Smyrna times., 1869-06-09
MiSceIIU21 n e o as.
Getting Married.
HOW IT LOOKS TO THE BRIDEGROOM WHEN THE
DAY HAS BEEN FIXED,

W
DAY HAS BEEN FIXED.
Why the prospect of marriage should always
produce a calming effect is not easily conjectur-
ed at all events by those who want the knack
OF knowing how to reconcile experience with |
Imagination. The truth, we suppose, must be |
that man becomes resigned when once his |
marriage day has been fixed He is conscious |
that the event is inevitable. The pleasing per-
turbation of the period of courtship is at an end
In little while he feels that you shall see his |
name in the list of marriages. The sense of
the duty of looking happy and feeling pleased
is upon him. He does not shrink at the condi-
tiOn of premedtated matrimOny He is very
anxious to lOOk happy; and when congratulated
at every turn by his friends, processes hiE:self
very much pleasad But he is not pleased and
he is not happy. A good deal of anxiety is
generated by the constant contemplation of the
day that is inevitable Many dubious refec-
| tions upon the minute concomitants of marriage
annoy him. He will have, first of all, to get
married-that is to say, he will nave to stand
! buttOned up in frOck coat some twenty min
utes or more-heaven send that the bride
| does MT want choral service before a cler-
| gyman, subjected to the prying glances OF his
dear relatives and friends, aSsembledto witness,
and by their presence, to sOemniZc, if you will,
the service Then he will have to receive the
congratulations of everybody in the vestry-r0om
ID terfluC Orueal. linen lie Will nave 10 walk
down the church, amidst the whispering and
wondering and gaze of rows Of strangers who
have stroled into the church to witness the pro
ceedngs Then he will have to push his way
through u crowd Of gaping children, nurses, and
infants in perambulat0rs, into his carriage.
All this kind of thing is delightful to women,
but to men, and to nervous men in particular,
it is one of the greatest detrlments to marriage.
But the bridegroom misery does not end with
Il IL. l.,
man and foOtman have encumbered themselves
with enormous and conspicuous favors, and he
is dragged through the streets, creating almost
as much speculation, and provoking almost as
much wonderAent as new lord mayor in gilt
coach.
But all this is trihing compared to what is to
follow. If the bride lives in a square he has
{ the satisfaction of seeing the neighboring bal
e comics crowded to catch glimpse of them en-
tering the house. If she lives in street the
e windows are filled with heads, while servants
u grin through the area-raiings and crack many
, horrid Jokes if there are few men about. Ii
" she lives in the country band OF binds ano
e vokels iostle each other about the gateway and
raise a hoarse cry of welcome when the carriage
Q stops. One would think that matrimony was
new invention and that this marriage was
n the first experiment. After the bridegroom
n has gone very gracefully through the ordeal o
], whose faces are inflated with the various con
gratuatory expressions he has again to endure
the shaking of hands, and the spasmOdic as
surance of good wishes that follow the arrival
Al of the party After having dined when The
bride retires to change her dress, all the gen
:, tlemen cluster about him to renew their con
b gratulations Then he has to say good by
\, The brides little brother sets up a how at tn
loss of his sister, which no promises of panto
mines at Christmas, and boxes of cODjuring i'm
plements can silence. The mother-in-law
desolated she has been crying ever since nv
in the morning, and faints away IN the arms o
- a sympathetic old friend who entreats her t
be calm, in her Christian name, when the bird
gives her a farewell kiss The father wipes M
ewes with the napkin which he has carried wit
him from the breakfast table. Amid miser
and congratulations the bridegroom departs
the most miserable of the party, the least OF a
to be congratulated.
No wonder the contemplation of this kind {
thing sobers man. No wonder an element {
er sldness and dOggedness pervades the actor
and language of him whose marriage day hi
been fixed. He is sobered by contemplate
contingencies. Frankly, we pity the man WI
ne is going to be married. We cannot extend Il
,o. 70. same compassion to young ladies. They. ca
"a stand any amount of tears, of scrutiny, OF by
'N terra, of speeches, and the waving of fans. b
ed man, though not born to be single, was n
= born to endure the evils that attend the cerem
,ck nv of getting partner. He has to thank S
cietv for these evils Yet we shrewdly suspe
a good many more men revenge themselv
. upon society by not getting married at all, th
is dreampt of in the philosophy of those W.
imagine that going to be married is one OF q
Il, most ecstatic Of imaginable conditions OF
a. iDgs