The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-12-03
LESSONS IN MARRYING.
Divinity Students Get a Course On
How to Perform the Ceremony.
Chicago Times HeraldO

O1V1n1Cy SCuQenCS GeJ a CourS6 III
How to Perform the Ceremony.
Chicago Times Herald.)
Professor Robert Mclean Cumnock,
president of the Cumnock school of
oratory at Northwestern university,
has instituted a new regime in prepar-
ing his divinity students for the prac-
teal side of their future work. Each
Friday the chords of Lohengrin's we'd
ding march float from the keys of the
chapel organ, the melodious voice of
divinity student chants the marriage
service, and the mock marriage cere-
mony is solemnized with attention to
the minutest details. There is the stu
dent groom and the blushing 'co-ed"
for Q bride, the best man and the
bridesmaids, Professor Cumnock act
ing as guardian to give away the bride.
In placing this course in Northwest
ern's curriculum, it is the intention of
Professor Cumnock to give his divinity
students drill in the officiating at mar
riages of every class that they may
meet with in the vicissitudes of their
future work. There are to be marriages
in high life, with six bridesmaids and
as many grOCmsmen as can be crowd
ed at the chancel rail. There Will be
conducted the quiet wedding, with only
d few friends of the family present. All
of the services-both brief and prolix-
are to be used The embryonic divine
will be shown just where to stand and
how He will be instructed in regard
to the best usages of etiquette, the
manner of receiving his fee and how to
kiss the bride. He viii also learn how
to compose his countenance and re-
strain his lacerated feelings when there
is no fee forthcoming.
Professor Cumnock is of the opinion
that a mild, even monotone is prefer
able for the officiating clergyman to
assume than grand, reverential and
sublime style. He argues that the tones
of the human voice when properly
trained are most soothing to the per-
I turbed feelings of the novices at his
altar, and those hardened by many
/ visits to the matrimonial shrine are
| left out of the professors conSidera-
| ton. The young ministers are instruct
ed not to shout the words, please join
your right hands, like an excited gen.
eral giving the order to close UP the
ranks but the entire service from the
J filing out of the certificates to the
pocketing of the fees must be conduct
/ ed in a smooth, even monotone, con-
( sistent with the whispered replies in
which the trembling pair swear fealty
to one another
/ It must not be supposed that the
] divinity SLuQGnIS are 10 reap dil Ol the
! benefits of this course. The other
seniors of the class who have no min
| isterial aspirations are utilized as ma
! terial TO practice upon. Their benefits
are purely objective, and they are held
! by many of the students to be the most
! desirable of the course.
On ceremonial days at the school of
! oratory the principals in the mock con-
tract are selected with view to CIV
/ ing each student q. chance. The two
professions mobilize in the opposite
aisles of the auditorium, and with their
regulation escorts and conveys pro-
coed to the platform, where the minis
ter awaits the attack. The bride is
given away while the bridesmaids
watch the proceedings with ill-con-
| cealed jealousy. The groom, while man
! ifestly ratified, attempts to follow the
| general course of events, and the offici-
/ ating student receives the Interrupt
/ tfons for corrections of pronunciation
/ and department with a proper curbing
/ of his feelings. Here is where the ben
1 efts of the secular part of the 'cere-
i 'ynorv come in.