New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1885-12-02
a Penny wedding.

Halt O. century ago q marriage
among the hand loom weavers of For
farshire started a couple Mite. can
recall nothing more characteristic Of
my Scottish fellow-countrymen, says
a writer in the st. James Gazette,
than the penny wedding" where the
only jewellers that were not out Of
pocket by it were the newly made man
end wife who gave the entertainment.
The more the guests ate and drank the
better pecuniarily for their hosts.
Quite five decades have passed since
danced in a reel at a penny wedding,
and yet it is only recently that dis
covered anything peculiar in a mar
rlage where there was charge for adj
mission. The guests had even to paw
penny extra for the fiddler.
Nowadays, when our friends marry,
we put our reluctant fingers into our
pockets, and, sadly drawing forth a
purse, hasten to present them with q
butter-cooler. But the most loving
couples cannot live on butter-coolers.
So perhaps the old custom was the
better. Instead Of giving the bride a
present of something she did not need
we gave her money and she bought
what she liked with it. The charge
for admission to the penny wedding
varied in different districts; but with
us the price was generally shilling.
Perhaps the extra penny to the fiddler
accounted for the name, penny we'd
ding. The marriage ceremony itself
took place in the house OF the BRIDES
parents, generally at about six 0 CLOCK
in the evening, though remember sew
oral instances in which it was celebrate
ed as early as six in the morning. Holi.
days were few and far between FIFTY
years ago, and we made the most of
them. In the evening, after more or
less horseplay round the house OF the
newly married ones, there was an :ad-
lent place of meeting, and here was
held the nuptial FEAST White wood
boards from the saw mill, supported
on trestles, stood in lieu of tables,
and those of the company who could
not find q seat, waited patiently
against the wall for "a Vacancy.
The shilling gave every guest
the free run Of the grooming
board; but though fowls were plen-
tiful, and even white bread, too, little
had been spent for them. The farm
ers of the neighborhood who looked
forward to providing the young peo-
pie with "drills" of potatoes for the
coming winter made a bid for their
custom by sending them a fowl gratis
for the marriage supper. It was pop
ularly understood, i'll our part OF the
country at least, to be the oldest cock
of the barnyard, but for all that it
made brave appearance "a shallow
sea of soup. The fowls were always
boiled-without exception, SO far as l
can recollect, the thrifty Scotch wife
never having the heart to roast them,
and SO lose the broth. One round OF
whiskey and water was all the drink
to which his shilling entitled the guest.
II he wanted more he had to pay for
it. There was much revelry with song
and dance that no stranger could have
thought those staid, stiff llmbed weav-
ers capable of, and the more they
shouted and whirled through the barn
lit with glaring torches-the more
their host smiled and rubbed his
hands. He presided at the bar I'M
provised for the occasion, and if the
thing was conducted with spirit, his
wife flung an apron over her gown and
helped HIM.