Wichita eagle., 1889-02-07
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Dai1n - eagle
ABOUT WEDDING TRIPS.
People Must Take Them, Even
Though They Dread It.
Originally a Scheme TO Determine Wheth-
~ Marriage Should BE Permanent
Now Only Silly Custom Which
Endangers Married Happiness.


The origin Of the wedding trip is entirely
unknown, writes William l. Alden, in Onct
Week As to it we can be sure of only
one thing-the wedding trip originated
among civilized or semi-civiiized nations
and not among barbarians.
Custom now requires that newly-mar-
ried pair should fly from their friends and
seek the seclusion of cottage by the sea
or the more acute loneliness of a hotel
crowded with strangers. Exception is
sometimes made in behalf of husband
and wife who are advanced in years, or
who by long-continued habit have become
accustomed to undergoing marriage, and
look upon taking for the third or fourth
time the vows of matrlmony with the indif-
ference with which a veteran traveller,
landing in New York, swears his way
through the custom-house. But to young
people no social mercy rs shown. They
must undergo their wedding trip, no matter
how much or how justly they may dread IL
Our barbarous ancestors regarded mar
riage as an affair either of bargain and
SALE or Of robbery. In neither case did the
successful husband feel called upon TO hide
himself Having bought an eligible wife,
gain, he no more thought of carrying her
off to some secluded place and concealing
himself and his purchase for month than
the fortunate buyer of a fine picture or a
good table bought for song at an auction
thinks of hiding the evidence CT his good
fortune and discernment Neither did the
cave-dweller, who probably knocked down
his beloved object with club, and, throw
ing 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
in the darkness of the stuffy and
Btela gmite -strewn bridal chamber On the
contrary, he was proud Of his proves,
and on the morning after his marriage ex-
hibited his new wife, with her head Gov
cred with sticking plaster, and casually re-
marked TO his friends that, although he had
married large number of wives, this par
ticular one had the thickest skull he had
ever cracked. Such is to this very day the
custom in the best cir cles Of native Austria
Ian society, and scientific persons are OF
the opinion that the Australians 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, it must have been the inven-
tion of a comparatively civilized people.
What could have been the motive which
gave birth to such customl The answer
must be sought by conjecture, but in this
case conjecture may prove to be trust
worthy guide.
Clearly the inventors Of the wedding trip
were not human and sympathetic race.
There is probably no time in the life of a
man or woman when he or she has greater
need of human sympathy and encourage
ment 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 sympathy of their friends,
but they are practically forbidden to make
new friends during the honeymoon. No
newly-made husband dares to say: "My
dear, have met some very good fellows at
the hotel, and we're going TO have little
game of whist in the smoking-room TO-
night" 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 twoi mol 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 a friendly hand, or a word of kindness
and encouragement
Thus we see that the people who invented
the wedding trip were not a sympathetic
race. Beyond doubt they were practical
people who priced the useful above the
pleasant. They inflicted wedding trips upon
newly married people because they judged
it best for the interests of the community.
Now, these sensible and dlsagreeable peo-
pie may have had either one or two objects
In view when they established the ordeal by
wedding trip. Perhaps they regarded it as
the swimmer regards the headlong plunge
into cold water, as the quickest way TO &C
custom oneself to an inevitable evil. They
may have reasoned that as man and wife
are TO make the experiment of living to-
Eether during the lifetime of one or the
other, the sooner and the more thoroughly
they try II 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
mdissoluble marriage exists only in the
highest state of civilization, and is compare
lively modern idea. In all probability
such facilities for divorce existed among
the people who originated the custom Of
wedding trips
was beyond doubt designed as 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 go away with him for a month where
you Will have nothing 10 distract your mind
from him. II at the end of that time you
still endure HIM, we will get an order from ,
the Supreme Court making your marriage |
permanent With this understanding the
young people started on their wedding trip, |
aud though we have absolutely no statistics I
IN this subject there can be but little doubt /
that occasionally the result was a so-c6lled .
permanent marriage
This conjecture satisfactorily explains the
origin of the wedding trip, but only empha-
sizes the folly of the survival of n custom ;
now become meaningless. We may admire f.
boldness, but voluntarily TO incur unneces-
sary danger IS not holiness but foolhardi- /
ness. Marriage reasonably begun is much /
more likely to succeed than is marriage be-
gun with wedding trip, and however
much we may wonder at the recklessness
Of the husband who takes his bride from
the church to the ocean steamer, we can
not respect the intelligence of the pair who
prefer TO begin their married life with mu-
tual seasickness, and the mutual revelation
of the disagreeable characteristics that sea-
sickness, eunui and absence of friends are
sure TO reveal.
HARRISON ON THE SOUTH.
The Sensible and Liberal Policy which
He Proposes TO Garry Out In His Ad.
ministrs, ton of Public Affairs
Since his election General Harrison has