Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-01-20
ORIGIN OF WEDDING TOURS.
1t was Originally Scheme to Determine
whether Marriage is Permanent

sure of one thIng-the wedding trip orig
mated among civilized or semi-eivilized
nations, and not among barbarians.
Custom now requires that newly mar
ried pair should fly from their friends and
seek the seeIusion of a cottage by the sea
or the more acute Loneliness of q
hotel crowded with strangers. Excep-
ton is sometimes made in behalf OF
a husband and wife who are advanced in
years, or who, by long continued habits
have become accustomed to undergoing
marriage, and look upon taking for the
third or fourth time the vows of matri-
| mony with the indifference with which
veteran traveller, landing in New York
swears his way through the custom house
But to young people no social mercy is
shown. They must undergo their we'd
ding trip, no matter how much or how
justly they may dread it.
Our barbarouS ancestors regarded mar
riage as an affair either of bargain and sale
or robbery. In neither case did the sue
cessful husband feel called upon TO hide
-himself. Having bought an eligible wife,
| or having picked up Il cheap wife at a
bargain, ne no more thought of carrying
her off to some secluded place and con-
|
for a month than the fortunate buyer
of a fine picture or a good table bought
! for a song at an auction thinks of
hiding the evidence of his good fortune
and discernment Neither did the cave
dweller, who probably knocked down his
! beloved object with club, aIId throwing
| her over his shoulder, carried her to his
! private cave, think of flying with her TO
some large and fashionable seaside cave
| and spending three or four weeks with
| her i'll the darkness of the stuffy and
I stalagmite- strewn bridal chamber. On
the contrary, he was proud of his
| prowess and ON the morning after his mar
riage exhibited his new wife with her
head covered with sticking plaster, and
casually remarked to mis- friends that al
though he had married q large number of
| wives this particular one has the tlfickest
skull he had ever cracked Such is to
this very day the custom in the circles of
native Australian society, and scientific
persons are of the opinion that the Aus
tralians are the oldest race now on the
planet.
Conceding, then, that the wedding trip
has not come down to us from primitive
and savage man, 1t must have been the
invention of comparatively civilized peo-
pie. What could have been the
motive which gave birth to such a Gus
tom? The answer must be sought by
conjecture. but in this case conjecture
may prove TO be trustworthy guide.
Clearly the inventors of the wedding
trip were not human and sympathetic
race. There is probably no time in the
life of man or woman when he or she
has greater need of human sympathy and
encouragement than during the first few
weeks of married life. And yet this is
the very time when modern custom has
decreed their isolation. They are not
merely thrust out of reach of the sympa-
thy of their friends, but they are prac-
tically forbidden to make new friends
during the honeymoon. No newly made
husband dares to say: Nv dear, have
met some very good fellows at the hotel
and we re going to have little game of
whist III the SIN )king room tonight; -
and where is the recent bride who would
venture to spend the evening in Mrs So
and Sos ROOM and leave the groom
alone for an hour or two? MOI the pair
must be confined exclusively in the society
of each other while the wedding trip
lasts, no matter how they may long for
the clasp of friendly hand or q word of
kindness and encouragement.
Thus we see that the people who in
vented the wedding trip were not sym
pathetic race Beyond doubt they were
practical people who priced the useful
above the pleasant. They inflicted we'd
ding trips upon newly married people be
cause they judged it best for the interests
of the community.
Now, these sensible and disagreeable
people may have had either one or two
objects in view when they established the
NV nj,
regarded it as the swimmer regards the
headlong plunge into cold water, as the
quickest way to accustom oneself to an
inevitable evil. They may have reasoned
that as man and wife are to make the
experiment of living together during the
lifetime of one or the other, the sooner
and the more thoroughly they
try it the better. There is certainly a
good deal of force in the reasoning but
it proceeds upon the assumption that mar
riage was at the period in question indis-
soluble, whereas we know that as a rule
indissoluble marriage exists only in the
highest state of civilization, and is COM
paratively a modern idea In all proba-
bility such facilities for divorce existed
among the people who originated the |
custom of wedding trips.
If such were the case the wedding trip |
was DeyOnu QOuDG assigned as q test OF |
the fitness of the bride and groom for |
more prolonged experience of married |
life. Doubtless the father of the bride |
said to his daughter: Marry this man if |
you wish and 20 away with him for a |
month where you will have nothing to de- |
tract your mind from him. If at the end |
of that time you can still endure him we /
will get an order from the supreme court |
making your marriage permanent -
With this understanding the young
couple started on their wedding trip, and /
though we have absolutely no statistics t
on tins subject, there can be but little
doubt that occasionally the result was a
so-calIed permanent marriage.
This conjecture satisfactorily explains
the origin of the wedding trip, but only
emphasizes the folly Of the survival of a
custom now becoming meaningless We
may admire boldness. but voluntarily
to incur unnecessary danger is not
boldness but foolhardiness. Marriage
begun is much more likely to
succeed than is marriage begun with