The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-07-25
BRIDAL TOURS.
why they should be Abandoned-Neithsr
Popular, Nor Commendable.

ciety" there is another illustration bear
ing the same title, in which the young
couple are represented as seated on q
lonely sea-shore. Angelina Suppress.
ing an inclination to awn)-"How niceh
would be if some friend were to turn
up; wouldn't it, Edwin?" Edwin latter
yaHning acknowledgements
some enemy!" If, as an amusing
French writer assures us, the Chinese
were the Inventors of the honeymoon"
then should that ingenious people in
deed be kept away from American
shores, lest they introduce among the
Occidentals other pernicious customs
and inventions of the Orient. Can
the civilization of the nine
teenth century evolve nothing bet
ter for a newly married pair than a
wedding journey? Are the publicly of
railway trains and the curiosity of
chance guests in hotel drawing and
rooms necessary adjuncts to the
draw of conjugal felicity? Does the
bride imagine that she is pretty and
winsome with all the dust of travel
elinging to her hair and eyebrows?
That her voice is sweet and tender when
talking in a noisy train? That huge
hotels were especially adapted to the
indulgence of loves young dream? Is
an ocean steamer, with its unpleasant
motion and odors, its crowded deck and
sitting cabins, the place where she and
her lover husband are seen each to the
best advantage? Can the pale demon
OF seaslckness be associated for a mo
ment with the rosy son of Venus? Are
the nervousness and irritability engen-
dered by rapid and continuous travel
the moods in which Arabella seems an
angel, aud George the young hero q
bridegroom is supposed to appear-at
least to his bride?
The English proceeding is even less
attractive than in III own, George and
Arabella slip quietly away to IN sea-
side c%revice, or a drowsy continental
town, and for a long month love each
other to extinction. Not q soul comes
to break the monotony; the world at
large does not even know the retreat.
Letters and papers from the family
alone serve to enliven the long. days
that creep more and more slowly, as
the moon Of honey dwindles and disap-
pears; when the last day of exile is over,
both George and Arabella hail it as hap
pier than their wedding day.
Because the young couple have each
regarded the others society as the chief
pleasure in life, they fondly and fool
ishly imagine that a tete a tete of a
months duration must naturally be the
most delicious of all conceivable things.
They never take the changed circum-
stances into consideration. George
has lost the eager excitement of pur-
suit and stands committedt to his bliss the
prize is won, the reaction sets in, and
Arabella, in her ignorance and mex
perience, watches with dire dismay the
signs of incipient ennui, and believes
the fault is in herself rather than in the
situation. No active man can be taken
away from his business and forced to
spend a month of complete idleness in
the society of n person without wish
ing for more variety and occupation in
his Life. As for the poor bride, what
with the excitement of all the wedding
preparations and the ceremony itself,
the i~eaye-taking of home and family,
and the startling novelty of her new
position, she is in a state of bewilder-
ment by 40 means conducive to a cam"
self possession, to the mastery of all
her little of entertainment and
fascination.
It is wonderful that young people
continue to follow a fashion so bad.
How much longer the sweet illusionsSo 81
love would last if the bridal pair went
at once into a little home of their own.
a veritable MD d'amour prepared by
friends for their reception, where Ara
bella would take her place at the break
fast table, shining with silver as bright
as her own eyes, china as delicate as the
pretty morning dress, appropriate in
her own home, but quite inpracticable
in a hotel. All the gifts of kind friends,
instead of growing furnished in dark
closets, beautify at once a spot conse-
Grated by tenderest affection. George
breakfasts i'll ecstatic admiration of the
pretty creature blushing behind he COT
fee cup, goes down town and about his
business as airily as if he walked
on thrones, and returns at evening in
time to Investigate, hand in hand with
his queen, the little kingdom in which
they reign supreme, and so the days slip
by until the precarious pleasures of the
honeymoon are well over, and tha set
tied satisfaction of a congenial marriage
is IN established fact. Arabella, for
her part, has quite as much occupation
as she needs in arranging her treasures,
putting the finishing touches upon
tasteful decorations, in little interviews
with the cook; who is converted for the
time into a good natured, sympathetic
soul-one resolved to do her part to-
ward making the homecoming delight
ful; and later in the day Aarbella's OF
Georges mother comes in to kiss the
sweet bride, to pet her, and make her
feel that all her world is in thorough
sympathy with the happiness Of the
new household.
The bridal tours or retirements OF
which we have spoken are undertaken
presumably by young persons who have
married for love. OF the inexpressible
wretchedness of a wedding journey
made by those who have married for
otherreasons it We're better not to spead.
Rhoda Broughton in her Belinda" gives
probably as faithful an idea of such a
honeymoon as mere words can utter.
For brides like Belinda constant en-
Payment would be the only solace pos
sible; the routine of daily duties q bet
ter panacea than o journey through
Switzerland where nature mocks your
misery with her blue lakes and dancing
waterfalls; or through Italy where art
speeks with truest eloquence to only
noble souls, to those unsoiled ~