St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-05-01
LUDICROUS WEDDINGS
Some of Those Which Take
Place at the Parsonage
Are Real Funny.
How the Amiable Preachers
Family Assist HaSty Mar
riages.
Curious Experiences and Sore
Trials of a Minister'S
Good Wife.
A Graphic Chapter From the
Home Life Of a Devoted
Clergyman.

Have many weddings taken place in
The parsonage" was the question asked
If the bright little wife of a popular
preacher, says the st. Louis Republic.
and, with a twinkle of reminiscent fun
In her eyes, she answered:
"Well. | should think SO! You can't
Imagine how many have been called
upon to witness in the fifteen years of
my married life. L don't know how 1t
is with other denominations, but
Methodist parsonage really becomes
crowded with tender associations con-
nected with bluShing brides, and STAN
mering, awkward grooms, who couldn't
remember their names. and consequent
tial friends who had come along to see
them through
The preachers wife is always eX-
pected to see after these guests a little
and try TO make them feel at home.
Dear me. The wedding toilets at which
have assisted. The rosy faces that
have been reflected from the mirror on
nv dresser. The last touches | have
added with powder, or hairpins, or
few flowers. ! always do my best for
them. Ii must be SO different, you see,
from being married in one own home or
i'll church, with ones friends and rela-
tiveS gathered around.
las for the people who 60 to the
preachers house TO marry, why many
take that plan because they can't afford
much of a wedding, you know, and they
20 to the parsonage and are married,
after which they go on with their work
as though nothing had happened. And
many others are married at the parSOn-
age because they prefer a plain. quiet
wedding. We have had them of all
kinds, but, of course, far the greater
number are runaway marriages. We
don't welcome these last, however. My
husband is so much opposed to them.
and he refuses to perform the ceremony
when the bride seems very young. On
one occasion he reasoned with young
couple until they acknowledged with
deep contritiOn that the poor little girl
was not quite fifteen-they had claimed
that she was over eighteen. After
a lecture from him they prom
ised to wait a few years,
and the boy told his sweetheart gOOd-by
and went away. leaving her in my
hands, and we telegraphed for her ia
Their. He took my advice and put the
little girl at school, and she spent three
years there. " hen she came out she
ana her boy lover didn't fancy one
another at all, and the man my
little protege married was one of the
first men of the state. When we me
her, not long ago, she thanked us so
heartily for saving her from loyeless
marriage that would have wrecked her
life.
The middIe-aged and old couples
almost invariably marry at the parsOn-
age. Once, l remember, / answered
call at the door, and there stood an old
man, stoop-shouldered, gray end gener-
ally shabby, and with him was wOm-
all, looking older, grayer and Shabbier.
rs the parSOn in? they asked, and
invited them in, telling them that he
would be down in a few moments.
While they sat in the parlOr and waited,
they told me tlieif simple stery. Long
ago when they had been young they
were lovers, and were about TO marry.
but some enVious tattle had divided
them, and he drifted to another city and
lived there, with poverty and toll for
his portion. Neither of them ever mar
ried. When they met again. after years
OF parting, and the old trouble was eX-
planned away, why, then she had her
dying mother TO care Tor, so the mar
rage was put off again. But the death
of her mother had set her free at last,
and those two old, withered people had
jOurneyed around to the parsonage.
They amt much o. the road left,
most like said the old man wistfully,
but what little they is, We'll walk it
together. An when we come to the
end of it pears like it wouldn't be
akin too much o. the Lord if He'll jest
let us both go at Oncet, bein' as we was
KEEP apart so long here
II tell you, when those two old people
To l,a orrin 10
that there was perfect halo about their
heads, and | stood in the door after
wards and watched them going away
down the street, arm in arm, old and
bent and shabby, and yet with such q
peaceful looking forward toward the
end of the road. l think Inever will be
able to forget that picture.
lone day wagon drove up to the
parsonage, and Il whole crowd of people
came in; florid. ronnd-factd German.
young woman with very ordinary
cOuntenanee, and three or four men,
giggling and selt-important. The whole 1
crowd were prOfuSely scented with Gin
namon drops. / never will forget that,
] am sure. 1t was the longest time be-
fore | ever got the scent out of my par
lor, and sometimes l fancy it is there
yet. Well, the bride was so manifestly
iii at ease that took her to my room
and rearranged her hair-it was in the
tighteSt little knot you ever saw and
] really don't believe she could have
shut her ewes. Then l pinned some
flowers on her hair, and she looked a
good deal better, but she kept pulling
away at her white cotton gloves and
looking red and uncomfortable. All at
once she broke out with, 4 don't know
what on earth makes me Sech a gump!
Il @EfD 4
ness knows! 1t looks like | might be
gettin' used to it by this time.r Oh,
you might have knocked ME down with
a feather. | dropped into chair, and
it was several minutes before | could
speak. Then, unfortunately. began to
laugh, for it is such a queer thing to
say, you know, and l couldn't control
myself at all. | absolutely shrieked.
And all the while she sat there and
pulled at the white cotton gloves. After
q while. though, when | was a little
more coherent, she told me all about 1t.
She was a widow for the third time, and
only twenty-one years old. All of her
husbands isn't that collective way to
speak Of them?-had died within a few
months after they were married, and here
She was setting sail again over the
waters where she had left so many
wrecks behind! We went down stairs
directly and she stood up by the side of
Fritz and was married. i didn't pear
to mind it so much, after ALL she said,
philosophically, when it was over. L
reckon l must be gettin' used to it, sure
enough And then Fritz said to my
husband: Il goes to de wagon an gifts
your bay And he went to the wagon,
and in a moment a sQueal rent the
very heavens and the groom came
staggering back with-what do you
think?-a hog! A live 2O0-pound hog
He calmly laid the hog down on the
grass in the front yard, and the whole
party mounted into the wagon and
drove away, all of them pulling off their
white gloves as they went. | wish you
could have seen my husbands face as
he stood there staring at that pig. AS
foT me, | laughed till l was sick and
had 10 go to bed.
Zone summer evening the preacher
was away from home-it was during his
annual vacation, you know-and l was
sitting in the porch enjoying the even
ing breeze, when | saw two vOunp npo-