The McCook tribune., 1897-10-29

extent that he fights shy of the cere-
mony at the last moment and allows
the brids to leave the church without
having changed her name, says Happy
Thoughts. Hitches of this startling
kind do, however, now and then occur.
The bridegroom has not the courage
to face the public ordeal. and the sit
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, heat
ed and fiurried, the sight of mis- white
robed life partner in the midst Of an
imposing party fairly scattered what
courage he had summoned for the
occasion. He turned and made off
across country as fast as his shaking
legs would carry him. The crowd and
number of his indignant friends pur-
suing him, he took refuge up tree,
and no remonstrances would induce
him to descend and go through the GER
emony. He paid rather dearly for his
coWardice, however. for the bride
promptly Tilted him and walked 10 the
same church with a bolder man a few
months later. At another church in
the neighborhood number of people
who had flocked to see popular local
couple made one were curiously dis
appointed. When it came to the turn
OF the bridegroom to give utterance TO
his VOWS he was found to be tongue
tied by sheer nervousness. The longer
they waited for him to recover tie
worse he became, and finally, waite as
a ghost, he wheeled about and ran out
OF the building. AS no amount of jeers
or encouragement served to induce him
to attempt the ordeal second time he
perforce remained in single misery,
Plenty of humorous instances have
been recorded where the intended hus-
band, brave enough in his wooing, has
found himself unable to stand and be
publicly married. One gentleman be-
came so unnerved at sight of the swell
ing assembly and the preparations that
he slipped into the vestry and locked
himself in until the registrar lost pa-
thence and the ceremony had to be
abandoned. In another case a missing
bridegroom 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 tc the
church. AS it turned out he was too
late. The bride felt herself justified in
declining to fulfill her part of the con-
tract with so diffident a partner. But
perhaps as unique an example of what
may be termed "altar fright" as any
known was one which caused quite
sensation in midland town some
years ago. The circumstances 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 declare his willingness to take a wife
and had to be carried home in cab.
Later he essayed to enter the lists of
matrimony with more success, but.
strange to say, his nervousness again
reached such pitch that he swooned
at precisely the same part of the pro-
ceedings. When on a third occasion
the same weakness overcame him as
soon as he entered the church it be-
came evident that his physical cour-
age was not equal to the ordeal. Wketh-
er the bride declined to look foolish
for a fourth time or whether the cere
mony was subsequently performed in
private was not told. Brides. it is in
teresting to note, do not appear to suf-
fer 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
Zine" through mere dread of public