The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1897-06-26
WHOLE NO., 343.
BRIDEGROOMS WHO FAIL.
They Run Away, Hide Themselves or Be
come Speechless.

They Run Away, Hide Themselves or BE.
| come Speechless.
Possibly every man about to mar
ry experiences novel inward fut-
ter when the critical hour arrives
and brings the altar into sight, but
it Is not often that one hears of a
prospective husband whose nerve
deserts him to the extent that he
fights shy of the ceremony at the
last moment and allows the bride to
leave the church without having
changed her name. Hitches of this
startling kind do, however, now and
then occur. The bridegroom has not
the courage to face the public ordeal,
and the situation becomes both hu-
morous and dramatic.
A most amusing attack of
NERVES" of this order was witnessed
by large crowd at a country church
not long since. The bridegroom was
late in arriving. When at length he
came abreast of the church gates,
heated and furried, the sight of his
white robed life partner in the midst
of an imposing party, fairly scatter
ed what courage he had churned for
the occasion. He turned and made
off across country as fast as his shak-
ing legs would carry him. The
crowd and number of his indig-
nant friends pursuing him, he took
refuge up a tree, and no remon-
strances would induce him to de.
scend and go through with the cere-
mony. He paid rather dearly for his
cowardice, however, for the bride
promptly Tilted him and walked to
the same church with bolder man
a few months later.
At another church in the neigh
borhood a number of people who
had fiocked to see a popular local
couple made one were curiously dis
appointed. When it came to the
turn of the bridegroom to give ut
terance to his vows, he was found to
be tongue tied by sheer nervousness.
The longer they waited for him to
recover the worse he became, and
finally, white as a ghost, he wheeled
about and ran out of the building.
AS no amount of jeers or encourage
ment served to induce him to at
tempt the ordeal second time, he
perforce remained in single misery.
Plenty of humorous instances have
been recorded where the intended
husband, brave enough in his WOO
ing, has found himself unable to
stand and be publicly married. One
gentleman became so unnerved at
sight of the swelling assembly and
the preparations that he slipped into
the vestry and locked himself in un-
til the registrar lost patience and
the ceremony had to be abandoned.
In another case missing bride
groom was discovered locked in his
bedroom at home and sheer force
had to be used by his friends before
he could be induced to walk to the
church. AS it turned out, he was too
late. The bride felt herself justified
in declining to fulfill her part of the
contract with SO diffident partner.
But perhaps as unique an example
of what may be termed ALTAR
fright" as any known was one which
caused quite a sensation in mid
land town some years ago. The cir
cumstances were peculiar enough to
bear repetition. A young man,
standing at the altar with the future
participant OF his joys and sorrows,
suddenly tainted when asked to de-
clare his willingness to take a wife
and had to be carried home in a cab.
Later he essayed to enter the
lists of matrimony with more sue
cess; but, strange to say, his nerv-
BUSINESS again reached such pitch
that he swooned at precisely the
same part of the proceedings. When
on third occasion the same weak
ness overcame him as soon as he en-
tered the church, it became evident
that his physical courage was not
equal to the ordeal. Whether the
bride declined to look foolish for
fourth time, or whether the cere-
mony was subsequently performed
in private, did not transpire
Brides, it is interesting to note, do
not appear to suffer from any such
backwardness. Their nervousness
seems to be of a different order, and
it is seldom or never that one hears
of a case where the lady has failed
to come up to the 'line" through
mere dread of publicity. Happy
Thoughts.