it occupied a very small part of the time allotted to the
weddings. More curious was the strange ceremony which
followed the return of the marriage party to the festive
part of the Palace. There was something peculiarly German
in the procession before the Emperor and the Empress, first
of the brides and the bridegrooms, then of all the
ladies, and next of all the Ambassadors, Ministers,
Generals, and nobles. German patience alone would have
borne the monotony of ouch a march-past. How severely
even that rich store of endurance was taxed we may infer
from the fact, until a recent date, the Royal personages were
accustomed to play whist while the long file was passing the
throne. Those high beings showed great good sense In thus
amusing themselves. The courtiers of other countries
might have been offended by such a mark of apparent neg-
lect, and even those of Louis XIV. himself might have
punished it by one of the epigrams which tempered his
despotism: but in the former days of Germany the nearch-
past the throne was performed with the gravity befitting a
moral duty which it would be a sin to neglect Equally
characteristic of old German customs was the eti-
quette at the Royal supper-table, where, in fulfilment of
hereditary functions, Princes and Dukes handed about soup-
tureens and poured out wine. Still more lowly offices were
performed by the greatest nobles at the Court of France;
but it is douetful whether they would be revived even were
the Comte de Chambord to be seated on the throne and sur-
rounded by his devotees. Germany, however, has not
been touched by the spirit of equality which has pro-
foundly modified even the loyalty of France. But the most
characteristic of all the ceremonies at Berlin was the torchlight
procession, in which the tapers were held by the Ministers
.of
the Crown, and in which the guests made twenty-two circuits
of the room, As the Ministers had to go before the proces-
sion at each round, they must have been tired before the
cycle was completed. Prince Bismarck did not undergo the
fatigue, preferring, no doubt, to reserve his strength
for the delivery of his speech next aay. But his
colleagues did not flinch, and the company went through
the whole of the ceremonial with German resolution.
The thoroughness of the national character is seen even
in its etiquette, and the aged Emperor might have the
satisfaction of thinking, as he watched the twenty-two
repetitions of the same ceremony that the spirit of discipline
and the instinct of obedience preside over the Court as well
as the camp. But now the whole of the pageantry has
vanished; the Court has gone back to its ways of almost
Republican simplicity ; the Ministers are doing their serious
work with as much energy as they displayed in the torch-
ol
igdh
Gt
eprrmo caeos sci
eo
rne
To; aorindi
awl eu
omt
iyannootf
hheary eo f
thea n o tQh ea re e
s impsgra
do f.
daughters shall be married"