Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-02-11
ORIGIN OF WEDDING TOURS.
1t Was Originally Scheme to Determine
Whether Marriage is Permanent
Once a Week.

originated among civilized and semi
civilized nations, and not among bar
bar1ans.
Custom now requires that a newly
married pair should fly from their friends
and seek the seclusion of a cottage by
the sea, or the more acute Loneliness of a
hotel crowded with strangers. Exception
is sometimes made in behalf of a husband
and wife who are advanced in years,
or who, by long continued
habit, have become accus 'omed to
undergoing marriage, and look upon
taking for the. third OF fourth time the
vows of matrimony 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 wedding trip, no matter
how much or how justly they may dread
it.
Our barbarous ancestors regarded
marriage 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, or having picked
up a cheap wife at a bargain, he no
more thought of carrying her off to some
secluded place and concealing himself and
his purchase for q month than the for
tunate 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-dwcller, who probably knocked
down his beloved object with club, and
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 III the darkness of
the stuffy and stalagmite-s bridal
chamber On the contrary, he was proud
of his proves, and on the morning after
his marriage exhibited his new wife with
her head covered with sticking plaster,
and casually remarked TO his friends that
although ne had married a large number
of wives, this particular one had the
thickest skull he had ever cracked. Such
Is to this very day the custom in the best
circles Of native Australian society, and
scientific persons are of the opinion that
the Australians are the Oldest race now
on the planet.
Conceding that the wedding trip has
not come down TO us from primitive and
savage man, it must have been the in
veutiOn of comparatively civilized peo-
pie. What could have been the motive
which gave birth to such a custom. 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 a human and sympathetic
race. There is probably no time in the
life of a man or woman when ne
or she has greater need of human
sympathy and encouragement than
during the first few weeks OF mar
Tied 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 forbid
den 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 a little game of
whist in the smoking room tonight -
and where is the bTdewho would venture
to spend the evening in Mrs. So and Sos
room and leave the groom alone for an
hour or two? No! the pair must be con-
fined 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 in
vented the wedding trip were not SYM
patheUc 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 il best for the inter-
ests of the community.
Now these sensible and disagreeable
people may have had either one OF two
objects in view when they established the
ordeal by wedding trip. Perhaps they
regarded il as the swimmer regards
the headlong plunge into cold water,
as the quickest way TO accustom
ones self to an inevitable evil They
may have reasoned that as man and wife
are TO make the experiment of living to-
gether during the lifetime of one or the |
other, the sooner and the more thor
oughly they try it the better. There is
certainly a good deal of force in the rea-
soning, but it proceeds upon the assump- |
ton that marriage was at the period |
in question indissoluble, whereas we |
know that as q rule indissouble marriage |
only exists i'll the highest state of civiliza- |
ton, and is comparatively a modern |
idea. In all probability such facilities |
for divorce existed among the people who |
originated the custom of wedding trips
If sue h were the case the wedding trip |
was beyond doubt designed rs n test Of |
the fitness of the bride and groom for a |
moro prolonged experience of married |
life. Doubtless the father of the bride |
said TO his daughter: Marry this man /
il you wish, and 60 away with him for a |
month where you will have nothing to |
detract 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 perma-
nent. - With this understanding the |
young couple started on their wedding |
trip, and though we have absolutely no |
statistics on this subject, there can be |
but little doubt that occasionally the re-
suit was so-called permanent marri-
age.
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 holiness, but voluntarily TO |
incur unnecessary danger is not bOldness, /
but fool-haTdiness. Marriage reasonably |
begun is much more likely TO succeed |
than is marriage begun with a wedding /
trip, and however much we may wonder /
at the. recklessness of the husband who /
takes his bride from the church to the |