The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-10-02

ready for marriage as soon as they are old
enough to sew. Among the merchants after
girl is engaged her friends come In and
help her sew upon her wedding outfit. and
she has sewing circles and quilting bees In
preparation for the marriage. These sew
ing circles are held during the afternoon
and after tea the bridegroom and few OF
his bach eor friends drop in and the girls
and the future bride have dance with
them during the evening.
Russian marriages generally take place
at night and the ceremony Is performed by
the priest The bridegroom meets the bride
at the church and the pair carry lighted
tapers with them to the altar The taper
that burns out first is supposed to Indicate
the death of It's holder. After the ceremony
the bridal party walk three times around
the part of the church where the cross is,
and after the benedictiou kiss the holy
pictures of the church, and they kiss each
other three times during che ceremony.
When the whole service is over the BRIDE
groom leads the bride to his house. where
his peasants greet him and where they
are blessed with bread and salt. There is
a wedding supper after this, and during
1t the bride and bridegroom 60 off
to bed. Every Russian man wears
boots, and it used to be the custom that the
bride must pull off her husbands boots the
first night Of the marriage. In one of these
boots before going to the wedding he usually
secreted sum OF god or silver, but he did
not tell his bride in which boot the money
way. If she got the right boot the money
belonged 10 her, and her husband had to
draw off his own boots in the future. IL
she got the wrong one he had the right to
use her as bootjack whenever he pleased.
This, however. was custom onlv OF the
lower classes, and it is now more hon0red
in the breach than the observance.
The Russian bride, however, has her hap
piest time just at the marriage. The peas
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woman In tho world, and this is especially
so during the first years of her married life.
She Is the slave of her husband, and, what
is worse, she is usually the slave OF her
m0ther-in-law, and she is treated as badly
as the widow in India Here, whore the
families of three generations often live to-
gether In hut OF one or two rooms the
young bride is not welcomed aud the hns-
band can do little to protect her. The
oldest man of the family is the boss OF the
household, and the Russian author Iikho-
mirov gives number Of songs which Illus
trate how the bride is received into the fam
lily. In Little Russia they say
Who is TO bring the waterp The daugh-
ter-ln-law.
Who is to be beaten? The daughter-in-
law.
Why is she beatenP Because she is the
daughter-in-law.
AS soon as she comes into the family. the
older members of it make war against her.
Says father-in-law:
They hava brought US bear.
Says m0ther-in-law:
They have brought us an eater OF men.
Say the brothers-in-law:
They have brought us an unclean thing.
Say the aunts:
They have brought us aspinner OF naught.
And so the young woman spends ner
honeymoon, and so she lives until she be-
comes an old woman and is ready TO avenge
her wrongs upon her daughter-in-law OF the
future. Think OF the troubles OF woman
and of the horrors of having to raise families
and 60 through all the pains and troubles OF
motherhood under such circumstances.
Still this Is what these people do, while
laboring day after day in the fields; they
accomplish on the poorest OF food the WORK
Of able bodied men,
The women of the higher classes OF Russia
are among the best educated and most In
telligent women. OF the woIld. l met a
sweet little Russian on the Volga steamb boat
Missouri who told me she liked philosophy
| better than fiction and that tine only novels